Recipients-- Here is an INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT news article from the Martha's Vineyard Times naming one of the several witnesses to an AIRBORNE EXPLOSION southwest of Philbin Beach at the time of the JFK JR plane crash. The witness Victor Pribanic distinctly and clearly heard the explosion and knows that it was MUCH CLOSER than the SEVENTEEN miles out to sea that "official" "investigators' have said the plane went down. In fact the position and location of the cause of the explosion heard by Pribanic was much more like the TEN miles from shore that Kennedy HIMSELF noted as his location WHEN HE RADIOED THE AIRPORT AT 9:39, as reported by UPI, WCVB-TV Boston, ABC News and confirmed by airport administrators. Again, this radio call was made AFTER the time investigators are now claiming Kennedy's flight was in serious trouble... according to their conveniently and "recently discovered" phony radar evidence. The UNQUESTIONABLE fact of the time of Kennedy's radio contact INVALIDATES COMPLETELY all such claims of distress being shown on radar by Kennedy's plane To quote directly from the article in the Martha's Vineyard Times: "Mr. Pribanic said he was concerned when he learned that the search area was 17 miles west of the Vineyard. He said he was convinced from the sound he heard that the area was much closer and within a short distance of Nomans Land" (a small island off the southwest coast of the Vineyard used for ARTILLERY PRACTICE until a few years ago!) The other two people who DID witness such an explosion at the same time are noted in articles by UPI and by WCVB-TV Boston AND ABC News as a reporter for the Vineyard Gazette: AND another; a guest at the Kennedy wedding who was on Philbin Beach or nearby at this same time and both saw and heard the same explosion. This guest was mentioned repeatedly by Shepherd Smith of FOX-TV on live broadcasts Saturday morning July 17, who identified the witness as a friend of his (Smith's) producer. Please add the Martha's Vineyard Times email address to the media email list. [EMAIL PROTECTED] John Quinn/NewsHawk Inc. Here is this vitally important article in full: Tuesday, July 27, 1999 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fisherman At Squibnocket Friday Heard "Loud Crash" Toward Nomans Land. http://mvtimes.com/witness.htm By Nelson Sigelman Victor Pribanic said he heard a loud "explosion -like sound" while fishing on Friday evening, July 16. By Nelson Sigelman A fisherman standing on Squibnocket Point in Chilmark Friday night heard "a loud explosion-like sound" from the direction of Nomans Land, where the search for the plane containing John Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, is now concentrated. Victor Pribanic, 45, of Pittsburgh, spoke with local and state police Saturday morning after learning of the disappearance of the plane piloted by Mr. Kennedy. That information was passed on immediately to Federal Aviation Administration officials and the United States Coast Guard. State police Sgt. Jeff Stone said the beach to the west of where Mr. Pribanic was fishing "was the area where some of the items washed up." Sergeant Stone said police were aware of several reports from people who reported low-flying planes or unusual noises that night. On Sunday, West Tisbury police chief Beth Toomey took Mr. Pribanic to meet with police up-Island so he could describe where he was fishing and what he heard. But other than meeting with local and state police officials, he had not been contacted by any other investigators. Attempts to learn whether officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is now handling the investigation, or the Coast Guard had adjusted the search recovery effort based on any of the reports, or why they did not speak with Mr. Pribanic, were unsuccessful. On Monday all calls were referred to a "joint information" telephone number at Otis air base on the Cape. But the official who answered the telephone told a reporter from The Martha's Vineyard Times that questions could only be asked by attending a press briefing scheduled for 5 pm that afternoon. Asked by a reporter at the briefing if there were any witnesses, Robert Pearce, the lead NTSB investigator, said there were no reports of any witnesses. Sergeant Stone said the fact that there were no actual eyewitnesses and that Mr. Pribanic was uncertain of what he heard and the specific time he heard it, could have accounted for the NTSB response. "He just wanted to pass it on in the hope that it was helpful," said Sergeant Stone. Mr. Pribanic also told local police he watched the lights of a plane that was flying fast and at a very low altitude, "on the deck," sometime earlier in the evening. Mr. Pribanic said he did not think the two were related because it is not unusual for pilots to fly low along the south shore of the Island. He said the plane was flying from an easterly direction but was at the limit of his visibility that hazy night. On Monday and Tuesday, searchers recovered several more pieces of the plane floating in the water off Gay Head and along the beach. NTSB investigators also said that an examination of radar tapes showed the plane descended 1,100 feet in 14 seconds, a steep and precipitous descent for an aircraft of the type piloted by Mr. Kennedy. At that point, the plane was 16 miles from the airport. The search for the plane is now focused on a sonar contact seven and one-half miles southwest of Aquinnah in 115 feet of water. Squibnocket Point is a popular but rugged and hard to reach fishing spot not far from the east side of the 360-acre Aquinnah property owned by John Kennedy Jr. and his sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. The rocky point protrudes into the Atlantic Ocean and is approximately two nautical miles from Nomans Land, a small, uninhabited island off the southwest end of Martha's Vineyard which was formerly used as an aerial target range for the military. That use was discontinued four years ago. Mr. Pribanic, an attorney with a seasonal house on Martha's Vineyard, said he was fishing when he heard "a loud explosion-like sound" over his right shoulder from the west, in the direction of Nomans Land. He said the sound was not loud or distinctive enough to raise any immediate concerns. He described it as more of a "loud bang or crash of some kind" than an outright explosion. He said he was unaware that the island was no longer used for bombing practice and thought the military was conducting exercises. He expected to hear more sounds. "I heard nothing further," he said. The next morning he learned of the disappearance of the Kennedy plane. Mr. Pribanic said he initially tried to reach officials with the National Transportation Safety Board because he is familiar with aviation investigations and the type of information investigators look for from his work as a trial lawyer. Toward that end, he called Flywright Aviation, an aviation instruction service located at the Martha's Vineyard Airport. Mr. Pribanic was put on the telephone with Henry Meyer, a West Tisbury police officer. He told the officer what he had experienced. Later that day he received a call from West Tisbury police who thanked him for the information and said it could help narrow the search area. The next day he met with local and state police in Chilmark at Squibnocket. He said he presumed the information was relayed to federal officials. "It was a loud bang, it had to have come from something," said Mr. Pribanic. At a press conference at the Martha's Vineyard Airport Saturday evening, Officer Meyer told reporters that a fisherman had called police with information regarding a low-flying airplane and a loud sound. But police refused to release his name. Mr. Pribanic said he was concerned when he learned that the search area was 17 miles west of the Vineyard. He said he was convinced from the sound he heard that the area was much closer and within a short distance of Nomans Land. Mr. Pribanic, an expert fisherman, had walked out to Squibnocket, the site of the fabled Squibnocket striped bass fishing club more than a century ago, early in the evening to fish for striped bass. He said, "There were a couple of other fellas there, two or three other guys, but they left. Nobody was getting any fish. I decided to wait until the tide topped off." Mr. Pribanic could not pinpoint when he heard the sound but said the tide was continuing to rise. On Friday evening, July 16, the wind was blowing stiffly out of the west at approximately 20 miles per hour; high tide at Squibnocket was due to occur at 10:40 pm. The last radar contact with Mr. Kennedy's plane was recorded at 9:40:29 pm. Reflecting on the fate of the plane and the people in it, Mr. Pribanic said, "It's a sad, sad event for a family that has been visited by far too much misfortune over the decades."
