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Missile suspicions over TWA crash not so farfetched
Source: The San Jose Mercury News
Published: July 25, 1999 Author: SCOTT HOLLERAN
CONSPIRACY THEORIES attract some pretty loopy
people for good reasons- Most of them are based on mere
coincidences or arbitrary assertions---in other words, pure
bunk. But this is the tale of how I began to believe in one.
Three years ago, I was scheduled to meet my parents for
the beginning of a long planned European vacation. It
turned out to be the start of my journey into one of the
great aviation mysteries of our time - the crash of TWA
Flight 800.
The TWA terminal at New York's JFK Airport that July 17
was bustling with summer travelers, with whom I waited
until my departure. My parents missed our connection, but
I was assured by the TWA flight crew that they would
board the next available flight, Flight 800.
When I arrived in Europe hours later, I exited the aircraft
through the plastic vestibule, where an airport official met
me with a smile and politely asked where my parents were.
I told him they'd missed the flight. He turned white.
"Your parents are gone," he whispered as his hand moved
to cover his mouth. He explained that their airplane had
exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. He muttered one phrase
in broken English: "The FBI is investigating."
I learned that the airport official was wrong. Mom and Dad
were alive--- they had missed that flight as well---and I was
elated to embrace them. We traveled through Europe with a
renewed sense of life.
It wasn't until we boarded the flight back to the United
States that I began to question the government's
investigation of the crash, when members of the TWA
flight crew told me that flight 800 had been shot down by a
Navy missile.
This was weeks before an anonymous e-mail message
made similar claims, and months before journalist and
former Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger claimed
that a French intelligence source had informed him of a
conspiracy by the U.S. government to cover up a military
mishap.
"Friendly fire," let alone a cover-up, seemed preposterous to
me. As a journalist, I am inclined to be skeptical of unusual
claims. I don't read horoscopes, and I think Shirley
MacLaine is nuts.
As I reviewed early news reports and attempted to match
them with later stories, however, several discrepancies
emerged.
First, authorities issued several conflicting statements.
Second, the anonymous e-mail---though it contained
plenty of false information---disclosed that a Navy aircraft
had been involved in exercises nearby at the time of the
crash. Much later, the FBI acknowledged that fact.
Third, I'd noticed that investiga- tors wanted to have it both
ways. The National Transportation Safety Board's
investigation was proceeding under the direction of the
FBI, which was involved on the grounds that a crime might
have caused the crash---but FBI Assistant Director James
Kallstrom would neither con- firm nor deny the existence
of criminal evidence.
During the months following the crash, Salinger's
amateurish presentations of the missile theory captured
most of the media attention--- and ridicule. But the number
of credible skeptics grew, and the FBI and NTSB
developed an odd, weary demeanor. Investigators' pursuit
of an intelligible cause diminished in proportion to the rise
in missile claims.
The FBI seized an amateur videotape taken by retired
commercial pilot Richard Russell, which he said showed
radar images of TWA 800 being downed by a missile.
Charges were filed against freelance writer and investigator
James Sanders, who had obtained a piece of seat fabric that
he said contained rocket resi- due.
I wondered why the FBI had bothered with such
supposedly meaningless claims---and, once they had, why
they wouldn't release the video and seat fabric for
independent evaluation.
A mysterious radar track
Then the FBI's Kallstrom testified before Congress that his
agency had tracked "all air and waterborne vessels in the
area and conducted appropriate interviews. Yet the FBI did
not dispute a report by Robert Davey, a Village Voice
reporter, that radar in the area picked up four unidentified
tracks.
One of these, according to the NTSB was within three
nautical miles of Flight 800 when it exploded. It's pattern
was consistent with a surface vessel moving at 30 knots,
the NTSB said. Perhaps most alarming was that the
mysterious boat kept moving out to sea, even after the
explosion.
"He not only doesn't turn to render assistance, he runs,"
said naval Cmdr. William Donaldson, who believes a navy
missile downed the plane.
In early 1998, retired Adm. Thomas Moorer--- former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--- added his name to
the list of those who believe a missile destroyed the plane.
Basing his judgment partly on an analysis of the
flight-recorder data, Moorer and other former Navy brass
expressed grave concerns. "All the evidence," Moorer said
at a press conference, "would point to a missile."
Montbs later, a former member of the NTSB, Vernon
Grose, also publicly cast doubt on the investigation after
seeing the flight recorder analysis.
Last week, one of the investigation's own military
engineers, a specialist in missile technology, told the
Village Voice's Davey that he believes the plane was
probably shot down by a missile and that the government
is covering up the truth. The Voice gave the source
anonymity because he feared losing his job.
The entire investigation has seemed like an "X-Files"
episode.
Streak of light
And there's more. At the time of the crash, 270
eyewitnesses across Long Island reported seeing a streak of
light. After the FBI suspended the criminal investigation
last year, Kallstrom, in an unprecedented move, asked the
CIA to produce a videotaped explanation of the eyewitness
accounts that specifically refutes the missile theory.
At least one military pilot who saw the crash is
unconvinced. National Guard helicopter pilot Frederick
Meyer--- one of the closest eye-witnesses, who reported
falling debris---rejects the CIA's animated recreation.
Meyer described the event as "an ordnance explosion" And
he ought to know what one looks like; the veteran pilot
dodged missiles in Vietnam.
Nearly 100 of the eyewitnesses said streak of light
originated from the earth's surface.
A puzzling pattern
In researching the crash and investigation over the last two
years, I've spoken with eyewitnesses, victims' families,
conspiracy theorists, investigation officials and fellow
journalists. I have reached the conclusion that these are not
merely arbitrary anomalies emanation from a bunch of
kooks.
They add up to a preponderance of puzzling,
unsubstantiated evidence that cries out for closer scrutiny
and begs deeper questions:
On what grounds was the FBI's criminal inquiry
suspended---but not closed?
Have the unidentified radar tracks--- especially the 30 knot
track---been thoroughly investigated?
If so, why haven't we been told anything about them?
Kallstrom and others have focused on Salinger as the
missile theory's straw man, denouncing him repeatedly and
implying that TWA 800 conspiracy theorists are dominated
by irresponsible, wild-eyed Internet users.
Hardly. Most TWA 800 conspiracy theorists I've met are
retired professionals with years of expertise in their fields
of endeavor from journalism and education to engineering
and aviation.
Some victims' families skepticism would reopen a wound
that is just beginning to heal.
But proper scientific inquiry is not passive acceptance of
ignorance; it is the relentless pursuit of truth. And the truth
is what investigators---despite highly desirable conditions
for an aviation disaster inquiry---have completely failed to
uncover.
Instead, they have asserted repeatedly that the cause may
be "unknowable," implying that TWA 800 is doomed to
being an unsolved mystery. It is not.
I don't claim to know what happened to the 747. But I do
know that the truth matters.
It mattered to me and my parents July 17, 1996. It mattered
more to the 230 crash victims.
And it ought to matter to the American public, which has
spent well over $30 million for an utterly unacceptable
outcome: shoulder-shrugging, ' not answers, in response to
serious questions about the worst aviation disaster in U.S.
history,
Scott Holleran [EMAIL PROTECTED]) is a freelance
writer in Southern California. He wrote this article for
[The San Jose Mercury News] Perspective.
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Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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