xxx

Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts was on the Monday night edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews. He was ticking off a list of past terrorist attacks including the USS Cole, Oklahoma City, etc. and slipped in TWA flight 800. It may have been a slip of the tongue and Chris Matthews didn't call him on it. There is an ever-growing opinion that TWA 800 was shot down by a heat-seeking missle and that the U.S. government is aware that it is as plausable as a fuel tank explosion, but didn't want to alarm the flying public at the time.

DoubtingThomas

Opinion is not FACT. Show me the hard evidence.

xxx

Check out the thread called "Could there be a connection?" I'll try to pull it up for you.

DT

I have read that thread---STILL NO HARD EVIDENCE!!! Show me hard evidence you moron or shut the hell up!!!!

evidence

Evidence? It was blown up with the plane over the Atlantic ocean. Didn't you know?

xxx

This is the xxx who just topped the Connection thread.

DoubtingThomas, if this idea bothers you, sonny, run along. Someone asked about it, and I am happy to provide the theory.

GoAway

They have recovered most of the plane, they can tell from the recovered parts if indeed a bomb did go off. There has been no evidence to suggest this happened.

You conspiracy therorists need to get a life and quit posting your inane tripe here!

DT

xxx-YOU are a NUTCASE!!! GO GET SOME THERAPY! BTW, this is not a debate board for your silly ideas.....

GFY

Next you weirdos are going to say JFK Jr. plane crash was the work of terrorists....

Ive

GFY: YOU MEAN IT WASN'T???

xxx

Face it. We will never, ever know what brought TWA 800 down. Even the investigators disagreed about it at the time, and some wanted the final report to declare the cause as "unknown". There was resistance to this, because the NTSB almost always gets to the bottom of crashes, and I think there have only been a few major crashes where they had to admit they couldn't determine the cause. (One, I think, is a Pennsylvania crash where the plane just did a spectacular spiral dive right into the ground, and they have no idea to this day why the rudder froze in that postion).

Just because they investigated TWA 800 thoroughly does not mean they found the true cause. Just because they declared a cause does not mean they identified the correct cause.

If you don't want to even try to wrap your mind about these issues, no one is forcing you to, you know.

Monique

I don't think your a quack at all. I am not a real big conspiracy theorist at all but I have read everything I could get my hands on about TWA 800 due to the fact that I was on that same flight 6 weeks before the crash. They thought that an explosion occured inside the center fuel tank. HOWEVER, in test after test trying to simulate the exact thing they NEVER could get a spark going big enough to ignite the center fuel tank. There were some agents speaking off the record that there was some small trace residue on one of the seatbacks in the row nearest the center fuel tank. This was also refuted ON the record bye Halstrom. Not sure what the real story is. But it does make you wonder.
Also I wonder what was the real story behind Egypt Air? Didn't the pilot go down screaming something about Allah? I know they said it was suicide and I don't doubt that at all. But I wonder if it wasn't for some larger reason?

AAAA

Where the heck are the fuel tanks on a jet? Are they really under the passenger compartment? I always thought they were on the wings, in which case, I don't understand how there can be a center fuel tank. Does anyone know?

L

A valauabe resource to the TWA 800 issues, such as center fuel tanks, is at the NTSB website. Take a look a third report on likely causation. Just a thought: I haven't seen evidence to support the view there is any type of growing opinion poitning toward an errant missile theory. Secondly, what hard evidence did Pierre Salinger in France release to back up his claims that a Navy missile downed the plane? I don't recall his claims going very far. Ciao

bubba

Hmmmm-cars have gas tanks and some times they have explsosions. I wonder if there's not a connection? Hey, I have a moped w/ a gas tank! I wonder........

john

Check out references to the John Kerry remark at twa800.com.

L

Suggest accessing www.ntsb.gov, and click on major investigations. TWA FL 800 and EgyptAir FL 990 are there. The TWA 747 had a center wing fuel tank, not a center tank under the passenger compartment. NTSB concluded there was an ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in that tank, but was never able to conclusively identfy an ignition source. Theories about sources were offered by NTSB investigators. You might wish to revisit the final reports. Here in DC, BTW, NTSB has a pretty solid reputation for making independent judgments, letting the chips fall where they may. Ciao

Roger

I'm no paranoid but there is an oddity in TWA 800 that puzzles me. When the plane blew up, the front of the plane traveled at a higher rate of speed than it was traveling before the explosion. This was with an obviously open fuselage, a condition which should have slowed down the plane. For what it's worth.

Cindy

Here is the alleged cause of the TWA 800 straight off the NTSB website abstract:

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the TWA flight 800 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."

They admit they don't know why the fuel tank exploded.

Cindy

Roger, why do you say the front of the plane traveled faster following the explosion? I never heard that before.

L, if the NTSB doesn't know why the fuel tank exploded, then how can we rule out sabotage?