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May 10, 1999
Statement for the
Record of
Lewis D. Schiliro
Assistant Director in Charge, New York Office
Federal Bureau of Investigation
on
FBI Laboratory Support in TWA 800
Before the
United States Senate Committee
on the Judiciary Subcommittee on
Administrative Oversight and the Courts
Washington, D.C. |
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Attachment
Statement
of Donald Kerr
Mr. Chairman, members of the
Committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you
today to discuss the FBI's investigation of the crash of TWA
Flight 800.
On the night of July 17, 1996, I responded to a page and was
advised that a TWA 747 in the sky just off the south shore of
Long Island had disappeared from the radar and was believed to
have crashed. Because I was the Special Agent in Charge of the
New York Office Criminal Division, I was directed to report to
the Coast Guard Station at Moriches, New York and was assigned
to oversee and direct the FBI's efforts for what we initially
believed would be a search and rescue operation.
Upon arrival, additional reports came in that changed the
nature of our mission, including that there had been a large
explosion and fireball, that all communications from the plane
had been normal, that no distress calls had been issued, and
that numerous eyewitnesses reported seeing flarelike
objects and other events in the sky. Within a day, the law
enforcement team had interviewed numerous eyewitnesses,
including some who witnessed the events while in the air, and
many of them provided credible accounts of these flarelike
objects. Recognizing the limits of our own capabilities,
the FBI contacted the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and
requested assistance in evaluating these reports of events in
the sky.
Two days after the crash, experienced analysts from DIA's
Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MISIC) were on the
scene in Long Island and accompanying FBI Agents on interviews
and reinterviews of some of the eyewitnesses. The MISIC
personnel who reported to Long Island are among the U.S.
Government's foremost experts on shoulder launched surface to
air missiles, known as MANPADS. They reported to us that many
of the descriptions given by eyewitnesses were very consistent
with the characteristics of the flight of such missiles.
In addition, at the time of this tragedy, Ramzi Yousef was on
trial in the United States District Court in the Southern
District of New York charged in a conspiracy to blow up twelve
U.S. airliners, simultaneously, over the Pacific Ocean.
Yousef's plot, for which he was subsequently convicted, was
not the stuff of science fiction. In fact, he had already
tested his theory of concealing a small shaped explosive
charge on an aircraft, a test that resulted in the death of a
Japanese citizen.
It is against this background - a sudden disappearance of an
aircraft, with no distress calls, in an explosive fireball
resulting in the deaths of 230 men, women and children - with
descriptions by credible eyewitnesses deemed by government
experts to be consistent with the flight of a missile - at the
same time that one of the world's foremost terrorists was on
trial in Federal court charged with an audacious conspiracy to
attack American airliners - that the FBI launched its criminal
investigation of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy, an investigation
that would become among the most far reaching and thorough
ever conducted by the FBI. If there was ever a chance, whether
it was 10% or 90%, that this catastrophe was criminal, that a
terrorist operating under the flight path of one of the
nation's busiest airports had brought down an aircraft with a
shoulder launched missile and could still be at large planning
further attacks, it was critical that a proper and aggressive
investigation take place immediately.
Hundreds of FBI Agents and other law enforcement officers
responded almost immediately, including elements from the FBI/NYPD
Terrorist Task Force, the ATF, Secret Service, US State
Department, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Park
Police, INS, Port Authority PD, Suffolk County PD, Suffolk
County Park Police, Nassau County PD, New York City PD, NY
State Police, along with the NTSB, the FAA, the Coast Guard
and the United States Navy, whose divers worked around the
clock risking their lives to recover the bodies of the victims
and, later, the aircraft wreckage. In the first days after the
crash, many of the law enforcement team were assigned to the
Coast Guard Station in Moriches receiving the bodies of the
victims of the crash and, in the following days and weeks,
witnessing the autopsies conducted by the Medical Examiners
Office. Mr. Chairman, as the Agent in Charge at the Coast
Guard Station, I can tell you that everyone involved in that
task was deeply and emotionally affected by this experience
and their hearts went out to the families of these victims.
As the Committee knows, the FBI's responsibility for
conducting investigations in a case such as TWA Flight 800
flows from a number of Federal statutes, including, among
others, terrorism, destruction of aircraft, crime aboard
aircraft, false statements. In this investigation, the FBI and
the law enforcement team initially focused on the possibility
that the aircraft was destroyed by a missile, either a direct
hit on the plane or a proximity explosion, a bomb placed on
the aircraft, to include in the center fuel tank area. As a
result of some of the initial interviews of mechanics and
other information we received, the FBI also looked at that the
possibility of Federal criminal violations applicable to any
intentional violations of regulations or reporting
requirements relating to compliance with certification
procedures for aircraft products and parts, manufacturing
quality control or maintenance and safety procedures. Our
investigation included more than 7,000 interviews, including
eyewitnesses, individuals in contact with the aircraft at both
JFK and in Athens, family members, and passengers from the
flight that preceded Flight 800; we reconciled and traced all
luggage and cargo placed on the aircraft; reviewed all unusual
event reports, stolen motor vehicle and boat reports, records
of all boats traveling through New York Harbor and the area of
Long Island, records of all drawbridge openings on Long Island
for a three month period; our Laboratory conducted over 3,000
residue examinations and ultimately, together with NTSB,
engaged in a massive reconstruction of portions of the
aircraft. An outline of our investigative efforts is attached
to my statement and is submitted for the record. The result of
the FBI's 16 month long investigation was that no evidence was
found which would indicate that a criminal act was the cause
of the TWA flight 800 tragedy.
I understand that there are several issues of particular
interest to the Committee and I would like to address them
briefly. In the recovery effort, the FBI treated all the
recovered wreckage as evidence and endeavored to maintain the
best possible chain of custody of the evidence we could given
the large amount of wreckage recovered (over one million
items) and the fact that it had to be recovered, for the most
part, from the ocean floor, 120 feet below the surface. All
evidence was brought to the hangar at Calverton where it was
initially handled by FBI evidence response teams and examined
by certified bomb technicians, metallurgists, and chemists for
explosive damage. Pieces exhibiting any unusual
characteristics were referred for subsequent intensive
testing/examination. As investigators, we knew from the outset
that science and the work of scientists would play a crucial
role in the investigation, as it does in many of our
investigations. We, therefore, aggressively sought to locate
and use the finest scientific minds and techniques available
to provide insight and direction to our efforts.
Examinations and analyses were conducted by scientist from the
FBI Laboratory as well as outside experts, including the U.S.
Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake,
California; U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Lab Fort Rucker,
Alabama; U.S. Air Force, Wright Patterson AFB, Aircraft
Accident Investigation Office, Dayton, Ohio; Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology Bethesda, Maryland; Defense
Intelligence Agency, Missile and Space Intelligence Center,
Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; Picatinny Arsenal; Hughes Missile
Systems, Hughes Aircraft Company; a Contract Metallurgist
recommended by the FBI Laboratory and Department of Energy's
Brookhaven National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory.
I am well aware that there was some tension and disagreement
between the New York Office Field investigators and
metallurgists at the FBI Laboratory over the need for
additional intensive testing of some of the recovered
wreckage. The field investigators were mindful that the
aircraft damage noted as being possibly indicative of a bomb
or a missile could also be attributed to the stresses of the
break-up of the aircraft. However, this investigation, and the
possibility that the aircraft could have been brought down by
a missile or a proximity missile explosion was, in our view,
unprecedented.
As I understand it, the FBI, indeed the U.S. Government, had
no baseline forensic data regarding a missile strike on a
commercial aircraft such as a Boeing 747 to use as a basis of
comparison. We sought additional intensive examination of what
certified bomb technicians had identified as unusual pieces to
see if there was anything unusual that could be observed. We
firmly believed that we owed no less than a complete, thorough
and exhaustive effort to the victims and their families. We
did not desire to speculate or project results; we wanted, and
the families and the American people deserved, the best
science available to the government.
As I said earlier, we recognize the critical role of science
in many of our investigations and we have a high degree of
respect for the talents and insights provided by FBI
scientists, who are among the finest forensic scientists in
the world. They provide insight, direction and very often, the
critical evidence necessary to bring a case to a logical and
just conclusion. However, it is important for all of us
involved in investigations to understand and respect our
various roles. Ultimately, when there is disagreement on
whether or how to proceed, the responsibility for the decision
rests squarely on the shoulders of the investigators in charge
of the case.
The FBI conducted the TWA Flight 800 investigation in a
professional, responsible, and methodical manner. We worked to
ensure that we were thorough and complete before coming to a
conclusion as to whether this tragedy was the result of a
criminal act. Can you imagine, Mr. Chairman, if we had not
pushed to look at every possibility, no matter how remote; if
we had relied on cursory examinations by magnifying glass and
not sought to use every sophisticated tool of science
available to us to reach a decision in this case and later
found out that this was a very sophisticated criminal act or
had overlooked something that may have brought us to a
different conclusion. I and all of the law enforcement people
who worked on this would not have been doing our jobs and
would have been, rightly, subject to harsh criticism.
Let me briefly address the issue of jurisdictional disputes
with the NTSB. Mr. Chairman, you cannot have an investigation
of this magnitude, with the level of media attention this case
attracted, with the number of people and the number of
agencies involved that ran for as long as this one did without
from time to time having disagreements or differences of
opinion that need to be resolved. When we had differences of
opinion, we sought to, and, usually did, resolve them
amicably. Some of these disagreements were the result of our
very different methods of conducting investigations. The FBI
had no problem in sharing investigative results with NTSB and
the morning after the crash, we offered to have NTSB personnel
participate in all our interviews. Overall, the cooperation
between the FBI and the NTSB was excellent at every level. All
of us who were involved never lost sight of the reason we were
there, of the goal of our efforts, which was to determine what
caused TWA Flight 800 to plunge in a fireball into the ocean
with the terrible loss of 230 lives.
I would also like to address the issue of the ATF report dated
January 20, 1997, concluding that the cause of the crash was a
mechanical malfunction. ADIC Kallstrom received that ATF
report on Thursday, March 13, 1997. On Monday, March 17, 1997,
ADIC Kallstrom forwarded a copy of the report to NTSB
Chairman, Jim Hall, as evidenced in the transmittal letter, a
copy of which is attached to my statement. Allegations that
the FBI attempted to hide the report from NTSB are ludicrous.
It is also inexplicable that NTSB now fails to recall
receiving Mr. Kallstrom's letter.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I want to state for the record that the
FBI's investigation of the TWA Flight 800 was one of the most
thorough and finest ever conducted by this agency. We have
learned much from the experience of TWA Flight 800 and have
been working, under the leadership of the FBI Laboratory along
with NTSB to institutionalize what we have learned, to
incorporate it into our procedures so that we improve our
response and investigative product in the event a tragedy like
this recurs in the future.
In early March, in furtherance of this effort, we held a
meeting at Calverton that brought together representatives of
virtually all the agencies that participated in the TWA
investigation. The meeting was productive and additional
meetings will take place in the future. Separate from that
effort, we have held several preliminary discussions with NTSB
in an effort to write a Memorandum of Understanding between
our respective agencies, to formalize and structure our
relationship in a manner that leads to improved training,
better understanding of our respective missions and
investigative requirements and, better service to the American
public.
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