Finns Hunt Wreckage of Soviet Missile

Finnish border guards using a helicopter today scoured vast, ice-covered Lake Inari for wreckage after neighboring Norway said a Soviet cruise missile had flown over its territory and into Finland.

The search, centered around the 400-square-mile lake at the northern tip of Finland, well inside the Arctic Circle, was limited to today’s few hours of daylight.

Lake Inari, dotted with hundreds of islands, lies in one of Finland’s least-populated areas. Those who do live there include colorfully dressed Lapps who tend reindeer herds in the frozen wasteland.

Finland is normally cautious in commenting on matters relating to its Soviet neighbor, but most Finnish newspapers blamed the Soviet Union for the cruise incident.

Deep Embarrassment

Finnish border guards issued a brief statement, seen by diplomats of NATO countries as indicating deep embarrassment in neutral Finland over the incident, a few hours after it was revealed by Norway on Wednesday.

The statement said an unknown object flying at great speed had violated Finnish airspace but did not say that a missile was involved or mention the possible origin of the object.

Finnish authorities today appeared to approach the incident cautiously. Finland is linked to Moscow by a 1948 friendship treaty that commits it to repel attacks on its giant neighbor and has traditionally sought to avoid controversy.

Norway, which belongs to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said the missile flew over northern Norway into Finland last Friday after being launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea, where a Soviet naval exercise was taking place.

1-Minute Flight

The flight of the missile, tracked by radar covering NATO’s northern flank, lasted about one minute and it flew over northern Norway for about 30 miles, according to Norwegian spokesmen in Oslo.

The sparsely populated area, at the northern tip of Scandinavia, is one where the frontiers of Norway, Finland and the Soviet Union converge.

Finland is in addition a strong advocate of the Kremlin-backed concept of a Nordic zone free of nuclear arms.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Svenn Stray played down the cruise incident, saying the violation of Norway’s airspace was “a kind of an accident.” Norway would hand a protest note to the Soviet Union, he said, but take no further action. The Soviet Union remained silent over the affair.