posted 07-14-2002 05:34 PM               

TWA Flight 800 Memorial Unveiled

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHIRLEY, N.Y.- Relatives and friends of the 230 people killed in the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 met on a wind-whipped bluff Sunday to dedicate a permanent memorial to the victims.

"I hope this special day finds you a little stronger, a little happier, a little more secure in the faith that those who live on in our hearts are never truly gone," Gov. George Pataki told the hundreds gathered at Smith Point Park on Long Island's south shore.

The bluff is the nearest point of land to where the plane went down July 17, 1996, and overlooks a beach where debris washed ashore. The black granite memorial, designed by architect David Busch, has a gray wave and 230 gray doves on one side and the names of the victims inscribed on the other.

"It brings back some memories - not easy ones, but the ones I don't want to forget," said Burt James, 45, whose niece, Rebecca Olsen, 20, of Macon, Ga., died in the crash.

The Paris-bound Boeing 747 exploded in a fireball at 13,700 feet, minutes after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled two years ago that an explosion in the center fuel tank caused the aircraft to disintegrate in flight.

posted 07-17-2002 12:09 AM               

Clinton's remarks about the tragedy

Remarks made by President Clinton about last night's jetliner crash.

President Clinton: I'd like to say a few words about the crash last night. First, on behalf of the American people I want to say to the families of the passengers of Flight 100 we are well aware that only the passage of time, the love of your family, and faith in God can ease your pain. But America stands with you. Our thoughts, our prayers have been with you through the night, and they will be with you in the days to come.

Our government is doing everything we can to continue the search for survivors and to find out the causes of this accident. Chief of Staff Leon Panetta has just met in the White House situation room with all the agencies involved and has finished briefing me on our response. I have asked him to ensure that our response will continue to be prompt, effective, and comprehensive.

Right now, the Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA, and the FBI are on the scene of the crash. As of now, no survivors have been found. Hundreds of rescue personnel rushed to help in pitch dark, lit only by the flames of burning wreckage. And I want to thank them for their brave work in these treacherous waters on behalf of the people who were on that flight.

We do not know what caused this tragedy. I want to say that again: we do not know as of this moment what caused this tragedy. We are beginning the painstaking process of piecing together what happened. Additional briefings to provide the latest details of what is being done will be coordinated by the Department of Transportation and will be given to you on a regular basis. We will determine what happened. But for now I want to caution again the American people against jumping to any conclusions and ask that today overwhelmingly our people remember the families of the people who were on that flight in their prayers. Thank you very much.

Q: Are you worried...any terrorism?

Q: Are you doing anything further - are you doing anything further on airlines - on the issue of airline safety? Are you ordering any steps today, any action that you think might be warranted?

A: I want to wait, first of all, until we at least get further along in this investigation. I think we need to focus on this investigation now.

Q: Are you worried, sir, that there is some kind of increase in terrorism in this country now? And what are you doing to try to get at least in a position to combat that, if it is the reason for this crash?

A: Well, we are doing a number of things continuously to try to continue to upgrade the safety of our infrastructure and the - the ability of the United States to protect itself from terrorism. That's one of the reasons I pushed so hard for the anti-terrorism legislation. But I want to caution the American people, we have no evidence - we have no evidence - on this flight yet that would indicate the cause of the accident. And I want to remind you that when we had the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma City, a lot of people immediately concluded that this must have been done by some force outside our country, and it appears that that was not the case now. So let's wait until we see the evidence. We are working hard on this. I just spoke with Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki, who are most concerned right now with the victims and seeing that the families get notified quickly, and we're working on that with them. But they said that they were quite confident that the - the federal people who were on the ground were doing everything they could. They are very, very good at piecing these things together, and we need to let them do their work, and not jump to any conclusions.

Q: Mayor Giuliani was quite critical of the management of TWA, Mr. President...

Q: Mr. President, how would characterize -

A: One at a time.

Q: How would you characterize the various phone calls of individuals claiming so-called responsibility that have come into various news organizations and authority - law enforcement authorities?

A: Well, I wouldn't characterize them yet. Again, it's hard to know. You know, sometimes such calls are accurate; sometimes such calls are attempting to ride along on a tragedy. And therefore, I believe we should wait for the evidence. We will find out what happened. Let's wait for the evidence.

Q: Mr. President, Mayor Giuliani was quite critical of the senior management of TWA, which he said was inadequately staffing the situation there last night. He praised the federal effort. Have you guys had indication that the airline is not doing all it could, or have you spoken with the airline...have the federal authorities spoken with the airline about...

A: Well, let me say, last night - I stayed up till a little past midnight last night, but I was depending more on you-all than anything else once I got my preliminary reports.

And then this morning I've been more concerned with making sure that we were doing our job. So, this issue with TWA and the notification of families has just been presented to me. We will do what we can. I can't believe the airline doesn't want to do the right thing. They may be - you know, everybody when something like this happens may be a little bit in shock in the moment. We'll look into that and see whether there's anything we can do. But I have no - again, the main thing I want to say to the American people today is we are working overtime on this. Do not jump to conclusions. Let's wait till we get the facts. And let's remember the families.

Thank you.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/crash/ncrash19.htm

___________________________________________________________________

July 20, 1996

President's address on the Flight 800 disaster

The text of President Clinton's radio address to the nation, recorded in Atlanta, Ga.:

This week the tragedy involving TWA Flight 800 took the lives of 230 people. Hillary and I join all our nation in sending their families and friends our deepest condolences and prayers. We are doing all we can to find the cause of this disaster, and we will find what caused it.

Sixteen of the victims were young high school students from a small town in Pennsylvania, flying to Paris to see some of the world and work on their French. By setting off to expand their horizons and seeking newer knowledge, these students were trying to live up to their God-given potential. Now, that's all we can ask of any of our children.

So let us remember the dream these children shared - the dream of making the most of their own lives. As a nation, we should dedicate ourselves to encouraging all our young people to think that way, and to making sure that they all have the opportunity to live up to their dreams. Our children have many different strengths and talents and abilities, but every child can achieve something, and together, in so doing, they can all secure a brighter future for America.

That's the lesson we saw come to life so vividly yesterday in Atlanta at the opening of the Centennial Olympic Games. In the next two weeks we'll see and celebrate the heroic efforts and achievements of young Americans who have worked a lifetime to reach their highest potential and make their dreams come true. Our athletes will push the limits of the human body and the human spirit. In doing that, they will inspire people of all ages, but I hope young people especially will learn from their example.

For whether in sports or in everyday life, there's a lesson in what our Olympians have accomplished and in how they've done it. For these are people who were given an opportunity to succeed, but they also made the most of it. They took personal responsibility and did the hard work. For some, it's meant waking up before dawn to run or swim laps, or to practice routines on the balance beam. For others, the going was even tougher.

I'll never forget the day that Carla McGhee came to the White House to carry away the Olympic torch to continue its path to Atlanta. Carla was terribly injured in a car accident. It seemed to end her brilliant basketball career. But she came back against all the odds. And now she's playing for our Olympic women's basketball team. She did something no one else could do for her; she didn't give up.

But we also know that every one of our Olympians, in addition to their personal achievements, are a part of a larger community. They are of many different races and creeds and cultures, but they're bound together in mutual respect and shared values. For even in individual sports, no one wins alone. Back there somewhere there's always a lifetime of support from family and friends, from coaches and fans, from teachers and role models. So whenever the Star-Spangled Banner is played and a Gold Medal is being hung around an athlete's neck, you can be sure that the triumph is shared by a larger community.

We're all better off when we work together to help each other realize our dreams, to meet our challenges and to protect our values. These games really remind us that for all our differences and all of our American rugged individualism, we are still one American community. We cheer our athletes not because they're men or women, not because of the color of their skins, sometimes not even because we particularly understand every last aspect of the sport they're involved in. We keep cheering them because they're Americans.

These Olympics are about what's right with America. And Atlanta's magnificent effort at hosting the Olympics is about what's right with America. There are some other things that I believe reflect what's right with America at the Olympics. For example, this year 197 nations have teams, and these teams include places that the United States has helped to move toward peace and freedom. And even in places where the work of peace and freedom is not yet finished, at least there's been enough progress for an Olympic team to emerge.

Yesterday I met a young man from Croatia who thanked me for the work that we were doing to try to rebuild that war-torn region. And I couldn't help thinking about Secretary Ron Brown and the business leaders who literally gave their lives as Americans to bring peace to the Croatians. Bosnia now has a team coming back here, something that was unthinkable four years ago. Haiti has a team here. South Africa. I met one of the Irish athletes who thanked me for America's efforts on behalf of peace and asked me to do everything I could to bring the peace back. And I met a Palestinian who said to me, "Mr. President, Palestinians are a very old people, but we never had an Olympic team before. Thank you and the United States for helping to bring peace in our area, and please keep working on it."

All these people in their own way reflect something that's good about America. In many other countries there are athletes who studied and competed and got a good education in the United States. We gave them an opportunity to make the most of their own lives, and now they're giving something back to their native lands. They, too, reflect what's right with America.

And most important of all, there are the members of our Olympic team. We will cheer for them when they win, and we'll cry with them when they don't. But we'll always be proud of them. For they are living examples of what dreamers can do with peace and freedom, with opportunity and responsibility, with a commitment to a community coming together, not drifting apart.

They will show America at its best on the world stage. And we are very, very proud of them. We wish them all the best. Thanks for listening.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/radio/nrad015.htm

__________________________________________________________________

Passengers may have prepared for crash, boaters say

EAST MORICHES, N.Y. - First came the smell of smoke. Then flames from the wreckage were visible miles away as boaters responded to the Coast Guard's call for help in searching for possible survivors from TWA Flight 800.

Racing over the glassy black water on a calm, dark night, Brian Kelly's boat was one of the first on the scene after the Boeing 747 bound for Paris exploded and plunged into the ocean off the Long Island coast.

Minutes later, more than 100 boats formed a circle around the flames, which burned over a large area and jumped 15 feet into the air.

"It became very real when we saw the boat right next to us pull out that first body. It was a lady with a white skirt," said Kelly, 34, of Sayville. "She had no shoes on."

All 228 on board were presumed killed.

Nauseated from the fumes, Kelly, his brother Leo and friend Jimmy Vaccaro peered over the oily water with a hand-held flashlight, watching suitcases, papers, tray tables and other debris float by.

Then, a moment of hope: a yellow TWA life jacket bobbed nearby with its emergency beacon flashing. "We really thought someone was in it, " said Vaccaro, who hooked it into the boat. The jacket was empty. But it was inflated and buckled, suggesting the passengers had time to prepare for a crash.

"These things don't light and inflate by themselves - you have to pull on it or blow through the tube," said Vaccaro.

But the Coast Guard said none of the bodies recovered wore life preservers, suggesting that the explosion did come without warning.

The trio in the Kelly boat stayed on the scene until their fuel ran low, giving water and other supplies to authorities. "The police out there were welcoming anybody and everybody," Kelly said.

Gary and Rick Hinrichs wanted to help, to offset the nightmare somehow. So they, too, boarded their tiny fishing boat, tossed in 10 extra life vests and set off into the darkness.

"We thought maybe, just maybe, we could pull somebody aboard," said Rick Hinrichs, an elementary school physical education teacher from nearby Manorville. "We found out pretty quickly that we couldn't," he said. After five hours of feeling the water slap his face, "all we could do was watch."

Hours later, police reversed themselves and asked private boaters to leave the crash site and stop touching potential evidence.

One large piece of the jet, a section of a wing that floated and burned for hours, was visible, said Ralph Lettieri, a firefighter who raced out in his own boat with two other firefighters. "You couldn't tell it's a plane," Lettieri said. "You got fishing boats with outriggers out there, and they've got their nets out, trying to pick up body parts." Vaccaro said: "You just can't comprehend it.

All these people just two hours before were sitting back on the plane, reading, getting into their trip, and all of a sudden it's over. "The emotional part hits me now," he said.

"Out there it was denial. But now, Oh, God..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/crash/ncrash11.htm

_________________________________________________________________

Positive identifications of Flight 800 victims

The Suffolk County medical examiner has released the following names of 207 victims positively identified from TWA Flight 800. The medical examiner's office is withholding one name at the family's request.

Aikens-Bellamy, Sandra, New York
Aikey, Jessica, Montoursville, Pa.
Alex, Christian, France
Allen, Otis Lamar, Marietta, Ga.
Amlund, Svein, Norway
Anderson, Jule, Warson Woods, Mo.
Anderson, Patricia, St. Louis
Anderson, Seana Michele, no address given
Babb, David, Volant, Pa.
Baszczewski, Daniel, Montoursville, Pa.
Bellazoug, Myriam, Paris
Beatty, Charles, Spotsylvania, Va.
Becker, Michelle, Atlanta
Berthe, Line, Belleville, France
Berthe, Maurice, Belleville, France
Bluestone, Nicholas, Pound Ridge, N.Y.
Bohlin, Michelle, Montoursville, Pa.
Bossuyt, Luc, Trumbull, Conn.
Bouhs, Leonie, France
Bower, Jordan, Montoursville, Pa.
Braman, Rosemary, Hoboken, N.J.
Breistroff, Michel, France.
Brooks, Edwin, Edgartown, Mass.
Brooks, Ruth, Edgartown, Mass.
Buttaroni, Mirco, Italy
Caillaud, Anthony, Cerizay, France
Caillaud, Daniel, Deux Sevres, France
Callas, Daniel, Philadelphia
Campbell, Richard, Ridgefield, Conn.
Carven, Paula, BelAir, Md.
Cayrol, Jacques, Montpellier, France
Chaillou, Jenny, France
Chanson, Ludovic, France
Charbonnier, Jacques, Northport, N.Y.
Chemtob, Monique, Los Angeles
Christopher, Janet, Brodheadsville, Pa.
Coiner, Constance, Binghamton, N.Y.
Cox, Monica, Montoursville, Pa.
Crandell, Pamela, Tracy Landing, Md.
Cremades, Daniel, France.
Dadi, Marcel, France
D'Alessandro, Anna, Colle Bar, Italy
D'Humieres, Dominiques, LePlessis, France
Darley, Francois, Grenoble, France
DeBoisredon, Cybele, Bordeaux, France
DeLange, Sylvain, Paris
DeLouvriere, Judith, New York
Dickey, Deborah, Williamsport, Pa.
Dickey, Douglas, Williamsport, Pa.
Diiorio, Christine, Prato, Italy
Diiorio, Pietro, Prato, Italy
DiLuccio, Debra, Italy
Dodge, Warren, Ashland, Mass., and Brentwood, N.H.
Duarte-Coiner, Ana, Binghamton, N.Y.
Dupont, Guy, France
Dwyer, Larkyn, New River, Ariz.
Edwards, Daryl, Jersey City, N.J.
Ellison, Marie, Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Ersoz, Clara, Pittsburgh
Ersoz, Namik, Pittsburgh
Eshleman, Douglas, Aurora, Colo.
Estival, Alexandre, France
Feeney, Diedre, New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Feeney, Kathleen, New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Ferrat, Mohammad, Ivory Coast.
Foster, Rod (Charles), Sherman, Conn.
Foulon, Didier, France
Fry, Carol, Mountoursville, Pa.
Furlano, Rosaria Pares, France
Gabor, Daniel, Fayetteville, Ark.
Gaetke, Daniel, Kansas City, Mo.
Gaetke, Stephanie, Kansas City, Mo.
Gallagher, Claire, Montoursville, Pa.
Gasq, Francis, Palm Harbor, Fla.
Gasq, Clair, France
Gough, Analei-Raili, Finland.
Gough, Donald, Incline Village, Nev., and Mill Valley, Calif.
Graham, Steven, Napa, Calif.
Gray III, Charles, Little Rock, Ark.
Greene, Renee, North Woodmere, N.Y.
Griffith, Donna, Westhampton, N.Y.
Griffith, Joanne, New York
Grimm, Julia, Montoursville, Pa.
Grivet, Cyril, Menlo Park, Calif.
Gustin, Anne, Tampa, Fla.
Hammer, Beverly, Long Beach, N.Y.
Hammer, Traci, Long Beach, N.Y.
Hansen, Lars, Norway
Harris, Chelsea, New York
Harris, Lawrence, New York
Haurani, Ghassen, Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.
Haurani, Nina, Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.
Hazelton, Sandra, Beachwood, Ohio
Hettler, Rance, Montoursville, Pa.
Hill, Susan, Portland, Ore.
Hochard, Jean Pierre, France
Hogan, David, Lafayette, Calif.
Holst, Eric, Manorville, N.Y.
Holst, Virginia, Manorville, N.Y.
Hull, James, Hatboro, Pa.
Ingenhuett, Lonnie, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Jacquemot, Benoit, France
Jensen, Suzanne, Greenwich, Conn.
Johns, Courtney, Clarkston, Mich.
Johnsen, Arlene, Grand Junction, Colo.
Johnson, Eleanor, Springfield, Va.
Johnson, Jed, New York
Jones, Ramona, West Hartford, Conn.
Karschner, Amanda, Montoursville, Pa.
Kevorkian, Richard, Garden Grove, Calif.
Krick, Oliver, St. Louis
Krikhan, Margot, Brookfield, Conn.
Krukar, Andrew, Bridgewater, Conn.
Kwan, Barbara, Scotsdale, Ariz.
Kwiat, Kimberly, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Kwiat, Patricia, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Labys, Jane, Morgantown, W.Va.
Lacailledesse, Antoine, France
LaForge, Alain, Hermelinghen, France
Lamour, Yvon, France
Lang, Raymond, Tafton, Pa.
Lockhart, Maureen, Merriam, Kan.
Loffredo, Elaine, Glastonburg, Conn.
Lohan, Britta, Barcelona, Spain
Loo, Patricia, Springfield, N.J.
Loudenslager, Jody, Trout Run, Pa.
Lucien, Dalila, no address given
Luevano, Jr., Elias, Albuquerque, N.M.
Lychner, Katherine, Houston
Lychner, Pamela, Houston
Lychner, Shannon, Houston
Manchuelle, Francois, New York
Maresq, Etienne, Planquary, France
Maresq, Nicholas, France
Martin, Betty Ruth, Belleville, Ill.
Mazzola, Salvatore, Italy
McPherson, Pamela Cobb, New York
Meade, Sandra, Camano Island, Wash.
Melotin, Grace, Jupiter, Fla.
Merieux, Rudolphe, Lyon, France
Michel, Pascal, Montpellier, France
Miller, Amy, Andreas, Pa.
Miller, Elizabeth, Tenafly, N.J.
Miller, Gideon, Sarasota, Fla.
Miller, Joan, Fairfield, Conn.
Miller, Kyle, Andres, Pa.
Miller, Robert, Tenafly, N.J.
Nelson, Alecia, New York
Nelson, Twyla, New York
Nibert, Cheryl, Montoursville, Pa.
Notes, Gadi, New York
Olsen, Rebecca, Macon, Ga.
O'Hara, John, Irvington, N.Y.
Omiccioli, Monica, Italy
Orman, Alan, New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Ostachiewicz, Elsie, New York
Paquet, Hugette, France
Paquet, Ingrid, France
Pares, Serges, New Haven, Conn.
Penzer, Judy, Lawrence, N.Y.
Percy, Marion, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Pohlman, Rico, New York
Price, Peggy, Englewood, Colo.
Privette, Brenda, Stevenson, Ala.
Puichard, Elizabeth, France
Remy, Jacqueline, France
Rhein, Kirk (Clyde), Darien, Conn.
Rhoads, Harry, Bellevue, Wash.
Rhoads, Marit, Bellevue, Wash.
Richter, Noemie, Brousse, France
Richter, Annelyse, France
Rio, Celine, France
Rogers, Kim, Montoursville, Pa.
Rojany, Yon, New York
Romagna, Barbara, Sun City, Fla.
Rupert, Judith, Montoursville, Pa.
Schuldt, Michael, Safety Harbor, Fla.
Scott, Barbara, Stevenson, Ala.
Scott, Joseph, Stevenson, Ala.
Scott, Michael, Stevenson, Ala.
Shorter, Ana Marie, Los Angeles
Siebert, Brenna, Holts Summit, Mo.
Siebert, Chrisha, Kansas City, Mo.
Silverman, Candice, Los Angeles
Silverman, Jaime, Los Angeles
Silverman, Marietta, Los Angeles
Simmons, Olivia, Orange, N.J.
Skojold, Kristina, Sweden
Snyder, Steven, Stratford, Conn.
Straus, Carin, Paris
Teang, Lydie, France
Teang, Rachama-Chan, France
Thiery, Josette, France
Tofani, Mauro, Prato, Italy
Torche, Melinda, Mission Viejo, Calif.
Uzupis, Larissa, Montoursville, Pa.
Van Epps, Lois, New York
Verhaeghe, Rick, Goldsboro, N.C.
Von Hedrich, Joseph, Bel Air, Md.
Warren, Lani, San Diego
Watson, Jacqueline, Montoursville, Pa.
Watson, Jill, Pittsburgh
Weatherby, Thomas, Stevenson, Ala.
Weaver, Monica, Montoursville, Pa.
Windmiller, Ruben, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Wolfson, Eleanor, Williamsport, Pa.
Wolfson, Wendy, Williamsport, Pa.
Wolters, Bonnie, New York
Ziemkiewicz, Jill, Rutherford, N.J.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/crash/ncrash08.htm

posted 07-17-2002 12:58 AM               

Air Traffic Control transcript of the July 17, 1996 accident of TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 off New York.

Source: Air Safety Week January 19, 1998 (p.6) Legenda:

BOS = Boston Center
E507 = Eastwing Flight 507
AZA609 = Alitalia Flight 609
VIR009 = Virgin Atlantic Flight 009
UAL002 = United Air Lines Flight 2

8:31:50 E507 We just saw an explosion out here; stinger bee five oh seven.

8:31:57 BOS Stinger bee five oh seven, I'm sorry I missed it, ah, you're out fo eighteen did you say something else?

8:32:01 E507 Ah, we just saw an explosion up ahead of us here, about sixteen thousand feet or something like that; it just went down -- in the water.

8:32:10 AZA609 Alitalia six oh nine confirms just ahead of us.

8:32:25 VIR009 Boston, Virgin zero zero nine, I can confirm that out of my nine o'clock position, we just had an ... it looked like an explosion out there about five miles away, six miles away.

8:32:49 BOS An explosion six miles out at your nine o'clock position. Thank you very much sir. Contact New York approach one two five point seven.

8:32:56 BOS TWA eight hundred center

8:33:01 ? Investigate that explosion if you get a lat/long

8:33:04 BOS TWA eight hundred center

8:33:09 BOS TWA eight hundred, if you hear center, ident.

8:33:17 BOS Stinger bee five oh seven, you reported an explosion is that correct sir?

8:33:21 E507 Yes sir, about five miles at my eleven o'clock here.

8:33:31 BOS Alitalia six oh nine, contact Boston now on one two four point five two.

8:33:36 AZA609 One two four point five two and just for your information sir, we are just overhead the explosion; right overhead at this time, now a hundred and three miles from JFK.

8:33:48 E507 We are directly over the site woth that airplane or whatever it was just exploded and went down into the water.

8:34:01 BOS Roger that, thank you very much sir. We're investigating that right now. TWA eight zero zero if you hear center, ident.

8:35:43 ? I think that was him.

8:35:45 BOS I think so.

8:35:48 ? God bless him.

8:37:05 E507 Thirty three oh five, so long, stinger five oh seven. Anything we can do for ya before we go?

8:37:11 BOS Well, I just wanna confirm that you saw the splash in the water approximately twenty southwest of Hampton, is that right?

8:37:20 E507 Ah, yes sir. it just blew up in the air and then we saw two fireballs go down into the water and there was a big small, ah, smoke, ah, coming up from that also, ah, there seemed to be a light. I thought it was a landing light and it was coming right at us at about, I don't know, about fifteen thousand feet or something like that and I pushed on my landing lights, ah, you know, so I saw him and then it blew.

8:37:40 BOS Roger that sir, that was a seven forty seven out there; you had a visual on that; anything else in the area when it happened?

8:37:47 E507 I didn't see anything. he seemed to be alone. I thought it had a landing light on, maybe it was a fire, i don't know.

8:37:51 BOS Stinger bee five oh seven, roger that and anything else comes to your mind, you can use your other radio; come back to this frequency and tell me about it.

8:37:58 E507 That's all I can think of at this time.

8:38:06 BOS United two, Boston on one two four point five two.

8:38:08 UAL002 One tow four five two, and is that airplane right in front of us now?

8:38:12 BOS He should be right underneath you, they reported the splashdown right underneath you about, ah, twelve and four miles.

8:38:18 UAL002 It's still burning down there.

8:38:20 BOS In the water?

8:38:21 UAL002 Well there's bright red and there's smoke coming up ... there's fire with smoke.

8:38:30 BOS Fire with smoke coming out of the water?

8:38:32 UAL002 Right at our position right now; I can give you a lat/long if you want.

8:38:35 BOS Absolutely, thank you.

8:38:44 UAL002 It's ah, forty thirty nine point one west zero seven two three eight point zero.

8:38:51 BOS Allright, we got forty thirty nine point one west zero seven two three eight point zero.

posted 07-18-2002 06:10 PM               

A GENTLE RAIN OF FLOWERS

Where are you now my little one?
My darling little one
I've looked high and low and all around
But not a glimpse and not a sound
I'll grant you just cannot be found
My darling little one

But now it's time for games to end
This hide-and-seek is done
Did you not hear me say you've won?
Didn't I?

There'll be lots more times when we'll have fun
When you can play and you can run
With Dad and Mom and your friends, Hon'
Won't there be?

Where are you now my little one?
My darling little one
Daddy's getting worried now
Up in your bedroom waiting
Bed's all fresh and made up nice
Stuffed animals wait expectantly
And by the light on your nightstand
Your picture --- smiling up at me

Where are you now my little one?
My darling little one
For bedtime now we'll have to rush
--But not a sound
Just gentle hush Of night.
It seems always now to be night
For night is when you left me
And I am stuck in nighttime

But wait now! Someone's called.
They said that you've gone off to Paradise
With lots of friends. With other boys and girls.

With Mommy's and Daddy's. With sisters and brothers.

And aunts and uncles and grandparents, too.
With doctors and lawyers and engineers and captains.

With many, many good and nice folk. Good people like you.

None can hurt you now
(Nor others while we watch)
You are forever blessed
But those who struck, cruel evil hand
Will never find their rest.

Now I understand where you went
But why? I cannot yet
I still must wait for you here
Daddy misses you soooo much
But Daddy has work he still needs to do
He's trying to finish it just as fast as he can

Then my darling
Daddy's coming there to be with you again
To be with you for all of time
Goodnight...

posted 09-25-2002 01:39 AM               

The Crash of TWA Flight 800

- Part I -

by Ian Williams Goddard

On July 17, 1996, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 suddenly exploded off Long Island, killing all 230 people on board. A few days later ABC News reported that investigators had more than 100 eyewitness accounts that indicated Flight 800 was shot down by a missile. [1] The New York Post reported: "More than 150 'credible' witnesses -- including several scientists -- have told the FBI and military experts they saw a missile destroy TWA Flight 800." [2]

{continued here} http://www.megafoundation.org/Ubiquity/Winter01/PartOne.htm

__________________________________________________________________

The Crash of TWA Flight 800

- Part II -

Witness sketches contradict officials

by Ian Williams Goddard

Within a year of the crash of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996, this author reported that eyewitnesses accounts indicate that a missile-like projectile heading toward the crash followed a southbound trajectory, contrary to the jet's northeast flight path. Nevertheless, federal officials concluded that the projectile was Flight 800 itself because its course was allegedly consistent with the jet's flight path. At the NTSB's final public hearing on the crash, the government's eyewitness investigator David Mayer concluded:

{continued here} http://www.ultrahiq.net/Ubiquity/SprUbiq01/PartII/PartII.htm
___________________________________________________________________

The Crash of TWA Flight 800

- Part III -

by Ian Williams Goddard

Examination of witness reports of a missile streaking toward the TWA Flight 800 crash requires a broad view encompassing not only the crash but the area around it and other air-crash investigations as well. As we shall observe, federal officials have determined probable cause in other air-crashes based entirely on witness testimony, even when it was not supported by physical evidence. Yet officials applied a different standard to the Flight 800 missile theory. But first, let us examine the crash area over time.

posted 09-25-2002 10:06 AM               

FAA to order checks of Boeing tank pumps

Wed Sep 25, 7:24 AM ET

Alan Levin USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration plans within days to order inspections of fuel tank pumps on about 3,300 Boeing jets worldwide.

The order is not expected to ground any aircraft or reduce service.

The models that have the fuel pumps: all 747s, all 757s and nearly 1,200 737s produced since the 1990s. The order will apply to 1,441 jets flown by U.S. carriers.

The inspection program is seen as a precaution to reduce the risk that a spark could occur in a fuel tank and cause an explosion, officials said Tuesday night.

Chafed wires have been found on two pumps in recent weeks.An explosion in a fuel tank caused TWA Flight 800 to break apart off New York on July 17, 1996. The accident killed 230 people.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have never determined what caused the explosion, but regulators have taken numerous steps since then to reduce the chance of fuel pump wires causing sparks.

Last week, Boeing instructed airlines flying the three models to put extra fuel in the tanks. Fuel pump wires that are submerged cannot spark in the absence of air.

Officials at the FAA and at Boeing said there was no risk to safety if airlines added fuel to the center tanks, which are more vulnerable to explosions than other fuel tanks.

Even so, explosions in center fuel tanks are extremely rare.In addition to the explosion aboard TWA Flight 800's center tank, federal safety investigators have blamed center tank explosions for the destruction of two jets in Asia.

Airlines will be able to resume normal operations after performing inspections that take two hours on each jet. To ensure that wiring in the pumps is safe, airlines will have to X-ray all pumps on those models.

The inspections result from a smaller inspection program that was announced Aug. 30. At that time, the FAA announced that 118 jets worldwide would be inspected because a new pump model that Boeing began installing on jets last October could have been incorrectly wired.

The wiring problem could heighten the risk that wires could chafe and then spark.

After that order, Boeing, working with the pump supplier, Hydro-Aire, discovered two instances in which earlier pump models might also have suffered from the same problem, Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said.

''Boeing is working closely with the supplier and the FAA to resolve this issue and ensure the safety of the flying public,'' the aircraft manufacturer said in a statement.

The FAA estimates that it will cost about $173,000 for carriers in the country to follow the order. Foreign aviation regulators normally follow the FAA's lead and order identical inspections on jets around the world.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=676&ncid=716&e=22&u=/usatoday/20020925/ts_usatoday/4478783

posted 09-26-2002 02:26 AM               

November 18, 1997NEWSHOUR TRANSCRIPT

JAMES KALLSTROM, FBI: Hi, Jim. How are you?

JIM LEHRER: Just fine. You found no evidence that that plane exploded because of a criminal act, correct?

JAMES KALLSTROM: That’s correct, not one scintilla of evidence after all these months and all the investigation, but I feel good, Jim, that we did a very comprehensive, total investigation. We left no stone unturned. In fact, we looked under every rock multiple times. We owe that to an investigation of this magnitude and this much tragedy.

JIM LEHRER: Are you surprised yourself that 16 months after this began that you’re saying what you’re just saying? Did you expect it to turn out this way?

JAMES KALLSTROM: No. I, in fact, I thought there was a good chance that first night--you know, with the initial information we had--this tragic scene on the ocean--a 747 with a huge fire ball, no communications from the air crew of any distress, anything wrong with the plane, almost immediately witnesses seeing things in the sky--some of the first reports came from air crews transferring through the air space. That’s not a normal occurrence for any airplane, certainly not for a 747.

JIM LEHRER: Now, your investigation over 16 months involved what, 7,000 interviews, is that right?

7,000 interviews later...

JAMES KALLSTROM: That’s right, Jim. We did about 7,000 interviews. We had a major investigation obviously of Kennedy in Athens, Greece, where the plane came from--out on Long Island from the standpoint of, you know, was it a terrorist missile, which involved hundreds and hundreds of agents; the friendly fire investigation, of course, the intelligence in and around the world.

JIM LEHRER: Tell us a little bit about--I know you can’t give us specifics, but tell us how you went about at going--trying to determine from an intelligence point of view first whether or not terrorists or somebody put a bomb on that plane.

JAMES KALLSTROM: Well, as you know, as you probably know, we have the counter-terrorism responsibility for the United States. We do that jointly with our friends in law enforcement. In New York City we have a terrorist task force, so we know a lot about terrorist activities. We know a lot about groups that have said things and done things in the past. So obviously we check all that. We check all our sources; we check all our means. We have relationships with our own intelligence agencies, obviously. We have relationships with intelligence agencies around the world. You know, to deal with terrorism in this day and age, all of us in the free world and even others have come to believe that we have to work together, so obviously we check all that, and we ask for assistance. We look at overhead satellites; we look at all kinds of things to find out what this is about.

JIM LEHRER: Did you not get even a scintilla of a smell that this might--from your intelligence part of this now that this might have been a terrorist act?

JAMES KALLSTROM: You always get a few smells when you--I mean, you always get information, and I don’t want to make it sound like we didn’t get any information. We didn’t get anything that we put much credence in. We didn’t get anything with real specificity. We didn’t get any golden nuggets or any grains of gold, quite frankly.

JIM LEHRER: So then the second part--or a second part--was the forensics part of the investigation, where--to oversimplify it, just the evidence you had in hand, right--tell us about that and how you went about determining that there was no criminal sign there.

About a million pieces of airplane.

JAMES KALLSTROM: Well, that’s right. I mean, we ended up with close to a million pieces of this once proud airplane. So think about all these pieces coming in the front door of the hangar at Calverton, Long Island. Of course, chain of custody and where they--the water--all those things were important. And then think about a bunch of scientists standing at the door, a metallurgist, a chemist, forensic scientist, bomb technicians looking at each and every piece, and from their experience separating the pieces into two piles--those that needed further investigation because of their obvious characteristics of the damage and those they felt didn’t, and then, of course, the ones that needed further examination having that examination take place.

JIM LEHRER: And they’re looking for the way metal was bent or residue of things--

JAMES KALLSTROM: Sure. That’s right. Unfortunately, we know a lot about bombs. I mean, things have been bombed. So we know what metal and other things look like that have been bombed. So we have a lot of experience. We have databases. Forensic scientists know what things look like under microscopes. We’re looking for scarrings, for fittings, certain characteristics of how the metal is twisted--those are things they’re looking for. From a missile standpoint we really didn’t know a lot about missile damage. Surely, the if the highly explosive warhead blew up near the metal, it would be the same as a bomb, but think about this. I mean, most times missiles that have been shot at planes--thankfully, thank God, it hasn’t happened in this country--have been on military. For instance, a number of planes in Desert Storm were shot with missiles, and most of them landed back safely. The pilots never got out and asked the question, "What was that?". They knew it was a missile, so we never developed a scientific database, and quite frankly, we looked around the world for that, and there wasn’t any, so we had to develop our own.

JIM LEHRER: And how did you do that?

JAMES KALLSTROM: We had the great offices of places like China Lake and Redstone Arsenal and--

JIM LEHRER: Those are military Air Force bases.

JAMES KALLSTROM: We actually went out to military facilities with their help and with the help of DOT and we looked at planes that have been shot with missiles. We shot our own missiles at fuselages of 747's.

JIM LEHRER: Just to see what it would do, you mean?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Sure. We wanted to catalogue that damage. We wanted to look at how it looked, and of course, with a missile it’s even more complicated because it could go into the middle and blow up inside; it could blow up outside. It could be a dud and just pass through the plane.

JIM LEHRER: Now, the other element of this investigation, of course, were the eyewitnesses. There were 244 of them, and that videotape that we showed just a piece of, the CIA videotape, was designed to speak to what they said and the issues that they raised by what they said.

JAMES KALLSTROM: That’s right.

JIM LEHRER: Explain that, would you please.

CIA assistance.

JAMES KALLSTROM: A bit unprecedented for us to show something like that, but, after all, we are in the information age so we ought to take advantage of the best way, in my view, to explain that. I mean, having said at the press conference no forensics, no evidence, no criminal investigative evidence, no evidence from anything else, and I listed a whole lot of investigations, we’re still left with 244 people that saw things in the sky, and that we took very seriously, so I thought it was important not only to ourselves--we have to convince ourselves first--but probably next--the victims’ families, the public in general around the world, what did these people see, what could they have seen, did it make sense that they saw something other than a missile? So we had a lot of information. We knew from the radar--some 12 radars--where the plane was through this entire catastrophe. We knew from the data recorder and the voice recorder a lot of information. We knew from the satellite of the United States government the exact time of the huge blast, the huge yellow, terrible, tragic explosion that everyone saw, so we had a lot of information-- if we were a calculus teacher, we could fill in a lot of the blanks. We gave that to CIA. They have the best capability technically and did a super job--take all that data and to do an animation of what happened to this tragic airplane, what happened to these poor people on this plane, and, you know, what made sense that witnesses saw. Quite frankly, the great majority of the witnesses--some 239 of the witnesses’ stories--all which were given to us truthfully and they were good witnesses--fit into this scenario, which is an extremely high percentage of the witnesses.

JIM LEHRER: Yes. And that theory was that a lot of the confusion or not--confusion’s not the word--that a lot of people misunderstood what they were seeing because of the relationship between an--when you hear an explosion and you see it, right?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Well, that’s right. In fact, a number of the witnesses--I think around 60--I’m not quite sure--but a high percentage of the witnesses actually looked up from their patio deck or the golf course or their boat or wherever they were and when they heard the sound, and the reality is it took the sound 50 seconds or so to reach this tragic area close to 10 miles out and 13,000 feet high--it took that long to reach the shore. So when they actually looked up, they were seeing an event that was already close to 50 seconds old.

JIM LEHRER: For you personally what was the most difficult part of this investigation?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Well, you know, that’s a good question. We’re used to showing up at places that are sort of mob scenes where there’s thousands of people, where there’s tragedy. I think if I had to say thing, though, I’ve never been involved through my experience in the Marine Corps, in Vietnam, or in any case I’ve ever investigated with is so much tragedy in one place, and so many tragic human stories--walking into a Ramada Inn on day two or day three, and seeing a thousand plus people that have just lost their daughter or their son, a mother or father in some cases, the entire family--was so incredibly tragic, and to be involved in that personally--from the very beginning, that night, we had a personal tragedy. One of our agents in the office lost his wife on the plane was one of the stewardesses, but very quickly, myself and the thousands of people involved in this investigation, you know, got involved in the tragedy, galvanized us, believe me, not that we weren’t already have been galvanized us to--to just do a super job, which we always try to do, but we had tremendous emotion behind us on this one.

JIM LEHRER: You said a moment ago that there is--some folks were difficult to convince that a criminal act couldn’t have been responsible for this terrible thing. Were you a hard sell yourself all the way?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Absolutely. And I think that I was a hard sell and every one on my team was a hard sell because we need to be. We need to convince ourselves. We need to argue ourselves. We need to put every possible thing up on the board. Jim, in this day and age, you know, we can’t just look for the obvious things, not that we ever should, but, you know, we don’t see the obvious this, the obvious that. We’re not the Federal Bureau of the Obvious Investigation. You know, we need to look out in the third and fourth and fifth standard deviations from the middle of that curve and look at every crook and every cranny and every possibility. We put friendly fire on the board the first night. You know, it didn’t take Pierre Salinger two months later to have us do a comprehensive investigation of that.

JIM LEHRER: I watched a news conference--and we ran a little piece of it in our News Summary. It seemed to me you got a little hot when the reporter asked you about why it took so long, why it took sixteen months. Did I read you right?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Yes, I was. And, you know, I understand the question, but, you know, I’ve seen--and I just--at a point in time you get frustrated--someone representing all these hard working people. I mean, the notion that we could have walked away from this a year ago or is months ago is just--is actually stupid, and I mean, we have so many things to do. The reason we closed this two weeks ago is we had no more leads. I mean, the notion that we wouldn’t look at the mock-up, that we wouldn’t look at all the holes in relationship to each other, that we wouldn’t bring in another metallurgist and certify all the opinions of prior scientists, this type of investigation is too important; we cannot guess at things. You know, we can’t take a laissez-faire approach, and we worked as hard as we could work for as long as we did, and I’m proud of what all the investigators from the task force, all the people that helped us, I’m very, very proud of what they did.

JIM LEHRER: A sense of relief tonight, Mr. Kallstrom?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Yes. I think--I’m glad that we could get to the point of actually proving a negative, which is a very difficult thing to do, Jim, as you probably know, and--but it’s necessary. It’s good that we now know it wasn’t criminal, and that can no longer be, you know, the hot light of the focus, and it shouldn’t be. We stand prepared to jump back in at any time if some new information presents itself.

JIM LEHRER: So if that comes tomorrow, you all are back on the case?

JAMES KALLSTROM: Oh, without question, and we’re going to support NTSB. We’re going to help them with the security of the plane; we’re going to help them with whatever they need.

JIM LEHRER: All right. Well, Jim Kallstrom, thank you very much for being with us.

JAMES KALLSTROM: Thank you, Jim.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/july-dec97/kallstrom_11-18.html

quote:

---

..not one scintilla of evidence after all these months and all the investigation, but I feel good, Jim, that we did a very comprehensive, total investigation.

---

quote:

---

Conclusions derived from physical evidence are only as reliable as the integrity and preservation of that evidence. Because parties to the official Flight 800 investigation have reported that physical evidence has been altered, destroyed, and disappeared, the official conclusions about the physical evidence are questionable.

---

quote:

---

We shot our own missiles at fuselages of 747's.

---

Was there fuel in the tanks and what kind of missiles did you use?

quote:

---

Surely, the if the highly explosive warhead blew up near the metal, it would be the same as a bomb

---

quote:

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[color-red]If a missile warhead detonated outside the aircraft, as many witness accounts indicate, small holes produced by missile fragments could be the only evidence. Official investigators therefore fired projectiles through aluminum panels in order to estimate the velocity of projectiles that punched holes through Flight 800.[/color]

---

I see a hole in the fuselage. Then there was the SHRAPNEL. Read the article if you haven't already.

Revealed--SHRAPNEL Was Found In 89 TWA 800 http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000701.html

Part one of "The Crash of TWA Flight 800" has some more information concerning the SHRAPNEL.

quote:

---

...we’re still left with 244 people that saw things in the sky,

---

They sure did see things in the sky.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/images/ima-weps6.html

Was it one of these that they were trying to shoot down? - I do think that there was a mention of some orange debris that was found along with the wreckage on page 2 of this thread.

Could it have been caught on satellite too?

_____________________________________________________________________

TWA 800 - Satellites Tell The Truth
By Reed Irvine
Accuracy In Media
NewsMax.com
10-17-1

The explosion of a Russian airliner over the Black Sea on Oct. 4 has raised an interesting question relating to the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island five years ago. Both planes exploded and crashed into the sea.

Flight 800 was still in its ascent, at 13,800 feet, and it was only 10 miles off the shore of Long Island. Its crash was witnessed by hundreds of people who have been questioned by the FBI about what they saw. Many of them said they had seen what must have been a missile either rising from the surface or high in the sky streaking toward the airliner just before it blew up.

The Russian airliner was over 30,000 feet above the Black Sea, and as far as we know, no eyewitnesses saw the crash. But U.S. satellites apparently did.

It was reported the next day that Defense Department satellites equipped with infrared sensors detected a missile launched by Ukrainian troops on the Crimean peninsula which U.S. intelligence officials believed hit the airliner. The government of Ukraine acknowledged that a training exercise involving missiles was being conducted at the time, but insisted that none of its missiles could have shot down the Russian plane.

Russian investigators have found small metal balls from the missile's warhead in the bodies of the victims.

President Kuchma of Ukraine now says he will accept the findings of the investigation.

In 1996, the U.S. had two KH-11 satellites in polar orbit. Their infrared sensors have a resolution down to a few inches.

Ray Lahr, a TWA Flight 800 aficionado, has pointed out that if one of those two satellites was over New York on July 17, 1996, there is a lot of information about TWA 800 that has not been released. Apparently one of them was able to record images of the TWA 800 crash.

Request for that imagery or descriptions of it have been made under the Freedom of Information Act to both the Department of Defense and the CIA. Both have acknowledged that they have the images, but they have refused to release them or descriptions of them to the public. In rejecting a FOIA request last January, the CIA claimed that information was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. It cited exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3), which cover material that must be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and for the protection of intelligence sources and methods.

The CIA has actively propagated the government's claim that the TWA 800 crash was the result of a fuel-tank explosion. It is hard to see why releasing satellite images of an airliner fuel tank exploding would imperil national security, damage our foreign relations or reveal anything not already known about the use of satellites.

The CIA devoted a lot of time and money to the production of a video that was crafted to prove that the hundreds of eyewitnesses who thought they saw a missile streaking toward the airliner actually saw nothing but the airliner itself.

The CIA claims that it rocketed upward after its entire front end was broken off and that the eyewitnesses mistook it for a missile. That claim and the video that presented it have been the subject of a lot of ridicule by people who are knowledgeable about aeronautics. It was not at all convincing.

If the CIA has satellite imagery of what transpired and the pictures show that there were no missiles anywhere near the airliner when it blew up, they could have used those pictures to make their case. It would have been far more convincing and would have cost them nothing.

The speed with which the government released the information about the Ukrainian missile, which no doubt offended the Ukrainians and showed them our intelligence capabilities, exposes the absurdity of the CIA's excuses for not releasing the pictures.

The press officer for the National Transportation Safety Board says that they examined the satellite images but they were of no help in determining the cause of the crash.

He said they did not retain them or keep any records of what they showed.

The member of the staff who gave him that information refuses to be interviewed, and Mrs. Marion Blakey, the new NTSB chairman, also seems to think that not returning calls is the safest policy.

Apparently the satellite imagery is not being released because it does for TWA Flight 800 what it did for the Russian airliner. It tells the truth that governments want to hide.

Reed Irvine is chairman of Accuracy in Media.

http://www.rense.com/general15/TWA800satellites.htm
_______________________________________________________________________________

Were you thinking about blaming it on someone perhaps?
______________________________________________________________________

August 25, 1996 Times of London

U.S. officials are investigating reports that Islamic terrorists have
smuggled Stinger ground-to-air missiles into the United States from Pakistan.

Senior Iranian sources close to the fundamentalist regime in Tehran claimed this weekend that TWA flight 800 was shot down last month by one of three shoulder-fired Stingers of the type used by Islamic guerrillas during the Afghanistan war.

The sources said the missiles arrived in America seven months ago after being shipped from Karachi via Rotterdam and on to the Canadian port of Halifax.

They claimed an Egyptian fundamentalist group backed by Iran was responsible for smuggling the weapons across the Canadian border into the United States.

The group, the Gama'a al-Islamiya, comprises followers of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric jailed in the United States over the 1993 New York World Trade Center bombing.

A senior White House official responsible for counter-terrorism told The Sunday Times this weekend that he had seen a report that a Stinger missile had been smuggled into the United States from Pakistan. The
official, who is involved in collating intelligence relating to the TWA
inquiry for the White House, said investigators were aware of reports that Stingers may have been smuggled into the country.... If a Stinger was the cause of this, our first theory would be that it came from Afghanistan."

The official was commenting on reports from Tehran that claimed several groups funded by the religious authorities in Iran are active in the United States.

The reports claim one previously unknown underground group called Falakh may have as many as 50 highly trained terrorists in the country.

http://www.twa800.com/news/timesoflondon-8-25-96.htm

Now wait a minute! - Did I read that right? Here I am adjusting things and I just noticed this one line.

quote:

---

If a Stinger was the cause of this, our first theory would be that it came from Afghanistan."

---

Yes I did. - With the Summer Olympics coming up, would they have really done such a thing or just blame it on a malfunction like a center fuel tank explosion?

A Stinger? - Not really likely. - Wasn't there some fiction book about a man standing on a small boat that shot down a jet with a Stinger anyway? - Stingers just don't have the range but a cruise missile does. The first 2 pages of this thread has some information on the missile types.