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Mystery of Flight 800: Three years after crash, questions
linger
A piece of debris from TWA flight 800 floats July 18,
1996, in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York
July 17, 1999
Web posted at: 1:58 a.m. EDT (0558
GMT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
this story:
Friction between investigators and airline
Who owns
the wreckage?
Aircraft safety changes ordered
Would TWA payment
compromise probe?
Couple gets probation in wreckage theft
RELATED
STORIES,
SITES
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From
staff and wire reports
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saturday marks the third
anniversary of the crash of TWA Flight 800, which exploded off the Long Island
coast, killing all 230 aboard. To many, the crash remains one of the greatest
mysteries in aviation history.
The tragedy will be noted by victims'
families, with a memorial service and monument dedication.
The definitive
cause of the crash remains the largest lingering question. And, with
investigative costs mounting, another question has emerged: Should the airline
help to pay the high cost of the crash probe? Also, who owns the wreckage?
Should it revert to the airline? What if the airline doesn't want
it?
Federal investigators believe a fuel-air explosion in the center fuel
tank caused the Boeing 747 to explode on July 17, 1996.
But a final
report is not expected for months, according to Jim Hall, chairman of the
National Transportation Safety Board.
Friction between investigators and
airline
It has been the NTSB's longest and most expensive investigation in
its 30-year history, with the cost mounting to "millions and millions" of
dollars, Hall says.
What remains of Flight 800 is now stored in an old
aircraft plant in Calverton, New York, at a rent of $4.5 million annually. It
will soon be moved to another hangar, where the charge will be $500,000 a
year.
The investigation's high costs have caused friction between TWA and
federal investigators.
Hall says Trans World Airlines has refused
requests to share the cost of recovering and storing the wreckage, unlike other
airlines that have had a plane crash.
Who owns the wreckage?
TWA has
told the NTSB it is not responsible for the wreckage because it fell into the
sea off Long Island, clouding property rights, Hall says.
"They refused
to participate at all, even though we requested them," Hall told The Associated
Press.
The chairman also said the airline and its insurer apparently
don't want the wreckage back.
Therefore, Hall wants to move the remains
of the Boeing 747, including a reconstructed 92-foot section, from New York to
Washington so it can be used to train accident investigators.
But TWA
spokesman Jim Brown called Hall "misinformed." Brown said NTSB rules precluded
the St. Louis-based airline from helping with or financing the wreckage recovery
and storage. Furthermore, he said the board never asked the airline for funding
or to take custody of the wreckage.
Hall, however, produced letters from
1996 with a request for $5 million in assistance and the airline's denial. In
another letter from 1998, the airline stated that neither it nor its insurer
owned the wreckage. In reply, Brown acknowledged the airline did receive a
request for recovery money, but the other letter produced by Hall did not
expressly ask the airline to take back the wreckage.
Brown said airlines
have refused such requests in the past, yet there is precedent for both help and
refusal. Brown also said the airline has no claim to the wreckage because it
fell in the ocean, where ownership often reverts to the person making the
recovery.
"If they want us to take it back, it's something we would
consider," he said.
TWA Flight 800 was a New York-to-Paris trip when it
exploded shortly after takeoff. Debris cascaded into the Atlantic Ocean about 10
miles off Long Island, where it was recovered by the Coast Guard and
Navy.
Aircraft safety changes ordered
While no final report has been
issued on the cause, investigators say there was a fuel-air explosion in the
plane's empty center fuel tank. They are searching for the ignition source and
expect to make a final determination this fall or winter.
The Federal
Aviation Administration has ordered a series of safety changes on a variety of
airplanes. They include new wiring checks on older aircraft, the installation of
extra wire insulation and a prohibition on draining the center fuel tanks in
747s, a practice that can cause overheating in fuel-pump
bearings.
Bernard Loeb, the panel's head of aviation safety, said
investigators already have examined the possibility of a static electricity
buildup, stray current from nearby fuel pumps and electrical shorts in the
tank's fuel gauge system.
The final phase of their work is now focusing
on possible electromagnetic induction, which occurs when electricity from an
active source or wire causes a trace of activity in a nearby inactive
wire.
Investigators have studied external sources such as radar-emitting
military planes and ships. They have also looked at carryon items such as laptop
computers and other personal electronics.
Would TWA payment compromise
probe?
Tension between the NTSB, the lead investigator, and TWA began
building immediately after the crash because the airline had difficulty coming
up with a passenger list.
Tempers flared again in February 1997, when the
airline refused to give the victims' families reduced airfares to travel to New
York for their first look at the wreckage. TWA said it had already spent roughly
$13 million providing assistance.
In an August 1996 letter, Hall asked
TWA for $5 million to help in funding "this massive operation." Don Monteath,
then the airline's vice president of operations, refused, saying such assistance
"would raise serious public questions about the integrity and eventual
findings/conclusions of NTSB inquiries."
Monteath said the airline would
support requests to Congress for more money.
In a January 1998 letter to
the safety board, Randal Craft Jr., TWA's outside counsel, addressed the
wreckage issue.
"This letter will confirm that TWA and its aviation
insurers continue to take the position that they do not own the wreckage of
Flight 800 or the personal effects of the Flight 800 passengers and crew," Craft
wrote.
Asked this week what fate the airline favors for the wreckage,
Brown said: "TWA believes that the remains of Flight 800 should be treated like
the remains of any other airplane crash and disposed of respectfully once the
investigation is concluded."
Hall said that considering the airline's
response and the government's investment in the wreckage, training would be a
better use.
"The wreckage itself would be able to give back to future
generations lessons that would prevent a similar occurrence," he
said.
Another question raised in connection with Flight 800 is whether
the FBI should have made it clear sooner that the crash was caused by mechanical
problems, not by terrorists.
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa),
whose Senate subcommittee held hearings on the TWA crash in May, said at the
time that "The FBI, by failing to admit it was mechanical problems until almost
one year later, it seems to me needlessly jeopardized the safety of our air
travelers." Grassley has been a longtime critic of FBI
procedures.
Although some continue to speculate that the plane was blown
up by terrorists or the military, the FBI concluded that no criminal act was
involved. Hall said adamantly this week that the plane was not harmed by a
missile.
Couple gets probation in wreckage theft
In Uniondale, New
York, a couple was sentenced Friday to probation for conspiring to steal bits of
seat material from the reconstructed remains of TWA Flight 800.
James
Sanders, 53, a self-styled investigative reporter, and his wife Elizabeth, 52,
had faced up to 10 years in prison after they were convicted in April of
stealing evidence from civil aircraft wreckage.
Sanders, author of the
1997 book "The Downing of TWA Flight 800," was given three years probation and
50 hours of community service. His wife, a former TWA employee, received one
year probation and 25 hours of community service.
The prosecutor argued
that Sanders conspired with his wife and a former TWA pilot, Terrell Stacey, to
take seat fabric in December 1996. Stacey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in the
case.
Defense attorney Bruce Maffeo tried to blame the government for the
Sanders' actions. He said the couple had a First Amendment right to take the
swatches and stolen crash-related documents to expose a government
cover-up.
"Three years ago...this tragedy occurred," Maffeo said before
sentencing, "and the government has yet to come up with a conclusive cause to
this crash."
In his book, Sanders claimed that the U.S. Navy mistakenly
shot down the jetliner. He believed the swatches were stained with missile fuel
residue. The FBI said the stains were from glue.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan
gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight,
who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the
pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of
facts and
dates"
-Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ:
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