On July 17, 1996, TWA flight 800 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City carrying 212 passengers and 12 flight crew. As the Boeing 747-100 climbed in altitude and turned towards its destination of Paris, the plane exploded just off the shore of East Moriches, New York, killing everyone on board.
A number of witnesses at the time claimed that they had seen something like a missile or flare strike the plane just before it exploded. The National Transportation and Safety Board and FBI recovered as much of the plane as possible and investigated what happened to determine the cause. The FBI notified the CIA immediately about the witness accounts, but after 8 months of investigations, the CIA Deputy Director issued a report that said:
"Our analysis demonstrates that the eyewitness sightings of greatest concern to us—the ones originally interpreted to be of a possible missile attack—took place after the first of several explosions aboard the aircraft."Four years later, the NTSB declared that the faulty wiring had caused a spark in the central fuel tank causing the explosion and deaths of all 230 passengers and crew.
However, it appears that there may been a massive cover up in what really happened to the plane and passengers. A documentary will air in July that will provide evidence that the 747 was shot down intentionally and that the government covered this up from the general public.
Six former investigators have now come forward to not only help with the documentary, but to request that a new investigation be launched. Waiting until after they retired, the investigators are now coming forward to try to help tell the real story of what took place off the Atlantic coast.
They claim that there were 755 people who witnessed what happened and that the FBI had interviewed them all, but did not share what they learned with the NTSB investigators. Tom Stalcup, co-producer of the documentary, says that they have radar and forensic evidence that proves that there was at least one, possibly more, ordinances that exploded outside the 747 that caused the crashed.
Six years after the crash, a military pilot spoke about what he witnessed at the time of the crash.
One of the original investigators, Tim Speer, is not testifying that he discovered holes in the wreckage that were consistent with a high energy blast in the right wing. He had those areas tested for any evidence of explosive residue and the tests came back positive. When the tests arrived, Speer claims that 2 CIA agents instantly removed him from the room.
From what I’ve seen and read, I’m not sure what to believe. First off, if it had been an act of terrorism, why didn’t anyone take responsibility for it? That just doesn’t make sense that no one has said hey, we did this and there’s more coming. But then how do you discount all of the credible reports from dozens and dozens of witnesses, including the military pilot who swear they saw something rise from the ground and strike the plane BEFORE it exploded?
If the 747 was shot down, why was it covered up? This was during the administration of Bill Clinton who didn’t seem to want to do much of anything that didn’t involve female interns in the Oval Office. Was he afraid of getting the US involved in a war that would hurt his popularity?
There are a lot of questions surrounding TWA flight 800 and I’m anxiously awaiting the chance to see the documentary. But realistically in today’s world of lies, deception and cover ups, we’ll probably never know for certain what really happened and why those 230 people died such a horrible and tragic death.
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