The World : Canadian Jet in Near-Miss

A Canadian jetliner carrying 246 passengers had to climb sharply to avoid colliding with Soviet military planes being intercepted by U.S. and Canadian jet fighters over the Atlantic, Canadian officials said. The incident occurred about 250 miles off the coast of Newfoundland and involved a Worldways Canada DC-8 flying from London to Toronto. An airline official said the pilot reported seeing two Soviet planes and two jet fighters within 500 to 1,000 feet of his flight path and “pulled up and pulled right” to avoid collision. A Canadian spokesman said two U.S. F-15 fighters based in Maine and two Canadian CF-18 fighters from Quebec had been sent to intercept two Soviet reconnaissance aircraft. No one was hurt aboard the airliner.