Stray Missile Hits Sofia
NATO on Thursday acknowledged that a radar-seeking missile fired by one of its warplanes over Yugoslavia unintentionally landed in Bulgaria, destroying a house, but apparently causing no injuries.
Bulgarian officials earlier said a NATO plane had violated the country's airspace Wednesday evening and one of its missiles slammed into a suburb of the capital, Sofia, about 40 miles east of the Yugoslav border.
In Brussels, Belgium, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said Thursday that a NATO jet fighter launched the missile "in self defense in response to the threat from a surface-to-air missile" after a Yugoslav ground radar had locked on to the plane.
He said "the missile strayed from its target and unintentionally landed in Bulgaria."
"After the ground radar was turned off, the missile strayed from its target and unintentionally landed in Bulgaria. We have no indication that there were any injuries on the ground," Shea said.
Shea said NATO commanders were reviewing the incident and would consider how to reduce the possibility of such events happening in future. He understood that military officials in Bulgaria had identified the missile.
The missile wrecked a house in a suburb of Sofia, three miles from the center of the capital and 40 miles east of the border with Yugoslavia. No one was hurt.
Three NATO missiles have already struck Bulgaria's territory during the air campaign against neighboring Yugoslavia, and alliance planes have previously violated Bulgarian airspace.
Bulgarian air force officials identified the missile as a laser-guided, anti-radar AGM-88 Harm. They said it is usually carried by F-16 jet fighters.
In a meeting with U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Henry Kievenaar, Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov expressed "great concern" about the incident.
Kievenaar said, "I just want to express our deep regret on the missile incident."
Interior Minister Bogomil Bonev said Bulgaria would sue the pilot for material and moral damage caused to the house owners.
"There hasn't been such a drastic violation of our airspace so far," Bonev said.
Stoyanov and Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova urged NATO to supply Bulgaria with sophisticated radar equipment that can identify planes. They said Bulgaria would mark its western border with lights for better orientation of allied fliers.
Despite the incident, the government will propose to its parliament that NATO be provided with a 70- to 90-mile air corridor along Bulgaria's western border, Bonev said.
The Bulgarian public is divided between desires to join NATO and the European Union, and sympathy for fellow Slavs and Christian Orthodox Serbs in Yugoslavia.
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