TWA Flight 800

TWA Flight 800

Reconstruction of TWA 800 wreckage
Occurrence
Date	July 17, 1996 [July 18 UTC]
Summary	Mid-air explosion and in-flight breakup
Site	Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-131
Operator	Trans World Airlines
Registration	N93119
Flight origin	John F. Kennedy International Airport
Destination	Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Passengers	212
Crew	18
Fatalities	230
Survivors	0

Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800, a Boeing 747-131, N93119, crashed on July 17, 1996, about 20:31 EDT (00:31, July 18 UTC), in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. TWA Flight 800 was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, New York, to Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG), Paris, France. The flight departed JFK about 20:19, with two pilots, two flight engineers, 14 flight attendants, and 212 passengers on board. All 230 people on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed.

While investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived on scene the following day, much initial speculation centered on a terrorist attack, and consequently the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a parallel investigation into the crash. On November 18, 1997, the FBI announced that no evidence had been found of a criminal act, and the NTSB assumed sole control on the investigation.

The NTSB investigation ended with the adoption of their final report on August 23, 2000. In it they concluded that the probable cause of the accident was "an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the CWT that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system."

Many alternative theories exist as to the cause of this crash, most of which propose that evidence may exist that points to an external missile strike or on-board bomb, either as a terrorist act, or an unintentional shootdown by a U.S. Navy vessel.

Accident flight

File:Twa 800 flight path.PNG

Flight path of TWA 800. Colored rectangles are the major debris fields from the crash

On the day of the crash the airplane departed Athens, Greece, as TWA Flight 881, and arrived at the gate at JFK about 16:38. Upon arrival at JFK there was a crew change, and the aircraft was refueled. TWA Flight 800 was scheduled to depart JFK for CDG around 19:00, but the flight was delayed for just over an hour due to a disabled piece of ground equipment and a passenger/baggage mismatch. After it was confirmed the owner of the baggage in question was on board, the flight crew prepared for departure, and aircraft pushed back from the gate about 20:02.

Data recovered from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) indicated a normal departure from JFK about 20:19. TWA 800 then received a series of generally increasing altitude assignments and heading changes as it climbed to its intended cruising altitude. The last radio transmission from the airplane occurred at 20:30 after the flight crew received and then acknowledged instructions from Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) to climb to 15,000 feet. TWA 800 was in the process of climbing when the CVR and FDR both abruptly stopped recording data at 20:31:12. This was the same time as the last recorded radar transponder return from the airplane was recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar site at Trevose, Pennsylvania.

At 20:31:50 the captain of an Eastwind Airlines Boeing 737 first reported to Boston ARTCC that he "saw an explosion out here", adding "ahead of us here...about 16,000 feet or something like that, it just went down into the water." Subsequently, many Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities in the New York/Long Island area received reports of an explosion from other pilots operating in the area. Other witnesses on land and sea later stated that they saw and/or heard explosions, accompanied by a large fireball over the ocean, and observed debris, some of which was burning, falling into the water. About one-third of these witnesses reported that they observed a streak of light moving upward in the sky to the point where a large fireball appeared.

Although individuals in various civilian, military, and police vessels reached the crash site and initiated a search within minutes of the initial water impact, no survivors were found.

Initial investigation

Sources of debris

Debris pathways

Wreckage recovery

Search and recovery operations were conducted by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as their contractors. The first priority of the early search and recovery efforts was the recovery of the victims; wreckage recovery was the second priority. Remote-operated vehicles (ROV), side-scan sonar, and laser line-scanning equipment were used to search for and investigate underwater debris fields. Victims and wreckage were recovered by Scuba divers and ROVs; later scallop trawlers were used to recover wreckage embedded in the ocean floor. As the wreckage recovery progressed, three main debris fields emerged. The yellow zone, red zone, and green zone contained wreckage from front, center and rear sections of the airplane, respectively. The green zone with the aft portion of the aircraft was located the furthest along the flight path.

Remains of all 230 victims and over 95% of the airplane wreckage were eventually recovered. A temporary morgue facility at the United States Coast Guard station at East Moriches initially documented the human remains which were then transported to a permanent morgue facility at the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office in Hauppauge, New York. Pieces of wreckage were transported by boat to shore and then by trucks to leased hangar space at the former Grumman Aircraft facility in Calverton, New York for storage, examination and reconstruction (this facility became the command center and headquarters for the investigation). NTSB and FBI personnel were present to observe all wreckage transfers to preserve the evidentiary value of the wreckage. Initial examination of the wreckage revealed potential explosive residue on three samples of material from separate locations in the airplane wreckage; further testing determined that one contained traces of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), another nitroglycerin, and the third a combination of RDX and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

The wreckage is now permanently stored in a facility in a NTSB facility in Ashburn, Virginia which was custom built for the purpose. The reconstructed aircraft is used to train accident investigators.[1]

Witnesses

Example of a FBI witness statement summary

Interviews with potential witnesses to the TWA 800 crash were conducted by the FBI; the NTSB was asked not to interview or re-interview witnesses because multiple interviews could lead to difficulties in any potential future criminal prosecution. No verbatim records of the witness interviews were produced; instead the agents who conducted the interviews wrote summaries of the interviews which they then submitted. Witnesses were not asked to review or correct the documents. After the FBI closed their active criminal investigation, the summaries were handed over to the NTSB (with personal information of the witnesses redacted), who then formed a witness group to review these documents.

The NTSB witness group reviewed the summaries and determined they contained 736 witness accounts. Of these, the group determined that 670 witnesses reported seeing something that probably related to the accident, and almost 250 reported hearing something that was likely related to the accident. 239 reported hearing something variously described as an "explosion, boom, rumble, [or] thunder" mostly along the South Shore of Long Island, at 15 to 20 km slant range distance. 258 accounts were characterized as "streak of light" witnesses ("an object moving in the sky...variously described [as] a point of light, fireworks, a flare, a shooting star, or something similar.") Of these 258 witnesses, 38 reported that the streak was ascending vertically or nearly so, 18 indicated that it originated from the surface of the earth, and 7 reported that it originated at the horizon.

599 witnesses reported a fireball; of these 264 reported seeing the fireball originate, 200 reported seeing the fireball split into two, and 217 reported observing the fireball hit the surface of the water, or disappear below the horizon. 210 witnesses reported seeing both a fireball and a streak of light.

Further investigation and analysis

Possible reasons for the in-flight breakup

Witness reports and the distribution of wreckage indicated a catastrophic in-flight breakup of TWA 800. The NTSB considered as possible causes "structural failure and decompression; detonation of a high-energy explosive device, such as a bomb exploding inside the airplane or a missile warhead exploding upon impact with the airplane; and a fuel/air explosion in the center wing tank (CWT)."

Structural failure and decompression. Close examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of structural faults such as fatigue, corrosion or mechanical damage that could have contributed to the in-flight breakup. It was also suggested that the breakup could have been started with an in-flight separation of the forward cargo door; however all evidence indicated that the door was closed and locked at impact. The NTSB determined that "the in-flight breakup of TWA flight 800 was not initiated by a preexisting condition resulting in structural failure and decompression."

NTSB plot of radar data from TWA 800 crash. The "30 knot track", presumably a surface vessel, was never identified and later the cause of much speculation.

High-energy explosive device detonation. Factors such as heightened security and safety concerns because of the 1996 Olympics, that TWA 800 was an international flight, witness reports of a streak of light and then a fireball, as well unexplained targets near TWA 800 recorded by a radar site at Islip, New York, led the NTSB to consider the possibility that a bomb exploded inside the airplane or that a shoulder-launched missile exploded upon impact with the airplane.

The backs of several damaged passenger seats were observed to have an unknown red/brown-shaded substance on them; subsequent investigation along with testing by NASA determined this substance to be consistent with adhesive used in the seats. Earlier, the FBI had detected trace amounts of explosive residue on three separate pieces of the wreckage (described as a piece of canvas-like material and two pieces of a floor panel). However, no damage typically associated with a high-energy explosion of a bomb or missile warhead ("severe pitting, cratering, petalling, or hot gas washing") were found on the recovered wreckage, including the pieces which tested positive for explosives. Of the 5 percent of the fuselage that was not recovered, none of the missing areas were large enough to have covered all the damage that would have been caused by the detonation of a bomb or missile. In addition, none of the victims' remains showed evidence of injuries that could have been caused by high-energy explosives.

The NTSB considered possible reasons why the wreckage would test positive for explosive residue, including the aircraft's use in 1991 transporting troops during the Gulf War, as well as its use in a dog-training explosive detection exercise about one month before the crash. However, testing by the FAA's Technical Center concluded that residues of the type of explosives found on the wreckage would completely dissipate after just 2 days of immersion in salt water, and would not be detectable. The NTSB concluded that it was "quite possible" that the explosive residue detected was deposited during or after wreckage recovery operations. When the radar data from the Islip facility was analyzed, none of the unexplained radar returns intersected TWA 800's flight path at any time, and all of them were moving away from the airplane. The lack of any corroborating evidence associated with a high-energy explosion led the NTSB to conclude that "the in-flight breakup of TWA flight 800 was not initiated by a bomb or missile strike."

The NTSB determined that the initial event in the breakup sequence was a failure of the Spanwise Beam #3 in the Center Wing Fuel Tank. Video: Part 1, Part 2 (.rm format)

Fuel/air explosion in the center wing fuel tank. The NTSB established a sequencing group to determine the sequence of the airplane's structural breakup and compare proposed accident scenarios with the structural observations. The group concluded that the first event in the breakup sequence was a failure in the structure of the CWT, caused by excessive pressure ("overpressure") within the CWT. This led to a series of structural failures, culminating in the complete separation of the forward fuselage and destruction of the airplane.

Scale-model test of a CWT fuel/air vapor explosion

The investigation then focused on the fuel/air vapors present in the CWT (only a residual amount of fuel was present in the CWT for the flight), and whether they were flammable and the cause of the overpressure event. Examination of the heat flow around the CWT revealed that the airplane's air conditioning packs, located underneath the CWT, may have contributed to heating of the fuel/air vapor while operating for 2 1/2 hours at the gate at JFK. Tests recreating the conditions of the flight showed temperatures of the fuel/air vapor in the CWT ranging from 101 to 127 °F (38 to 53 °C) while Jet A fuel/air vapors under the same conditions as the flight were flammable at temperatures as low as 96.4 °F (35.8 °C). Questions were raised whether a fuel/air vapor explosion in the CWT would generate enough force to break apart the CWT and cause the destruction of the airplane. Computer modeling and quarter-scale experiments using models of the CWT were used to investigate the mechanics of a CWT explosion. During these experiments "quenching" of explosions within the CWT was observed, where the internal structure of the multi-compartment fuel tank did not allow for explosions to develop with enough force to cause the expected damage.

Further computer modeling was conducted, and in July and August 1997, using an out-of-service 747 at Bruntingthorpe Airfield, England, tests simulated a fuel/air explosion in the CWT by igniting a propane/air mixture. These tests resulted in the failure of the CWT structure due to overpressure. The NTSB acknowledged that these test conditions were not fully comparable to the conditions that existed on TWA 800 at the time of the accident, but previous accidents involving CWT explosions of Jet A fuel, notably Avianca Flight 203 and Philippine Airlines Flight 143 led the NTSB to conclude "On the basis of the accident airplane's breakup sequence; wreckage damage characteristics; scientific tests and research on fuels, fuel tank explosions, and the conditions in the CWT at the time of the accident; and analysis of witness information, the Safety Board concludes that the TWA flight 800 in-flight breakup was initiated by a fuel/air explosion in the CWT."

Possible ignition sources of the center wing fuel tank

In an attempt to determine what ignited the flammable fuel/air vapor in the CWT and caused the explosion, the investigation evaluated numerous potential ignition sources. All but one were considered "very unlikely", while one was considered "likely"

Missile fragment. Although the NTSB had already reached the conclusion that a missile-strike was not the cause of the structural failure of the airplane, they considered the possibility that a missile could have exploded close enough to TWA 800 for a missile fragment to have entered the CWT and ignited the fuel/air vapor, yet far enough away not to have left any damage characteristics of a missile strike. Using data provided by the Naval Air Warfare Center, Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center, and Missile and Space Intelligence Center, computer simulations were constructed to simulate a missile detonating in a location such that a fragment from the warhead could penetrate into the CWT. Based on these simulations the investigation concluded that it was "very unlikely" that a warhead detonated in such a location where a fragment would penetrate the CWT, but no other fragments impact the surrounding airplane structure.

Small explosive charge. Similarly, the investigation considered the possibility that a small explosive charge placed on the CWT could have been the ignition source. Testing by the NTSB and the British Defence Evaluation and Research Agency demonstrated that when the metal of the same type and thickness of the CWT was penetrated by a small charge, there was petalling of the surface where the charge was placed, pitting on the adjacent surfaces, and visible hot gas washing damage in the surrounding area. Since none of the recovered CWT wreckage exhibited these damage characteristics, and none of the areas of missing wreckage were large enough to encompass all the expected damage, the investigation concluded that this scenario was "very unlikely"

Other potential sources. The NTSB also investigated whether the fuel/air mixture in the CWT could have been ignited by lightning strike, meteor strike, auto ignition or hot surface ignition, a fire migrating to the CWT from another fuel tank via the vent system, and uncontained engine failure, a turbine burst in the air conditioning packs beneath the CWT, a malfunctioning CWT jettison/override pump, a malfunctioning CWT scavenger pump, or static electricity. After analysis the investigation determined that these potential sources were "very unlikely" to have been the source of ignition.

Fuel quantity indication system. The FAA and airplane manufacturers had assumed that a flammable fuel/air mixture would exist at all times in fuel tanks; consequently airplane designers attempted to eliminate all possible sources of ignition in the fuel tanks The primary means of ensuring this is to keep voltages and currents being used by the fuel quantity indication system very small, and to protect all devices from intrusion of vapor. In the case of the 747-100 series, the only wiring located inside the CWT was wiring associated with the Fuel Quantity Indication System (FQIS).

As part of the NTSB's investigation, Boeing submitted a fault tree analysis of possible ignition mechanisms in the CWT (such an analysis was not performed nor required in December 1969 when the 747-100 series was certified by the FAA). This analysis concluded that the probability of an FQIS wiring fault producing an ignition source in the CWT as being 1 x 10^-6 events per hour. Regulatory guidelines that were later adopted in April 1970 by the FAA required probabilities of such failures to be less than 1 x 10^-9 (this was considered to be "extremely improbable" and "not anticipated to occur during the entire operational lifetime of all airplanes of one type.") However a review of Boeing's fault tree analysis by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) strongly criticized the accuracy of its findings, concluding that the fault tree analysis quantifications "cannot stand up to peer review and should not be viewed as realistic." Further study by MSFC personnel indicated that "realistic" numbers used in a fault tree analysis would indicate a much higher probability of ignition through the FQIS wiring system.

The FQIS system was designed to use voltage so low as to prevent it from being a possible ignition source. Therefore, in order for the FQIS to be the ignition source, a transfer of higher than normal voltage to the FQIS needed to have occurred, as well as some mechanism whereby the excess energy got released by the FQIS wiring into the CWT. While the NTSB determined that factors suggesting the likelihood of a short circuit event existed, they added that "neither the release mechanism nor the location of the ignition inside the CWT could be determined from the available evidence." Nonetheless, the NTSB concluded that "the ignition energy for the CWT explosion most likely entered the CWT through the FQIS wiring."

Most witness observations of a streak of light were determined by the NTSB to be consistent with the calculated flightpath of TWA 800 after the CWT explosion. The NTSB produced this animation of what a hypothetical witness on the shore would see of the crippled flight. Video: View from beach of TWA 800 (.mov format)

Analysis of reported witness observations

Numerous witnesses in the vicinity of the accident reported a streak of light. As the NTSB noted, "There was intense public interest in these witness reports and much speculation that the reported streak of light was a missile that eventually struck TWA flight 800, causing the airplane to explode." The NTSB Witness Group concluded that the streak of light reported by witnesses might have been the accident airplane during some stage of its flight before the fireball developed, noting that most of the 258 streak of light accounts were generally consistent with the calculated flightpath of the accident airplane after the CWT explosion.

However, 38 witnesses described a streak of light that ascended vertically, or nearly so, and these accounts "seem[ed] to be inconsistent with the accident airplane's flightpath." In addition, 18 witnesses reported seeing a streak of light that originated at the surface, or the horizon, which was "not consistent with the airplane's flightpath." With regard to these differing accounts, the NTSB noted that in previous investigations witness data was "often inconsistent with the known facts or other witnesses' reports of the same events." The interviews conducted by the FBI focused on the possibility of a missile attack (some suggested interview questions given to FBI agents were "Where was the sun in relation to the missile launch point?" and "How long did the missile fly?"), and as a consequence there was possible interviewer/interviewee bias. The NTSB concluded that given the large number of witnesses in this case, they "did not expect all of the documented witness observations to be consistent with one another", and "did not view the apparent anomalous accounts as being persuasive evidence that some witnesses might have observed a missile."

The investigation determined that if witnesses had observed a missile attack they would have seen the following: (1) a light from the burning missile motor ascending very rapidly and steeply for about 8 seconds; (2) the light disappearing for up to 7 seconds; (3) upon the missile striking the aircraft and igniting the CWT another light, moving considerably slower and more laterally than the first, for about 30 seconds; (4) this light descending while simultaneously developing into a fireball falling toward the ocean. None of the witness documents provided to the NTSB described such a scenario, and the investigation concluded that "the witness observations of a streak of light were not related to a missile and that the streak of light reported by most of these witnesses was the burning fuel from the accident airplane in crippled flight during some portion of the post-explosion, pre-impact breakup sequence."

Accident sequence

Careful analysis of the distribution of the wreckage, the damage found and patterns of soot and burning, all contributed to understanding the sequence of events during the breakup of the aircraft.

The explosion inside the center fuel tank caused the spanwise beam, which was the front of the tank, to fail, rotating it downward and forward, when it struck the front spar, (one of two major structural components carrying lift loads across the span of the wing) it caused bowing and fractures of the front spar. At this time the over-pressure escaping the center wing tank caused the upper wing skin to separate from the front spar, followed by the lower wing skin and keel beam being forced downward. The fractures were continued to the lower pressure bulkhead and caused cracking of the fuselage skin starting immediately forward of the wing spar. This led to the destruction of the lower fuselage of the cargo compartment and the propagation of cracking upward around the fuselage sides. The pattern of cracks spreading upward caused a compression failure of the window belt above the hole in the fuselage, followed by complete failure of the fuselage and separation of the entire nose. At this point the aircraft pitched up and aerodynamic loads caused failure of the wing center section due to bending loads. The bending loads caused the left wing to come off. Soot stains indicated that the right wing came off the fuselage later and in stages. The majority of the after fuselage struck the water as a single large piece.

The wreckage from the area immediately forward of the wing, and parts of the center section were distributed widely almost below where radar indicated the breakup started. The nose section was within the outermost area of the that wreckage and further along the flight heading. The wings and aft fuselage, which pitched up when the nose came off, yet continued in crippled flight briefly, fell farther along the flight path.

The distribution of the parts of the wings and fuselage down the flight path, and the soot damage from the in flight fires coincided, proving the order in which the structure disintegrated.

Conclusions

In addition to the probable cause, the NTSB found the following contributing factors to the accident:

• The design and certification concept that fuel tank explosions could be prevented solely by precluding all ignition sources
• The certification of the Boeing 747 with heat sources located beneath the CWT with no means to reduce the heat transferred into the CWT or to render the fuel tank vapor nonflammable.

During the course of their investigation, and in their final report, the NTSB issued 15 safety recommendations, mostly covering fuel tank and wiring-related issues. Among the recommendations was that significant consideration should be given to the development of modifications such as nitrogen-inerting systems, for new airplane designs and, where feasible, to existing airplanes (such an inerting system prevents fuel tank explosions by pumping nitrogen into fuel tanks to displace oxygen).

Alternative theories

The NTSB's conclusions about the cause of the TWA 800 disaster took four years and one month to be published. The FBI's earliest investigations and interviews, later used by the NTSB, were performed under the assumption of a missile attack, a fact noted in the NTSB's final report. Six months into the investigation, the NTSB's chairman, Jim Hall, was quoted as saying, "All three theories - a bomb, a missile or mechanical failure - remain." Speculation was fueled in part by early descriptions, visuals, and eyewitness accounts of this jet disaster, including a sudden explosion and trails of fire in the sky; particularly, trails of fire moving in an upward direction.

The two most prevalent specific theories around TWA 800 are that of a terrorist bomb on board, or a missile striking the plane (attributed to American armed forces by some and to terrorists by others). Those supporting these alternative explanations for the crash typically claim that the NTSB's explanation, above, was created as a cover-up; that the NTSB did not investigate sufficiently; or that the NTSB did not have all the evidence they should have to reach the correct conclusion.

Pierre Salinger

One of the first widely reported criticisms of the official investigation was by Pierre Salinger, who on November 7, 1996, held a press conference in Cannes, France. He stated he had proof that TWA 800 was shot down by friendly fire, and the incident was being covered up by the government. Salinger said "he was basing the claims on information he saw in a document given to him six weeks ago by someone in French Intelligence with close contacts to U.S. officials", but refused to name his source. CNN quickly found Salinger's document to be "a widely accessible e-mail letter that has been circulating for at least six weeks on the Internet's World Wide Web." Salinger's evidence was actually an e-mail from Richard Russell, a retired airline pilot.

Salinger's previous position as White House Press Secretary, as well as long time correspondent for ABC News, initially gave credence to his statements, transforming them from "internet conspiracies" into the mainstream. However, under scrutiny, his allegations, and the reports issued with his collaborators, became the subject of much criticism in the media. Bob Francis, the vice chairman of the NTSB, was quoted as saying "He was an idiot, he didn't know what he was talking about, and he was totally irresponsible."

James Sanders

On December 5, 1997, federal prosecutors issued arrest warrants for James Sanders, a retired police officer, TWA chief 747 pilot Robert Terrell Stacey, who was participating in the official investigation as a TWA representative, and Sanders' wife Elizabeth Sanders, a TWA flight attendant. They were charged with stealing items from the hangar where wreckage reconstruction was taking place, specifically samples of seat fabric as well as documents related to the investigation. The seat fabric samples contained "reddish" residue, not present on other seats, that Sanders believed to be missile fuel (The FBI had declared the residue to be adhesive used in the seats). With the information provided by Sanders, the Riverside Press-Enterprise published a series of articles concerning the missile theory. The NTSB then retested their samples and again declared the residue to be adhesive, results which Sanders again disputed, saying that testing by independent laboratories showed his samples not to be consistent with the composition of the expected adhesive, Scotch-Grip 1357 High Performance Contact Adhesive. When the NTSB began its public hearings into the crash, FBI deputy director James Kallstrom asked them not to discuss the residue.

Prior to the indictments Sanders had published his book The Downing of TWA Flight 800, in which he proposed that TWA 800 had been downed by friendly fire, and that a government cover-up had taken place. The Sanders and their attorneys described the prosecution as vindictive; defense attorney Bruce Maffeo said the couple had a First Amendment right to take the sample and crash-related documents to expose the cover-up. In April 1999, both Sanders were convicted of stealing evidence from civil aircraft wreckage, and later that year both were sentenced to probation (they had been facing potential sentences of 10 years imprisonment). Stacey had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in the case previously.

Later, with Jack Cashill, Sanders further expanded his theory in the book First Strike: TWA Flight 800 and the Attack on America, stating that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a Navy missile, whose intended target was a terrorist plane on a collision course with the passenger aircraft.

William Donaldson

William S. Donaldson, a retired Naval officer, formed the Associated Retired Aviation Professionals (ARAP) to investigate the TWA 800 crash. He authored the "Interim Report on the Crash of TWA Flight 800 and the Actions of the NTSB and the FBI" (The Donaldson Report), which was released on July 17, 1998, 2 years before the NTSB's Final Report. In it, Donaldson stated that TWA 800 was struck by two missiles, fired from the water, most likely as a terrorist attack, and subsequently the FBI and NTSB conspired to cover-up this fact due to political pressure.

Donaldson disputed the CWT fuel/air vapor explosion scenario, stating that "In the history of aviation, there has never been an in-flight explosion in any Boeing airliner of a Jet-A Kerosene fuel vapor/air mixture in any tank, caused by mechanical failure." Eyewitness, debris field, metallurgical, and victim injury evidence were all cited by Donaldson proof of the missile-attack scenario. Donaldson acknowledged James Sander's theory of an accidental shootdown, and did not rule out U.S. Navy involvement; however, he viewed circumstantial evidence of a terrorist attack "more compelling."

Much of the report dealt with Donaldson's assertions of a conspired cover-up by the FBI and NTSB, in co-operation with the Justice Department. Donaldson believed that the Clinton Administration wanted to hide the actual cause of the crash for political reasons, specifically the upcoming presidential elections. Donaldson concluded his report with the request that Congress should hold Congressional hearings into the crash and/or request that the Justice Department appoint an Independent Counsel to investigate (neither of which happened).

Donaldson received support and funding from the advocacy group Accuracy in Media, who promoted his views. He died in 2001; the ARAP website is still active.

Elaine Scarry

Further information: [[:Elaine Scarry and Electromagnetic Interference]]

On April 9, 1998, Elaine Scarry's article in the The New York Review of Books, titled "The Fall of TWA 800: The Possibility of Electromagnetic Interference", was published. Scarry, a professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard, proposed that electromagnetic interference, also referred to as "High Intensity Radiated Fields" (HIRF), could have been the cause of the TWA 800 crash, specifically energy emitted from a U.S. military craft. Later that year, The New York Review of Books published a series of letters between Scarry and NTSB Chairman James Hall discussing the possibility of HIRF being causal to the accident, and what steps the NTSB was taking in its investigation to determine if it was a factor.

After the adoption of the Final Report, Scarry published another article in the The New York Review of Books titled "TWA 800 and Electromagnetic Interference: Work Already Completed and Work that Still Needs to be Done". While praising the initial research done by the NTSB into HIRFs, she also stated that much more additional research was needed. Scarry criticized what she felt was a bias in the investigation to the "meticulous" detailing of events inside the airplane, while not fully exploring the electromagnetic environment outside the airplane. Scarry focused on a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion close to TWA 800 as being a possible source of electromagnetic interference and cause of the CWT explosion on TWA 800.

Scarry has since written about Swissair 111 and Egypt Air 990 crashes in connection with electromagnetic radiation.

IAMAW submission

As an invited party to the NTSB investigation, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) submitted a report into the public docket. In this report the IAMAW disputed the NTSB's sequencing study, and proposed a breakup sequence that started on the lower left side of the airplane, when a high-pressure event "unzipped" the fuselage. The IAMAW wrote that "a major event may have occurred on the left side of the aircraft. It could have contributed to or been the cause of the destruction of Flight 800." and that "the CWT exploded, but as a result of the airplane's breakup, and was not the initial event."

The IAMAW criticized the accuracy of the "Tag database" used to document the recovered wreckage and the reliability of the witness statements. The IAMAW strongly criticized the FBI's conduct during the investigation, including the undocumented removal by FBI agents of wreckage from the hangar where it was stored. However, they also commended the NTSB staff, management and board members for their cooperation during the investigation, and stated that "The fact the media has put and other groups continue to bring pressure on the board, we find it very comforting that the focus was not changed due to these forces." They concluded that "The causes and circumstances that contributed directly to the accident are unknown."

Ray Lahr

Another proponent of the U.S. Navy shootdown theory and prominent critic of the zoom climb scenario was H. Ray Lahr, a retired United Airlines pilot. Lahr, recipient of the The Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award by the Flight Safety Foundation in 1994, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division, on November 6, 2003, against the NTSB and CIA. Lahr sought documentation and data denied to him through previous FOIA requests that the NTSB and CIA used for their calculations of the zoom climb, which was used to produce the CIA animation. When asked for his reasons for seeking this documents, Lahr stated "I believe that I could show that the zoom climb never happened. If the zoom climb never happened then they've got to find out what the eyewitnesses saw and the only logical conclusion there is is that they saw a missile."

On August 31, 2006, the District Court issued an initial ruling that the evidence submitted by Lahr as justification for his FOIA lawsuit was "sufficient for the plaintiff to proceed based on his claim that the government acted improperly," and that Lahr should be granted access to some, but not all, of the documents he was seeking, based on the FOIA statutes and case law. In a further ruling on October 4, 2003, the court finalized the list of documents that the NTSB and CIA must provide to Lahr (again granting some, but not all, of his FOIA requests). While the court reaffirmed its previous ruling that Lahr had provided proof "sufficient to suggest that the government acted improperly", it also clarified that this "conclusion is based on a characterization of the evidence in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, but does not reflect or constitute any finding by the court."

Other

In his book Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror, Peter Lance wrote that TWA 800 was blown up by a bomb intended to disrupt the trial of terrorist Ramzi Yousef, the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and planner of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Lance claimed that the FBI had prior knowledge of this plot from a prison informant, but did not act on it.

Notable victims

Some of the notable passengers on TWA 800 included:

• David Hogan, American composer.
• Marcel Dadi, French guitarist.
• Rico Puhlmann, German fashion photographer.
• Sylvain Delange, French artist.
• Mohammed Samir Ferrat, Algerian businessman.
• Dan Gabor, University of Arkansas All-American track athlete.
• Jed Johnson, interior designer and director of the 1977 movie Andy Warhol's Bad.
• Michel Breistroff, French hockey player.
• Wayne Shorter's wife, Ana Maria Shorter, and niece Dalila Lucien.

In addition, 16 members of the French club at Montoursville High School in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, and their five chaperones were on-board.

TWA 800 in the media

• The incident was used as the basis for the 2000 horror movie Final Destination.
• CNN produced a two-hour documentary on the crash titled No Survivors: Why TWA 800 Could Happen Again.
• Nelson DeMille wrote a fictional novel; "Night Fall," regarding the events surrounding TWA 800. In the novel, a couple conducting an illicit affair on the beach inadvertently capture the disaster on video.
• The crash was the subject of an episode of the documentary series Seconds From Disaster.
• The incident was used as the inspiration for "Dee's Heaven," one of the stories in the first issue of a comic book entitled Serina, Blade of the Pharaoh.
• The DC Comics character Stargirl, previously the second Star-Spangled Kid, was created by Geoff Johns, who is said to have based her personality on that of his sister Courtney Johns who died in the explosion.
• Flight 800 was the subject of the premiere episode of Best Evidence, a documentary show on Discovery Channel.
• Sean Hannity ran an investigative piece on the incident on Hannity's America, on July 29, 2007. Hannity backed the conclusion reached by the NTSB investigators.
• The aircraft (N396119) appears mid-way through the film 9 to 5 when a nosy assistant is sent to a foreign-language school.

External links

• NTSB TWA 800 Board Meeting
• Photos of N93119 at Airliners.net

40°39′1″N 72°38′0″W