Crew on board a Cathay Pacific plane flying over Japan reported a suspected sighting of last week\u2019s North Korean missile test, the airline said.
\nThe company confirmed to the BBC that crew witnessed \u201cwhat is suspected to be the re-entry\u201d of the missile into the earth\u2019s atmosphere.
\nIt added that, as things stand, no flight routes were being modified.
\nOn November 29, North Korea tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile it said could reach anywhere in the US.
\nThe test-launch raised tension further with South Korea and the US, who on Monday began their largest ever joint air exercise, which the North has branded an \u201call-out provocation\u201d.
\nDescribed by Pyongyang as its \u201cmost powerful\u201d missile, the November 29 launch ended up in Japanese waters but flew higher than any other the North had previously tested.
\nAccording to the South China Morning Post, Cathay\u2019s general manager of operations, Mark Hoey, told staff in a message that \u201ctoday the crew of CX893 reported, \u2018Be advised, we witnessed the DPRK missile blow up and fall apart near our current location\u2019\u201d.
\nThe launch was reportedly also witnessed by two South Korean aircraft en route to Seoul from the US.
\nUnlike other countries, North Korea usually does not announce its missile tests which means they come without warning or known flight path, posing a potential risk to planes.
\nPyongyang does have access to international civil aviation data so it can study the airspace before any launch.
\nWhile the risk of an incident remains very low, it is something that airlines are taking into consideration.
\nIn early August, Air France expanded their no-fly zone around North Korea after it transpired one of its planes flew close to a North Korean missile path.
\nMonday\u2019s air exercise between the US and South Korea, called Vigilant Ace, will last for five days.
\nIt will involve some 230 aircraft, including two dozen stealth jets, and tens of thousands of military personnel.
\nThe North has condemned the drills, saying over the weekend that the US was \u201cbegging for nuclear war\u201d and that it would \u201cseriously consider\u201d counter-measures to the exercises. \u2014 BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crew on board a Cathay Pacific plane flying over Japan reported a suspected sighting of last week\u2019s North Korean missile test, the airline said. The company confirmed to the BBC that crew witnessed \u201cwhat is suspected to be the re-entry\u201d of the missile into the earth\u2019s atmosphere. It added that, as things stand, no flight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57161,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57154\/revisions\/57161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}