World IN BRIEF : BRITAIN : Pilot Sights ‘Missile’ Flying Toward Plane

The Civil Aviation Authority said it is investigating a report that a missile hurtled past an Alitalia airliner as it flew over southern England with 57 passengers. The pilot reported seeing a cylindrical object that he called a missile traveling toward him about 1,000 feet above the aircraft. The London Air Traffic Control Center picked up the object on radar after it had passed the jet. No other aircraft was in the vicinity. The plane was flying over a military firing range when the incident occurred on April 21. But the Ministry of Defense said the antitank missiles used there could not have achieved the 22,000-foot altitude reported.