Cruise crashes after launch

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 6

Cruise crashes after launch

NZPA-AP Cold Lake, Alberta

An unarmed American cruise missile crashed into the Beaufort Sea yesterday, moments after it was launched from a United States Air Force 852 bomber for what would have been the sixth test of the cruise over north-western Canada. The 852 had left Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane, Washington, about hours earlier on its flight to the Beaufort Sea. The last cruise missile launched over Canada crashed on January 22 near Cold Lake. An

American military spokesman said on Monday that the missile had crashed because it ran out of fuel after encountering strong headwinds.

Yesterday’s test had drawn less news coverage and reaction from peace groups than any of the previous five. Major Luigi Rossetto, a public affairs officer of the Canadian Forces, said on Tuesday that some news outlets that had covered past tests had decided not to send reporters to Cold Lake..

The test flight by the cruise missile was to have included practice interceptions by two Canadian

Hornet jet fighters from Cold Lake and by two United States Air Force Eagles and two Fighting Falcons, Major Rossetto said.

The missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, was designed to fly under radar coverage. North-western Canada had been chosen as a test area because its geography and climate resembled that of the northern Soviet Union, Major Rossetto said. The air-launched missile is being tested under a five-year agreement signed between the United States and Canada in 1983,

“There is a certain amount of resignation, which is part of the helplessness and hopelessness people feel,” said Dave Kornder, president of The Peace Association for Nuclear Awareness, in Grande Prairie, Alberta. No protest had been planned against the test because “people are becoming paralysed to any kind of action.” Grande Prairie is one of several communities bordering the missile’s 2494 km route from the Beaufort Sea to the Primrose Lake air weapons range, near Cold Lake, about 300 km north-east of Edmonton.