What do you think happened there? July 17, 1996. 230 persons aboard died off Long Island en route to Paris. I'm watching a show on the History Channel which details cover-ups and terroristic warnings. Opinions?
Stories keep pointing out flashes of light leading from the ground (say witnesses) which would indicate a surface-to-air missile. A story I read that the media was not allowed to print involved an Army weapons testing area near the site of the crash. Doesn't mean the Army accidentally shot down a civilian airliner, but who knows. The truth will probably never actually be shared. Spark to the gas tank? That's as far as we'll know anyway, truth or not.
According to this piece I saw three people were arrested and convicted but not jailed for conspiring to steal pieces of the fallen aircraft. They included a 30-year veteran pilot for TWA who was assigned to assist the NTSB. He had, in fact, flown the same aircraft from Paris to the US on the previous day. Also arrested was a couple: she was a TWA stewardess and he was a retired cop doing investigative reporting. According to this story, the pilot got frustrated with the goings on of the investigation. He started talking to the reporter and asserted that the FBI was in charge of the investigation and that everything was vetted by them before the NTSB even got anything. The airplane "part" they "stole" was a swatch of fabric from the damaged rows 17-19 which they had tested at an independent lab. It tested positive for residue of propellants used in missiles. They talked about a missing boat that was seen by witnesses as speeding out of the area. That boat has never been identified.
I think there was a cover-up with regards to what happened there. I closely followed these reports at the time and some time thereafter and it just seemed strange. It seemed like someone did not want the truth to come out. I have no idea what happened, but it seemed like a cover-up.
INstead of "Natural Disaster", you should have written: "Accident"... Natural Disaster is reserved for disasters in which man-made materials, resources, or technology have NO say so... for example, Volcano erupting, Earthquake, tsunami... etc... and I am not talking about us hurting the ozone layer... or trashing the oceans... just meaning that a Natural Disaster does not happen to an aircraft.
what if the plane had been hit by a flying chunk of flaming rock from a volcanic eruption? or a meteorite?
My thought was that a naturally occuring spark meeting a volume of flammable vapors/liquid was a natural disaster... but I get your drift.
Then you would say that a Natural Disaster was happening, and the plane flew into it. Still, one of the choices for the poll canNOT be "Natural Disaster". It would have to be "accident cause by nature"... I mean, you CAN have a calamity from a MUD SLIDE or from a BLIZZARD, then you'd have to consider the natural disaster first, then the plane wreck second. I don't think planes fly NEAR volcanoes, dude... c'mon... I think, YES, GiddyUp gets it.
I used to think it was terrorism...but they would have claimed responsibility shortly thereafter....crazy story though...interesting thread.
It hit George Jetson's spacemobile. He was coming home from happy hour, made a slight swerve, and.....
Haven't read about the first part, but if I were in a boat in that plane's general area, I'd be speeding away.
Yes, very understandable, but as I understood the story it was the only boat in the area that the FBI was unable to identify. There was also some thread about Middle Eastern men who had rented a dock in the area.
Coast guard surface to air missile accidentally tracked 800 and shot it down. So says a buddy with high FBI connections who lives on long island
After 9/11, some smaller US Navy ships were tasked to the CG for homeland defense purposes. Navy crews with CG skippers & boarding parties. These ships are equipped with SAMs, understandable after 9/11. I can't find anything online that confirms that the CG had this capability prior, but I didn't waste too much time looking into a "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw TWA 800 crash into 31 Flavors" type post.
