Six former investigators of the crash of TWA Flight 800 say they have new evidence that the jumbo jet was brought down by an “external explosion” off Long Island — and are demanding that the 17-year-old case be reopened.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI ignored hundreds of eyewitness reports, as well as radar data, indicating that a missile downed the JFK-to-Paris flight in 1996, killing all 230 people aboard, the probers said.
“We don’t know who fired the missile,” said Jim Speer, who investigated the crash for the Air Line Pilots Association.
“But we have a lot more confidence that it was a missile.”
A new documentary, “TWA Flight 800,” claims radar showed debris flying from the plane at a very high speed when it lost electricity minutes after takeoff.
That contradicts the NTSB conclusion that a mechanical failure — a spark from a short-circuit — likely caused a disastrous fuel-tank explosion, the film says.
“We didn’t find a part of the airplane that indicated mechanical failure,” said Bob Young, then of TWA, one of the now-retired investigators.
Documentary co-producer Tom Stalcup called the radar evidence “the smoking gun.”
Federal investigators examined the missile theory and other possible causes — even a meteorite strike — during their four-year probe, but said they found no credible evidence to support them.
The documentary, which airs on the EPIX TV network on July 17, the 17th anniversary of the disaster, alleges the FBI botched the probe.The NTSB said yesterday it would accept a petition from the former investigators to reopen the case. “Our investigations are never closed, and we can review any new information not previously considered by the board,” a spokeswoman said.“They reopen wounds,” he said of the former investigators.
, AP
Speer said that when plane wreckage was brought to a Long Island hangar, he saw three holes in one piece that appeared to be caused by a “high-energy” explosion.
When he tried to photograph the plane part, he was stopped by another man who simply said, “FBI. Don’t take that picture.”
Speer, who in 2003 aired his doubts about the NTSB report, said he took another piece of debris to an FBI field lab to test it for nitrates.
“And sure enough it tested positive for high explosives,” Speer said. But he was later told by the FBI that it was a “false positive.”