North Korea's failed missile launch: a Korean Airlines A330 over East China Sea (temporarily) on the projected flight path

April 13, 2012 North Korea

David Cenciotti

The news that has confirmed the launch of the Unha-3 rocket was announced by South Korea’s YTN television network around 22.52GMT.

As soon as the news spread, I checked Planefinder.net to see if there was any aircraft (using ADS-B) along the missile’s projected flight path and found a Korean Air KAL8658 overflying the East China Sea at 580MPH and FL390.

I took the following screenshot with a certain concern….

However, shortly after the launch was announced, U.S. officials said that the missile was believed to have crashed into the sea 90 seconds into flight.

Japan worried about Russian and Chinese intelligence-gathering planes during North Korean missile launch (theaviationist.com)

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.