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Fbi seized radar video showing missile hitting flight 800 Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://washingtonpost.com/In another example this week, attention has focused on what purportedly is a videotape of air traffic control radar screens at John F. Kennedy International Airport the night of the July 17 crash. It supposedly shows a missile streaking toward the plane just before it exploded, killing all 230 aboard....A small group of people led by Pierre Salinger, former press secretary to President John F. Kennedy, say the tape is part of evidence they have accumulated showing that a military accident -- friendly fire -- caused the crash....In a Paris news conference yesterday, Salinger and the co-author of an investigative report, Michael Sommer, released what they said were photos taken from the videotape. Salinger said the missile that struck the plane was in pursuit of a "drone" missile several thousand feet below as part of a secret anti-terrorism exercise being conducted by the U.S. Navy....On Monday, the FBI seized a copy of the videotape from the home of former airline pilot Richard D. Russell in South Daytona Beach, Fla. He had given the tape to Salinger's group.
http://washingtonpost.com/
Missile Theory Haunts TWA Investigation; Despite Lack of Evidence and Officials' Denials, Some Insist Friendly Fire Caused Crash; [FINAL Edition]
Don Phillips. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Mar 14, 1997. pg. A.03
The crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 has become the aviation equivalent of the Kennedy assassination.
No matter what evidence is presented by some of the world's best aviation safety and law enforcement investigators, and no matter how deeply the mainstream press probes and finds nothing, a segment of society has apparently decided that the Paris-bound Boeing 747 was brought down by a missile and that everyone who says otherwise is part of a coverup.
Such assertions have been hotly denied by James K. Kallstrom, the FBI agent in charge of the criminal investigation, and Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Kallstrom has said that the people peddling such reports ought to "get a life."
But officials say the flap over the latest theories is causing investigators to waste resources to look into them, and is drawing attention away from an important lesson learned from the crash: It would not have happened if the plane's huge center fuel tank had had a system to prevent explosive vapors from building up inside.
Investigators agree the plane was brought down because something caused the volatile vapors in the center fuel tank to blow up, but they have not concluded what triggered that explosion. The possibility is still open that it was a missile, although the probers say they have found no evidence of it and are leaning toward mechanical failure as an explanation.
As an example of a diversion of resources, one air safety investigator said the FBI lab originally had not even bothered to test red residue found on some seats on the plane because everyone from the safety board and the FBI agreed it was clearly the adhesive used in the seat's manufacture. But after a Riverside, Calif., newspaper, the Press-Enterprise, reported on Monday that the residue was "consistent with solid missile fuel" -- and the story was widely picked up -- the FBI lab pushed tests of their samples ahead of more urgent tests.
"Guess what they found," the investigator said. "It was adhesive."
"We don't have the resources to do this kind of stuff, and that's what bothers me about this kind of journalism," he said.
In another example this week, attention has focused on what purportedly is a videotape of air traffic control radar screens at John F. Kennedy International Airport the night of the July 17 crash. It supposedly shows a missile streaking toward the plane just before it exploded, killing all 230 aboard.
A small group of people led by Pierre Salinger, former press secretary to President John F. Kennedy, say the tape is part of evidence they have accumulated showing that a military accident -- friendly fire -- caused the crash.
In a Paris news conference yesterday, Salinger and the co-author of an investigative report, Michael Sommer, released what they said were photos taken from the videotape. Salinger said the missile that struck the plane was in pursuit of a "drone" missile several thousand feet below as part of a secret anti-terrorism exercise being conducted by the U.S. Navy.
On Monday, the FBI seized a copy of the videotape from the home of former airline pilot Richard D. Russell in South Daytona Beach, Fla. He had given the tape to Salinger's group. The tape is part of evidence being presented to a grand jury in New York that apparently is looking into whether crash evidence might have been obtained illegally.
Salinger's group sought to sell the tape to ABC News for a large amount of money, perhaps as much as $1 million, but the network rejected the proposal, an ABC spokeswoman said.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday rejected Salinger's call for an investigation, saying, "Based on the information that I have there is no basis for such an allegation pertaining to a Navy ship or Navy missile."
"My understanding is that there has been a very thorough investigation in terms of any Navy assets," Cohen said. "There was a complete inventory of their missiles or weapons on board and there is no basis, no foundation for such an allegation that a Navy missile was involved in this tragedy."
Top safety board investigators say that they have seen all radar data from that tragic night, and one investigator said yesterday that any suggestion the radar tapes show a missile striking the plane is "a total fabrication."
From the first day, there were witnesses who saw a streak of light moving toward the plane. Most witnesses did not report any streaks, but investigators have interviewed the witnesses repeatedly in an attempt to determine what they saw.
The safety board officials say the conspiracy theories will not sway them from a scientific and careful search for a cause wherever the search may lead, even if there is some last-minute surprise discovery of a terrorist act.
"I see this investigation taking the same course as our other investigations," Hall said.
Investigators have said from the beginning, and continue to say, that they have not ruled out any of three general causes -- mechanical failure, a bomb or a missile. But as tests continue to find no evidence of a bomb or missile -- or meteorites or space junk -- a mechanical cause seems more likely. Investigators have been concentrating on the possibility that static electricity or some electrical malfunction set off the vapor in the tank.
Investigators say that all parties -- including Boeing, the FBI and TWA -- now agree that fumes in the nearly empty center fuel tank exploded and that the explosion was directed outward from the tank. That conclusion is based on a variety of tests conducted on wreckage.
There is also general agreement that whatever caused the tank to explode was not sufficiently powerful to have brought down the plane by itself -- so the additional force of the exploding fuel tank was the ultimate event that led to the crash.
"We've got a fix right now" on the center fuel tank, the air safety investigator said. If the tank had been filled with inert gases, rather than explosive ones, he said, "this wouldn't have happened."
Only 50 to 100 gallons of fuel were in the tank at the time because the four wing tanks were sufficient for the relatively short trip to Paris. Tests later indicated that the vapors were sufficiently heated to explode -- if there was a source of ignition.
On Dec. 13, the board issued urgent recommendations that center fuel tanks be modified to prevent such a buildup of explosive vapors, first through temporary measures such as adding cooler fuel before takeoff, and then through more expensive means such as machinery that would pump inert gas into the tanks.
On Feb. 18, the Federal Aviation Administration replied that such changes have "significant economic implications." Rather than order immediate action, the agency opened a 90-day comment period.
Tests are now being conducted worldwide that could provide more clues.
Staff writer Howard Kurtz in Washington and correspondent Anne Swardson in Paris contributed to this report.
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