Please sign and share! The Federal Bureau of Investigation considered potential terrorist links and began a criminal investigation. The NTSB was never able to pin-point the precise cause, but it was clear that it was from within the tank.. The electrical resistance inside the tank would likely have stopped any stray voltage in its tracks. Background: According to commercial aviation historian Shea Oakley, NTSB investigations are almost never short-term affairs. Surname 2 hit the TWA 800. Related stories became national, even international news, resulting in TV shows and books. and four passengers definitely weren't killed by the Investigators were focusing. Careers. at 100 degrees. The forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts clearly show that there was ordnance external to the airplane involved in this crash. As long as there is ambiguity surrounding the crash, conspiracy theories will remain, Barkun said. By Marc Peyser On 7/28/96 at 8:00 PM EDT. There were 230 people on. an instant loss of consciousness.". A critical analysis of the fatal injuries resulting from the Continental flight 1713 airline disaster: evidence in favor of improved passenger restraint systems. Mike Kelly. He says fatal incidents tend to occur when an airplane is unintentionally flown into violent weather, usually a thunderstorm or, very rarely, some form of severe clear air turbulence (CAT). investigators who suspect that volatile vapors collecting in Bookshelf conditions that existed inside the plane before the crash. In this case, Russellsaid that a longtime friend said he had radar footage that showed a missile traveling toward the plane just prior to the crash. Twenty-five years later, the questions and conspiracies live on. TWA flight 800, flight of a Trans World Airlines (TWA) jumbo jet airliner that broke up over the Atlantic Ocean and went down about 8 miles (13 km) off the coast of Long Island, near East Moriches, New York, on the evening of July 17, 1996. I spent a fair amount of time examining the wreckage, looking for signs of missile/projectile entry. They also essentially pieced 95% of the plane back together over a 30-month span. Previous reports of commercial airline disasters have reviewed incidents occurring at takeoff and landing. By. A private memorial service for the families of the victims of the 1996 TWA Flight 800 explosion is being held on Saturday, 25 years after the disaster that killed 230 people and just before. All The simulations showed that the temperature in the center So losing Flight 800 to an in-flight explosion of another kind was a very rare event indeed.. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Francis said his investigators will first rebuild the portion of the plane--a 25-foot-by-40 foot area--that stretches from the front cargo bay to just beyond the right wing. into next year. How about the USS Carr being well within the vicinity of flight 800 with its newly outfitter missile system. The animated simulations are based on the best guesses of the According to Purvis, the safety board addressed the missile idea in its report. They often gainacceptance and spread fromthosewho score low in measures of interpersonal trust and general agreeableness,he added. The documentary features several members of the original investigation team, along with eyewitnesses to the crash. The cargo area has been the site of explosives in past bombings, including that of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the Of the accidents that have occurred, spontaneous explosions in mid-air have always been responsible for a very small percentage of the total.. Initially, I was sure the NTSB investigators interviewed these pilots and came to the same conclusion. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today. All of this raised questions about the NTSBs theory that a short circuit outside the tank produced excess voltage on wiring inside the tank which somehow generated a spark that ignited fuel vapors produced by the tiny amount of fuel in the tank. There's no way really to test them., Follow reporter David Zimmer onTwitter:@dzimmernews. Theories that Flight 800 may have been destroyed by a bomb, missile or meteor have nonetheless lingered. External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. Although initial reports suggested a terrorist attack, FBI and NTSB investigators blamed a fuel tank explosion. CNN On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 took off from JFK Airport headed for Paris. Investigators say the plane broke up at 13,700 feet, then burst into flames at 9,000 feet, falling into the Atlantic just east of Long Island. Watch the trailer of Kristina Borjesson's documentary TWA Flight 800. Remnants to be scrapped, 25 years after explosion killed 230 passengers, crew, NTSB officials had to publicly respond to requests to reconsider its findings in the investigation, 25 years later, the wounds are 'still raw.'. A U.S. government inquiry determined that a mixture of fuel and air had ignited accidentally within a fuel tank . That, he says, is much faster than if there had been a fuel tank explosion. Those who challenge government actions for the right reasons could be forever barred from political office unjustly by this law. In the early days it seemed very likely that a terrorist bomb was responsible. Accidents that changed aviation:Controlling in-flight fires and more. What many thought was a missile was actually the death throes of an airplane that briefly went up before it, sadly and inevitably, went down, Oakley says. "Someone else says, 'I heard X,'and it spreads.". Then the NTSBs Final Report stated there was No evidence of any engine uncontainment. In June 2013, they were joined by some of the family members of crash victims in filing a petition asking the NTSB to reopen the case. "I believe they were all totally unconscious or dead by the time they hit the water," Wetli told The Associated Press. One pilot radioed he saw a light appear on the 747 and flashed his landing lights in greeting, then the 747 exploded. safer. made public Sunday on the Web. Then the NTSB produced a movie showing the aircraft blowing apart, with the main section climbing several thousand feet, then falling with all four engines in place. Minutes after its take off from New Yorks Kennedy International Airport, a Boeing 747 headed for Paris exploded midair over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996, leaving all 230 people aboard dead. "That center part of the aircraft is of interest," said Francis. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal Ten days after the crash, a bombing rocked the Atlanta Olympics. Ultimately,NTSB officials provedthat an electrical short could have sparked flammable vapor trappedin a nearly empty fuel tank and concluded that it was the likely cause of Flight 800's demise. The airplanes oddly stained upholstery brought to light by TWAs chief 747 pilot Robert Terrell Stacey also proved to have a less-than-intriguing origin. Acommon rhetorical device of conspiracy theorists is to advance speculations and then criticize the authorities for not definitively refuting them,Goertzelsaid. Again, Salinger progressed the claim. From that investigation we issued safety recommendations that fundamentally changed the way aircraft are designed.. Defense contractors and the U.S. Department of Defense are among defendants being named in a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs in connection with the TWA Flight 800 crash 26 years ago. During the investigation, FBI officials demanded full control over photographsand were inconsistently inventorying, handling and analyzingaircraft components, NTSB officials said. They offersomeone tangible to blame for unfortunate events, are oftendisliked and rarely give immediate, comprehensive or definitive answers. The event remains one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history. Linda Stasi. There are a lot of things the Navy divers could reveal that would tell what really happened to TWA Flight 800. 1993 Feb;34(2):282-4. doi: 10.1097/00005373-199302000-00019. Today's breaking news and more in your inbox. They all vanished. On the dayof the crash, witnesses said they saw astreakof light near the plane and one or more explosions near the aircraft. He called the NTSB and the media, but says he was unable to generate any interest in his findings. A heat source that penetrated the tank from the outside could as easily have deposited soot on tank fragments as an explosion inside. January 29, 2008 7:47am. That has eroded what was once a firm boundary between the fringe and the mainstream., 'It still takes my breath away':A final, up-close look at the wreckage of TWA Flight 800. The material's status changed two weeks ago when the FBI announced it had found no evidence that a bomb or missile brought down the plane. During the investigation, FBI officials demanded full control over photographsand were inconsistently inventorying, handling and analyzingaircraft components, NTSB officials said. TWA Flight 800 grabbed the world's attention when . Several people then claimed these witness reports were evidence of Friendly Fire by a missile from a Navy vessel or a terrorist attack. This was an investigation that was corrupted and undermined, says Borjesson. There's no way to disprove it.. It ended upa topic of discussion at a Sept. 16 NTSB news briefing on Long Island after media outlets began to investigate. . Governmentsare commontargets for conspiracy theories, Goertzel said. It was a watershed moment for me, as I have never looked at another news story the same way since. Once John F. Kennedys press secretary, Salinger misrepresented the post as a document he obtained by someone in French intelligence that originated from a Secret Service agent with U.S. Navy contacts, before a CNN reporter pointed out the similarities. Following the NTSB's ruling, the plane was used in training plane crash investigators and families of the victims were allowed to visit it, although it was never opened to the public. By the fall of 1996, in looking at all of the physical evidence and not seeing any evidence of any bomb or missile damage, it became unreasonable to continue to push that theory, Marx said during a May 1999 congressional hearing. Shane Miller, a professor at Saint Johns University in Minnesota who researched the conspiracy theories surrounding the crash, said the Flight 800 conspirators used the web in novel ways. See the latest issue of Bostonia, now available! All rights reserved. Her documentary, TWA Flight 800, which she wrote, directed, and produced, premiered on the EPIX cable TV channel last July. It was later progressed by Pierre Salinger. expected to file into the Baltimore Convention Center to The NTSB conducted simulations trying to recreate the The plane, en route to France from New York, crashed shortly after takeoff, claiming the lives of all those aboard, including Montoursville Area High School students and their chaperones. 230 people perished when TWA Flight 800 exploded. Other potential causes introduced in late 1990persist along with the friendly-fire claim more than two decades later. At the time, fears of domestic terrorism were high. It was one of the two or three most complex accidents I was involved with during my 17 years doing that kind of workin fact, it may have been the most complicated, he says. Seven of the passengers were also Connecticut residents. The purpose of the present study, which represents the first analysis of aviation injuries incurred during a midflight incident, was to examine the injuries sustained by the victims of the TWA Flight 800 disaster and to determine any correlation of injuries with structural . An NTSB review determined that the claim cast insufficient doubt about the initial investigation. But there was no mention by the pilots of any missile smoke trail coming up and only two going down. An NTSB review determined the claim cast insufficient doubt of a flawed initial investigation. The airplanes oddly stained upholstery brought to light by TWAs chief 747 pilot Robert Terrell Stacey also proved to have a less than salacious origin. The 230 people onboard Trans World Airlines Flight 800 perished. It also noted that evidence founded by Stalcup establishes that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy acting in concert with Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin Corp., were testing the Aegis Weapons System and firing SM-2 missiles with live warheads from warship(s) at aerial missile targets off the coast of New York in proximity to commercial airline paths. The data, released on the eve of public hearings on the The personal investment involved in accepting or progressing conspiracy theories can make them tough to dismiss, said Barkun, of Syracuse. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Conspiracy theoriestook shape. He can be reached at rj_davey@me.com. Oakley notes that from the distant perspective of witnesses on the ground, the sequence of the explosion, a sudden shift of gravity and continuing forward momentum that caused a sharp temporary climb, and the planes vertical dive and fiery descent, the crash could have looked like the result of some sort of attack. I believe it was shot down by terrorist or the navy and it was covered up to prevent panic. Air travel safety, in general, has steadily improved since the beginning of the widespread use of jet aircraft in 1958, he says. Conspiracy theories never die, Barkun said. There are so many papers "it would take a moving van" to get 230 people perished when TWA Flight 800 exploded. However, thedivergent group blamed friendly fire. "We want to know the ignition source on TWA Combined with concurrent reporting about real government experiments and other real conspiracies, atone had been set, he added. Purported evidence of a missile strike dried up. Ultimately, NTSB officials proved that an electrical short could have sparked flammable vapor trapped in a nearly empty fuel tank and concluded that was the likely cause of Flight 800's demise.. Copyright Williamsport Sun-Gazette | https://www.sungazette.com | 252 W. Fourth Street, Williamsport, PA 17703 | 570-326-1551, Only recently, thanks to the work of physicist, Dr. Thomas Stalcup, through his Freedom of Information Act litigation in Massachusetts federal court, has evidence emerged proving that the TWA 800 explosion was not caused by any defect in the airplane, but instead by an errant United States missile fired at aerial target drones flying nearby., engaged in a top-down cover-up to prevent the public from learning the truth about TWA 800.. The pilot reported two fireballs going down, with small and large smoke trails. And he said, No, Air France is better. The video was used to explain eyewitness accounts of the explosion, which killed all 230 people aboard. Before Once he agreed to work with Borjesson and Stalcup, several other former investigators came forward, too. A bit too lean. They also rely on an inherently implausible claim of a coverupby government agencies that don't really have a very good record of covering things up.. In addition, other witnesses reported they only saw flaming objects falling from the sky and most only after hearing the sound of an explosion; more than one minute after the event. Robert Davey: What really happened to TWA Flight 800? NTSB officials said any internal speculation on bomb and missile theories dried up within months. [1] The NTSB found that the probable cause of the crash of TWA Flight 800 was an explosion of flammable fuel/air vapors in a fuel tank, most likely from a short circuit. After most of the aircraft was recovered, the NTSB reported the CWT had exploded. TWA Flight 800 July 17, 1996 What Really Happened: What Really Happened - Kindle edition by Brooke, Randall. 47 of the 230 people on board the 747 may not have been Chrysou K, Halat G, Hoksch B, Schmid RA, Kocher GJ. Petitioners from a high-profile group called The TWA 800 Project claimed a detonation or high-velocity explosion caused the crash. Russellfollowed up his claimwith a radar tapehe said amounted to proof of a rocket strike. 0:00. Many nearby pilots also radioed they saw the event, with no mention by any pilot of seeing anything other than the 747, its explosion, then two smoke trails and a crash site. The NTSB's public hearings on the crash open Monday in Once subjected to microscopic and chemical examination, federal investigators found the red flaky residue was from contact adhesive used to stick the upholstery to its foam base, not rocket fuel. It reminded Borjesson of the conversation shed had with her own husband about which flight to put their son on in 1996. My husband is French; he said, This TWA flight is much cheaper, and I said, Well, go for that, Borjesson says. The same rogue shadow government group that murdered the Kennedy brothers also flagrantly denied true democracy to its citizens in its criminal violation of the investigation into Flight 800s crash. I made two visits to the mockup the NTSB assembled from the wreckage in a hangar on Long Island at the time, he says. On July 7, 2021, 25 years following the crash, the NTSB will decommission the wreckage, which will be destroyed by the end of 2022. Theres no way to take on the legacy of mass incarceration other than to undo it, one step at a time. 1996 crash off of New York's Long Island: The NTSB concluded that 15 people may not have died instantly All Rights Reserved. 2023 www.northjersey.com. Speculation bloomed that the crash had been touched off by aproximity-triggered rocket, missile or flare. However, the aircraft was only seen descending by airline pilots shortly after it exploded, with a small smoke trail behind that was most likely engine #3. All of a sudden the phone rang, she says, and I heard my neighbors voice say, Was that your sons plane that just went down? A Paris-bound Boeing 747 had exploded off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., just after 8:30 p.m., killing all 230 on board. Unfortunately, no one seems to have interviewed these pilots; including FAA, FBI, media, etc. listen and learn about the most expensive and extensive air There's no way really to test them.. A comparison was performed against injury data from takeoff and landing incidents. 1994 Nov;37(5):826-30. doi: 10.1097/00005373-199411000-00020. status changed two weeks ago when the FBI announced it had A new documentary, TWA Flight 800, airing tonight on EPIX, claims to show what really happened on July 17th, 1996. Listen:WCBS interviews Mike Kelly about the 25th anniversary of TWA Flight 800. They believe that debris from the fuselage was mishandled, and that the accounts of dozens of eyewitnesses who recalled seeing the same thingthree fast-moving missile-like objects streaking up into the sky toward the plane before the fireballwere ignored or rejected. The finding led to regulations requiring a system that pumps inert gas into fuel tanks as they empty. They also have an aversion to the idea that the world is random even if thatmeans there is some evil force creating the order, he added. And that does not fit the governments official probable cause assessment of what happened, which is a low-velocity deflagration in the center wing fuel tank caused by a spark, the origin of which they have never found. I worked on a ground crew at JFK that day and watched Flight 800 take off while on a rest break. A while later, the guys came out and said: go into the break room; a T-Way (TWA) 747 crashed off Long Island. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading TWA Flight 800 July 17, 1996 What Really Happened: What Really Happened. The autopsies had not found any physical or chemical evidence on the victims' bodies that proved that a bomb brought down the jumbo jet with 230 people aboard, Wetli said. On the dayof the crash, witnesses said they saw astreakof light near the plane and one or more explosions near the aircraft. Anotherclaimed thefriendly fire was designed to kill former Arkansas state troopers once assigned to then-President Bill Clintons security detail. But some, including Borjesson, questioned the explanation. Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, saidinternet forums and social media platforms have served asmass media outlets withoutgatekeepers. So they closed this investigation before they could even find the ignition source for what they were claiming happened.. So, they're focusing on it.". They really did create a perception that nobody had a clue of what had happened, Miller said. The personal investment involved in accepting or progressing conspiracy theories can make them tough to dismiss,Barkun said. All 230 people onboard died as a result. Conspiracy theorists realize accusing the U.S Government could turn people away from the cover-up theory. He said the explosion remains a mystery because "we still don't have the parts of the plane that we need to look at. Corroborating evidence is nice but not necessary. Thats extremely slow thats not the flame speed of a fuel/air explosion, said Federal Aviation Administration expert Richard Hill, when I cited the NTSBs test results of 30 cm per second. Only the FAA replied, with nearly 2,000 accident reports, including many with uncontained engine failures and fatal crashes of 747s. Borjesson herself declines to speculate. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. However, unknown individuals were later seen pounding on recovered fuselage panels with hammers, effectively destroying evidence of engine part entry holes. When the rare fatal air accident occurs it usually involves a causality chain, including a number of seemingly unconnected small anomalies that, together, create a sort of perfect storm which causes a crash, he says. The TWA 800 aircraft was a 747-100 model, built and delivered in 1971. Russell's messagewasmeant for an inner circle of aviation experts but wasleaked online. Many recommendations came out of the completed investigation, including everything from changes in daily operational procedures to modifications of the center fuel tanks on other 747s, Oakley says. Henry Hughes, a senior accident investigator with the NTSB,was among the group that in 2013 unsuccessfully petitioned the NTSB to reinvestigate the crash. unable to determine whether they might have lived for a short He turned to Borjesson, whom hed met about a year after the crash. The way the theoriesgerminate nonetheless remainsrelatively standard. Below is a list of those on board, according to family, friends or officials . My first story was an interview with Isaac Yeffet, a former head of security for El Al Airlines, who criticized the lackadaisical baggage screening at U.S. airports. It was the first to be picked up and widely circulated online.. The two camps agreed on a government cover-up. Bostonia is published in print three times a year and updated weekly on the web. FBI officials have said that the bodies of passengers seated in the front of the plane suffered more damage than those people riding in the rear of the aircraft. Yet witnesses on Long Island had heard a thunderclap, suggesting a high explosive detonation. "The plane was going at 400 m.p.h., it suddenly changes direction, the fuselage is open so all this air and pressure is going into the cabin, and there's a sudden decompression.". One animation will simulate how the plane came apart. TWA Flight 800: Remnants to be scrapped, 25 years after explosion killed 230 passengers, crew. The finding led to regulations requiring a system that pumps inert gas into fuel tanks as they empty. The flight departed at 8:19 p.m. in muggy, but "fairly clear" weather, according to The New York Times, blowing apart in a fiery explosion 12 minutes later. The reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800, painstakingly reassembled as part of the investigation into what happened to the Boeing 747, is set to be destroyed following the 25th anniversary of . Disclaimer. $27 million, and the investigation is expected to last well Victim fragmentation patterns and seat location supplements crash data: American Airlines flight 587. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considered potential terrorist links and began a criminal investigation. As thetheory that federal officials were covering up a terrorist attack to thwart panic spread, itevolved and eventually split, Miller said. Ten days after the crash, a bombing rocked the Atlanta Olympics. Twenty-five years later some conspiracies still linger. [I]t corrected itself on an angle and went higher and I said, My God, what kind of fireworks is this?, he said. re: TWA 800 What do you think actually happened? That added some time to the investigation.. government site. This is a carousel. The lawsuit states: Only recently, thanks to the work of physicist, Dr. Thomas Stalcup, through his Freedom of Information Act litigation in Massachusetts federal court, has evidence emerged proving that the TWA 800 explosion was not caused by any defect in the airplane, but instead by an errant United States missile fired at aerial target drones flying nearby.. May 1st National College Baseball Rankings, LSU Report, LSU Centerfielder Dylan Crews Named SEC Player Of The Week, Video: Introducing 2023 SI Swimsuit Model Olivia Dunne, No. As thetheory that federal officials were covering up a terrorist attack to thwart panic spread, itevolved and eventually split, Miller said. Uncontained engine failures can be very destructive, ejecting parts as far as three thousand feet and often destroying any adjacent engines. With only 50 gallons inside the nearly 13,000 gallon tank, the NTSB knew there were fewer fuel molecules in the air than would be ideal for ignition. A new documentary raises questions about what happened the night TWA Flight 800 crashed. No, the nose section fell off causing the rest of plane to climb causing the appearance of a climbing missile. Just 12 minutes later, it exploded over the shores of Long Island, New York. An official website of the United States government. They also essentially pieced 95% of the plane back together over a 30-month span. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. The four-year investigation into what caused the crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was the longest, and at $40 million, the priciest in the history of the National Transportation Safety . Analysis of victims' autopsies revealed that as many as Someone says, 'I wonder if X happened,' "Goertzel said. With todays very sophisticated weather radar and stringent rules for avoiding potentially dangerous weather this virtually never occurs, Oakley says. Stalcup says he is trying to get more information from the US Department of Defenses Missile Defense Agency. NTSB officials quickly said the initial evidence surrounding the crash of Flight 800 did notpoint to an outside explosive device. However, the eyewitness accounts of something fired toward the plane are out there. None of those ships came to the rescue when the plane crashed. Once John F. Kennedys press secretary, Salinger misrepresented the post as a document he obtained by someone in French intelligence that originated from a Secret Service agent with U.S. Navy contacts before a CNN reporter pointed out the similarities. The nation was still processing the1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City explosion and the trial of Ramzi Yousef for conspiracy to destroy American-bound airliners. All 230 people aboard TWA 800 died when the plane, headed for Paris, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.. exploded over Long Island Sound minutes after takeoff. The eyewitness reports of a missile leading to an explosion were just the nose section of the plane falling off with some flames, rest of plane ascending, and then boom with wing separation and fire. TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic shortly after takeoff from JFK airport on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 passengers on board. It is the first film, she says, to focus entirely on the forensic evidence, and it disputes the conclusions of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which spent four years investigating the accident. Critical analysis of injuries sustained in the TWA flight 800 midair disaster. Damage to portions of the engines may indicate from which direction the fatal explosion that downed the plane came. They really did create a perception that nobody had a clue of what had happened, Miller said. Lesley Kennedy is a features writer and editor living in Denver. Directors --- Genres Documentary, Special Interest Subtitles English [CC] Audio languages English A new film claims the official government report on the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 is an elaborate fabrication, but the most shocking part of the story is that charges are being . Michael Marx, a former metallurgist with the NTSB, saidFBI personnel unreasonably pushed thesabotage theories, even after a January 1997 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms pegged the cause as a mechanical failure. 2012 Apr;83(4):412-7. doi: 10.3357/asem.3155.2012. The tragedy would remain part of Borjessons life for the next 17 years, the subject of her own on-again, off-again investigation. Correspondent Gary Tuchman contributed to this report. of the documents prepared for the hearing were also released It may have something to do with what happened here. I believe there was an accident during a military exercise of some kind. never pinpointed, what they have learned can make air travel In the Voice I reported on a naval warship seen off Long Island earlier that afternoon that the Navy, FBI and National Transportation Safety Board all declined to comment on. On Wednesday, July 17, 1996, at 8:19 p.m., TWA Flight 800 took off from JFK airport and headed out over Long Island toward Paris.