North Korean nuke missile test came so close to a passenger plane the pilots saw it ‘blow up’ as it rocketed to Earth
Cathay Pacific Airways confirmed their staff on a San Francisco to Hong Kong flight reported a suspected sighting of Kim's latest weapon test on Wednesday
A PASSENGER jet was so close to a North Korean nuclear missile test the crew saw it "blow up" as it fell back to earth.
Cathay Pacific Airways confirmed their staff on a San Francisco to Hong Kong flight reported a suspected sighting of Kim's latest weapon test on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the airline said the pilot on flight CX893 reported a sighting of what was suspected to be the re-entry of the missile at 2.18am Hong Kong time on November 29.
According to online trackers, the jet was over Japan when the missile was launched.
She added: “Though the flight was far from the event location, the crew advised Japan air traffic control according to procedure."
The airline is not planning to to change any routes despite the close call.
In a message sent to a staff online platform, the airline’s general manager of operations Mark Hoey, also a former 747 chief pilot, said: “Today [November 29] the crew of CX893 reported, ‘Be advised, we witnessed the DPRK missile blow up and fall apart near our current location.
"We advised ATC [air traffic control] and ops [operations] normal. Just letting you know’. Looking at the actual plots, CX096 might have been the closest, at a few hundred miles laterally.”
Flight CX096 was a cargo plane flying from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska, The reports.
Last week images of a cackling Kim Jong-un launching a Hwasong-15 – which US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said could hit “anywhere in the world” – takes to the skies.
After supervising the successful launch of the new and improved ICBM, he boasted about his military's new might.
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State TV broadcast a photo of Kim's signed order where he wrote: "Test launch is approved.
"Taking place at the daybreak of November 29! Fire with courage for the party and country!"
Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, tonight told an emergency meeting of the Security Council the missile launch “brings us closer” to a war the US doesn’t seek.
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