-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.seattletimes.com/news/business/html98/twa_19991209.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.seattletimes.com/news/business/html98/twa_19991209.html">Seat tle Times: Boeing lawyers still saying miss�</A> ----- Thursday, December 9, 1999, 11:22 a.m. Pacific Boeing lawyers still saying missile may have downed TWA Flight 800 by James V. Grimaldi Seattle Times Washington bureau WASHINGTON - Boeing said this week that the lack of evidence as to what sparked the blast that downed TWA Flight 800 three years ago points to an "external source," such as a bomb or missile. Boeing's statement in court documents Tuesday is the strongest to date revealing an aggressive legal defense that blames the 747 crash on a bomb or missile - which the FBI and National Transportation Safety Board long ago ruled out. "That the NTSB in over three years of exhaustive investigation has been unable to identify any potential ignition source aboard the aircraft suggests that an external source caused the explosion," Boeing said. "Unless and until such time as a cause is determined, ignition sources external to the aircraft - of any type - cannot be ruled out." Boeing, the nation's second-largest defense contractor, acknowledged in the documents that "Boeing has no direct evidence that Flight 800 was brought down by a missile fired by the United States military or any other United States government entity." But, the company added, it is still too early to rule out even a government-fi red missile before reviewing all of the FBI reports, and because Boeing consultants, the company says, have had only limited access to the wreckage. The NTSB is expected to issue a cause sometime next year on the crash. All 230 aboard the July 1996 flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to Paris were killed when the plane blew up off Long Island, N.Y. The comments, signed by Seattle attorneys Keith Gerrard and Steve Bell of the firm Perkins Coie, are in response to pretrial questions, called interrogatories, posed by lawyers for families suing Boeing over the crash. They also come on the heels of microscopic testing on the wreckage of TWA Flight 800 demanded by Boeing. Parts of the fuselage were obtained from the NTSB and tested at an independent laboratory in Chantilly, Va., last month to look for traces of a bomb or missile. According to a source close to the case, the plaintiffs' attorneys believe the results show no evidence that a missile or a bomb was involved. Lawyers for the families of those killed declined to comment, but the tests are expected to be discussed as early as this afternoon at a pretrial hearing before the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The NTSB has determined the plane crashed when the center fuel tank blew up after the 747 sat on a hot Tarmac with the air-conditioner unit, situated under the tank, running for at least two hours before takeoff. The board is seeking changes to the design of the fuel tanks. While Boeing's attorneys pursue bomb theories, company safety engineers say they are pursuing other matters. Ron Hinderberger, director of airplane safety, said Boeing takes seriously the NTSB's concern about fuel-tank flammability. "My calendar is filled with working the fuel-system-safety enhancements and the investigation from the standpoint of what we are doing to get changes out there," Hinderberger said. "I'm not spending my time on missiles or whether a missile was or was not involved." Boeing's use of the continuing NTSB investigation as a defense tactic while at the same time participating in the investigation of the crash is identified as a major problem in a report released today. The Rand Corp. is suggesting an overhaul of the investigation process while still permitting "parties" to the crash, such as companies as Boeing, to play a vital role in determining the cause. Rand identifies TWA Flight 800 as a "complex-system event" in which the cause of the crash leaves "no permanent record to discover in the wreckage." In those cases, the attorneys and insurance companies are playing a greater role of influence on their "party" representatives involved in the investigation, the Rand report found. "NTSB investigations of major commercial aviation accidents have become nothing but preparation for anticipated litigation," the Rand report found. Family members of victims have complained angrily about Boeing's role in the investigations and point to the bomb-or-missile legal strategy as an example. William Rogers of Montoursville, Pa., whose daughter, Kim, 17, died in the crash, said the bomb-or-missile theories "stab you right in the heart every time you hear it." Boeing attorneys, Rogers contends, "want to place some doubt in the minds of the potential jury pool. They quite obviously are mistaken. It is not out of the realm of infinite possibility, but it is not in the plausible realm, and they know that." Information from Seattle Times aerospace writer Chuck Taylor was included in this report. Copyright � 1999 The Seattle Times Company ----- 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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