Pilot 'saw missile' over Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Israel and the Ukraine have downplayed an El Al pilot's report that he saw an air-to-surface-missile explode as he flew over the former Soviet state.

The pilot of the Israeli national airline said he saw the missile during a flight between Tel Aviv and Moscow, Israel's Transport Minister said on Friday.

The reported incident comes nine months after a Russian plane was downed by a Ukrainian missile as it flew over the Black Sea during a journey from Tel Aviv to Siberia, killing 78 people. (Full Story)

The Ukraine military regime initially denied responsibility for that incident before admitting it had been one of its missiles that had accidentally been fired.

The El Al pilot, in the latest incident, is an experienced combat veteran of the Israeli air force.

A Ukrainian pilot also reported seeing a bright light in the sky over the Ukraine on Thursday, Interfax Ukraine quoted an unidentified source in the Transport Ministry Department for Aviation as saying.

But both the Ukrainian and Israeli authorities were stressing the El Al plane did not come under attack on Thursday.

Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said the Israeli plane was never in danger and voiced doubt it had come under attack, Reuters reported.

Amos Shapira, El Al's Managing Director, told Army Radio: "The (El Al) pilot saw a flash ... It was at least 10 to 100 miles (16 to 160 km) away. The plane was in no danger."

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said its army had not conducted any missile launches since last October's disaster.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, quoted by Interfax Ukraine in Copenhagen, where he is attending an EU meeting, called the suggestion that the incident involved a Ukrainian missile "absurd."

Konstantin Khyvrenko, a Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman, said the reported sighting "could be anything -- something from the natural world, like a sudden change of temperature (or) lightning strike."

Despite that, Israel Radio said Israeli security authorities had asked the United States for any satellite data indicating a missile had been launched over Ukraine on Thursday.