User talk:Lipsticked Pig/Sandbox3

Beginning in April, 1998, English professor Elaine Scarry wrote a series of articles for the The New York Review of Books concerning electromagnetic interference and the possibility of it being causal in the airplane crashes of TWA 800, EgyptAir 990, and Swissair 111. Scarry, the Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard, had previously read an article about how several Army Black Hawk helicopers had been lost due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from military planes, and then "immediately" thought of the TWA 800 crash, which was still under investigation. Scarry then proceeded to research the known effects of EMI, and examine the possible connection between EMI and the TWA 800 crash.

The Fall of TWA 800

Scarry summarized her findings in a 20,000-word essay that she submitted to The New York Review of Books (NYRB), a literary journal. Scarry had previously submitted shorter versions to newspapers as a potential op-ed articles, but was unable to get them published. After six months of revisions, and receiving positive evaluations from three independent scientific experts, NYRB co-editor Robert Silvers decided to print the article in their April 9, 1998 issue.

In "The Fall of TWA 800: The Possibility of Electromagnetic Interference" Scarry discussed the known effects of "High Intensity Radiated Fields" (HIRF), areas of EMI from ground transmitters such as radio, radar, and television antennas, or airborne transmitters such as high-powered radar and radio on military planes. Relying on publicly available information, such as a 1988 Air Force study by Colonel Charles Quisenberry, and 1994 NASA study by Martin Shooman, Scarry noted previously documented effects possibly related to EMI, including 5 Black Hawk crashes and various system malfunctions experienced by Air Force and Navy planes in Operation El Dorado Canyon.

Scarry noted that most of the prior research into EMI had been conducted by the military, notably the Pentagon's Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center (ECAC), later known as the Joint Spectrum Center (JSC), and that most of this data was still classified. She called on this information to be made public, stating that "the seven-month Air Force study and the three-year-long Pentagon study that chronicle the ways electromagnetic interference has affected military planes and ships should be opened either to the citizenry or to the inquiry panels of TWA 800 and other unexplained commercial downings." She then quoted NTSB Chairman Jim Hall during early public hearings into the TWA 800 crash as he addressed George Slenski, Air Force scientist who had completed a study of electrical mishaps in military planes:

“ Who pays your salary, Mr. Slenski? . . . So the taxpayers pay your salary? . . . The Chairman as a taxpayer pays both for the salaries of the FAA and the United States Air Force. . . . So he's very interested if there's important information generated through his tax dollars [about] research that affects aviation safety that that information get out. ”

Scarry proposed 3 scenarios for EMI to have caused the TWA 800 crash, based on her knowledge of EMI and the focus of the NTSB's ongoing investigation:

• A pulse of electromagnetic energy being transferred into the wiring around the 747's Center Wing Fuel Tank (CWT), causing a spark which then ignited the flammable fuel/air vapor inside the tank.
• Electromagnetic energy igniting vapors coming out of a vent outlet from the CWT, and the flame then propogating down the vent into the CWT.
• A pulse of energy causing the airplane's flight controls to move uncommanded, leading to loss of control.