-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/10-25-99/vo15no22_twa_800.htm Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/10-25-99/vo15no22_twa_800.htm">Th e New American - TWA 800 Shootdown - October �</A> ----- October 25, 1999 INTERVIEW TWA 800 Shootdown The government contends that the giant jet was destroyed by a mysteriously exploding fuel tank � but an ex-Navy crash investigator convincingly argues otherwise. Cmdr. William S. Donaldson III, USN (Ret.) Interviewed by John F. McManus In April 1997, Chairman James E. Hall of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proposed in the Wall Street Journal that TWA Flight 800 had exploded in mid-air nine months earlier because of some undiscovered mechanical failure. The article was entitled "It Wasn�t a Missile." Because he found the explanation given by Mr. Hall preposterous, Commander William S. Donaldson III, USN (Ret.) launched his own investigation. He did so in cooperation with the Associated Retired Aviation Professionals. Q. Commander Donaldson, you have been investigating the downing of TWA Flight 800 for over two years. What are your credentials for such a task? A. I am a retired U.S. Navy pilot with more than 24 years of experience in virtually all phases of naval aviation. Pertinent portions of my expertise include graduation from the Navy�s Postgraduate Aviation Safety School in Monterey, California, where I completed the long course in aviation safety and crash investigation. I have served as a safety officer and crash investigator at both the Squadron and Air Wing levels, and was qualified as a maintenance check pilot in six models of prop and jet aircraft. Also, I am a qualified air traffic controller and served for two years as a Carrier Controlled Approach Officer. Q. What have you concluded about the downing of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996 soon after it left JFK? A. First of all, TWA 800 was the 27th transportation aircraft worldwide to be brought down by a man-portable anti-aircraft missile. What happened to this Boeing 747 was far from unique when you consider that numerous other planes have suffered a similar fate. Just last year, a Boeing 727 was downed in Africa, the 28th victim of this type of attack. Just this month [September] a Lufthansa cargo jet was fired on and missed at low altitude near the Karachi airport overseas. I believe that a shoulder-launched missile was fired from a small boat positioned less than three nautical miles to the southeast of the aircraft. The missile punched through the underside of the aircraft at a point where the left wing meets the fuselage. Its warhead, a type that explodes immediately after impact, penetrated approximately three additional feet into the six-foot-deep tank of fuel in that wing. The resulting explosion caused a massive over-pressurization of all three left-wing tanks blowing open the top skin of the wing. The explosion also impacted the empty center fuel tank, resulting in a secondary fuel/air explosion under and in that center tank. All of this led to catastrophic failures of the nose, tail, and left wing. The plane�s pieces, plus the passengers and crew, then plunged into the sea in about 30 seconds. Q. What have the government agencies investigating this incident concluded? A. The FBI, NTSB, CIA, and even the White House joined in claiming that a mysterious explosion in the center fuel tank caused the tragedy. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to find such rampant incompetence of several agencies or, even worse, the overt politicization of these agencies at the very top. Q. What are your specific criticisms of the FBI�s handling of this matter? A. The FBI investigation was nothing but a token effort. Mr. James Kallstrom � the number two official of the FBI � headed the agency�s investigation and stated during his final press conference in November 1997 that the Bureau had turned over every rock ten times. The literal truth is that they didn�t even find some of the eyewitnesses who saw the streak of light rising toward the airplane. We found 140 eyewitnesses, and the FBI has never even interviewed 20 of them. Some of these persons were critically important eyewitnesses, people who were in boats and were first on the scene and who claim to have seen other suspicious boats in the area. The FBI eventually contracted with the Navy�s China Lake [California] Naval Air Weapons facility to study recovered debris. When the China Lake experts recommended in their report that missiles be fired into 747 fuel tanks in order to replicate the damage found on TWA 800, the FBI not only ignored this report but immediately shut down its investigation. Q. What did the Central Intelligence Agency do to promote the government�s fuel-tank-explosion theory? A. The CIA produced an animated video, which was broadcast over national television in November 1997. It purported to demonstrate that the plane was destroyed as a result of an explosion occurring in the empty center fuel tank. But the video was withdrawn after a single day when aviation professionals and eyewitnesses to the incident scoffed at its contents. The video is now mockingly referred to as the "CIA�s cartoon." It claims that the center fuel tank exploded, the plane kept flying for a short period of time, the nose fell off, and the remainder of the plane climbed 3,000 feet before plunging into the sea. Let me say categorically that this preposterous explanation defies the laws of physics, aerodynamics, and jet engine mechanics. Q. You conducted your own experiments with the fuel used by 747s. What did your tests show? A. The government�s case is built on the claim that Jet-A fuel is explosive. The truth is that it cannot even be lit with a match until it is heated to over 127� Fahrenheit. Early in 1997, I extracted some Jet-A fuel from a 747 that had been running for about the same amount of time that TWA 800 had been operating when it was hit. This fuel�s temperature was 68� Fahrenheit, nowhere near flammable range. Then, I took the fuel home, poured some into a pan sitting in my outdoor barbecue, and placed three lighted fireplace matches into the pool of fuel. The matches went out! Yet this is the fuel that, under the very same temperature conditions, supposedly exploded because of some mysterious spark and brought the plane down. Impossible! Even if you heat the fuel beyond 127� and stick a match in it, you�ll get fire but no explosion. The government has also claimed that vaporized fuel will explode if ignited, which is true. But this fuel forms vapor six times heavier than air. It won�t vaporize without a great deal of energy being applied. Also, the government claims that faulty wiring may have caused the spark that ignited vapors in the admittedly empty center tank. But there is no wiring inside the fuel tank in a 747 and, as we�ve already mentioned, there were no vapors to ignite. Q. Did you ever obtain any photos of the wreckage that support your view? A. I helped James Sanders when he was being prosecuted by the government for supposedly stealing pieces of the wreckage prior to writing the book, The Downing of Flight 800. In order to defend himself, Mr. Sanders succeeded in getting permission from the judge to take some pictures of the wreckage. At my request, he took close-up photos of the area where the left side wing fuel tank meets the fuselage, and the underneath part of the fuselage below the center fuel tank. It is here in this tank that the government said the crippling explosion took place. Mr. Sanders succeeded, and one of his photos shows that the bottom of that center fuel tank is domed upward 14 inches! If the scenario offered by the NTSB is accurate, that metal surface should be domed downward, the result of an explosion inside the tank. That and other photos indicate the initiating explosion was outside the center tank. Q. You interviewed numerous eyewitnesses to the incident. What did you learn? A. One of the most important eyewitnesses is Navy Master Chief Bromley, who was aboard a commercial aircraft heading north above TWA 800 when it was hit. He was traveling on official Navy business, knows radar, is qualified in combat missile tactics, and has long experience in standing bridge watches aboard ship. I interviewed him by phone and contend that his testimony alone puts the lie to the official government story. He told me that he was in a window seat looking out and had just watched another aircraft pass below. The plane carrying him was at 21,000 feet, and TWA 800 was at 13,800 feet. He noticed a flare-like object rising from the rear and moving much faster than his aircraft. He believed it to be on a rapidly closing collision course with his plane. But the streak he was nervously watching never reached his plane. Instead, the missile causing it hit TWA 800, which he could not see from his vantage point. Q. What did you learn from other witnesses? A. Al Gipe is a former Navy gunnery officer. He was aboard his own craft about 14 miles to the east-southeast of TWA 800�s flight path. He was looking toward Long Island and saw what he claims looked exactly like a tracer round fired from a naval weapon. He watched it for four-to-six seconds going from south to north, and then he saw a huge billowing explosion. His testimony fits what Bromley saw looking down, agrees with what some scallopers about eight miles away saw, and coincides with what lots of people saw from the beach and from other vessels in the water at the time. Q. Did the government interfere with salvage operations after the disaster? A. A company known as Weeks Marine Inc. operates the largest and most capable marine salvage equipment along the eastern shore of the United States. The Coast Guard requested assistance from this firm within an hour of the incident. By chance, the company happened to have its huge revolving crane salvage barge in the area. By dawn of the next day, this vessel was ready to operate. But it was never permitted to do so, and Navy salvage vessels were tapped to do the job. Also, AT&T had a state-of-the-art cable-laying ship at the site within 24 hours. This vessel was equipped with high-tech underwater surveillance gear and even had a robot salvage submarine. But it too was pushed aside and never used. That strange decision delayed the recovery of bodies, black boxes, and debris six days waiting for the Navy to get on scene! Q. What�s next on your agenda? A. In my May 6th testimony before the House subcommittee, I recommended that the NTSB be reorganized and the current leadership replaced by individuals who are professionals in the field of safety and crash investigation and not political appointees. The chairman of the NTSB, James Hall, is a Tennesseean who was Al Gore�s finance chairman in Tennessee when Gore was running for the presidential nomination in 1992. He was given his job because of political connections and has no expertise in safety or crash inspection. I then told the subcommittee of numerous deficiencies in the government�s explanation and also numerous failures of the government to follow standardized procedures in its investigation. Finally, I stated my intention to file appropriate criminal complaints if the final NTSB report � which is yet to be filed � does not adequately address these concerns. No public official, including the President, has the authority to conceal the details of a fatal attack by terrorists on the American people. � Copyright 1995-1999 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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