U.S. board hopes to have TWA 800 report
this year
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - National Transportation Safety
Board Chairman
Jim Hall said Thursday he was hoping to have a final report by
December on
the TWA jet that crashed just after taking off from New York in
July 1996.
Hall told a congressional committee he was certain an explosion
of the air
and fuel fumes in the Boeing 747's center fuel tank had downed
the plane
killing all 230 people on board, but the exact ignition source
was still
being examined.
"I have asked Dr.(Bernard) Loeb (Office of Aviation Safety
director) to try
and have this investigation completed by the end of this
year," Hall told
the House Transportation aviation subcommittee.
The NTSB said it was also going over eyewitness accounts,
originally taken
by the FBI, with Boeing Co., Trans World Airlines and other
participants in the
investigation to ensure everyone agreed the investigation had
been thorough.
Theories that TWA Flight 800 was downed by a missile were
dismissed early in
the investigation by the NTSB and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation later
agreed.
Nevertheless, a small number of independent investigators remain
convinced
there has been a cover-up of either a military or terrorist
attack on the plane.
The committee heard from retired U.S. Navy Commander William
Donaldson who
still believes in a missile.
But Ohio Democrat Jim Traficant, who conducted his own 10-month
probe of the
federal government's investigation, said the probe had
meticulously examined
the possibility of a missile or a bomb.
"...to suggest the NTSB and the FBI are involved in a
cover-up is
unfortunate, sick and totally contrary to the facts,"
Traficant said.