Captain McClain's Report to Eastwind Airlines
Flt. No. BBE507
07/17/96
Eastwind Airlines
Destination: KTTN
B-737-200
N22IUS
O/O Time: 1951/2010L
O/I time:2101/2103L
Capt D. McClaine #203
F/O: V. Fuschetti 215
Domicile:GSO
Occurence Location: Hampton 236 Radial 20 DME
Ocurrence Time: About 2030 Local
Wx Conditions: High Cirrus Clouds, Dusk, 40 vis
Report: Flying over the sandy point VOR we asked for the 247
radial off
Sandy Point to intercept the Hampton 236 Radial (V-139), and
were denied
because of traffic. So we proceeded to Hampton as we were filed
and on
the way were told to decend from FL 240 to FL 200. Just prior
to the
descent; I spotted TWA 800 which appeared to have either one
landing
light ON , or two very close together ON. It was a very bright
light and
was moving somewhat toward us, but still crossing our path from
right to
left. The light was a little off color for a landing light so
at first I
thought it might be a fire, but didn’t see any smoke trail which
still
should have been visible at the time if there were one. So I
passed it
off as a landing light from a very large aircraft such as a B-747
which
appeared to be just out of JFK. It was definitely the brightest
light in
the sky.
Just as we were about to level off at FL200 we were told to descend
to
16,000 MSL with a good rate through FL180. Passing through FL180
we
turned over Hampton to intercept the 236 Radial. Passing 17,000
feet I
flicked ON my left inboard landing light to signal the other
aircraft,
(TWA 800) that I had him in sight. The aircraft appeared then
to be
slightly left of our 12:00 position (about on the Hampton 236
Radial)
and at about 15,000 to 13,000 feet MSLat about 15-19 DME. As
I flicked
on the light the other aircraft exploded into a very large ball
of
flames. Almost immediately two flaming objects, with flames trailing
about 4000 feet behind them, fell out of the bottom of the ball
of
flame. It was too dark to identify any objects or see any debris.
(I
thought the objects to be the wings, which were full of fuel.)
I immediately called BOS ATC and reported an inflight explosion
out over
the water, I stated this twice but didn’t get an immediately
reply. ATC
then issued a couple of instructions to at least two other aircraft,
routine messages. Then another aircraft; Lufthansa, I think,
reported
that there was indeed an inflight explosion and gave a position
report
off JFK. I then came back and stated that the explosion and column
of
smoke was on the Hampton 236 Radial at 20 DME; which at this
time was
right where we were.The smoke column was just to our left side.
Another
couple of aircraft came up and also reported seeing fire falling
into
the sea. ATC the started a short roll call. My First Officer
then said
to me that he thought it was TWA 800. ATC called TWA 800 a couple
of
time with no reply. I then said to ATC, “I think that’s them.”
He
replied, “I think you’re right.” I then said, “God Bless them.”
F/O Fuschetti and i then quickly discussed orbiting the sight
or
whatever action we could take. Since ATC made no request we decided
to
continue on to Trenton because of the darkness below, passengers
onboard
and our fuel state.We were then handed off to New York ATC and
told to
descend to 12, 000 feet with following descents to 4000 feet.
During the
descent to 4000 feet a Navy plane called New York for vectors
to the
scene so he could help out. We told him it was on the Hampton
236 radial
at 20DME and offered our help to New York. We were then switched
over to
McGuire ATC for our approach into Trenton. The rest of the evening
went
uneventful. I did call Eastwind Dispatch at Trenton to report
the
explosion and at Greensboro once more called and spoke to the
Dispatcher
and the Director of Operations for Eastwind Airlines.
Prior to the explosion I did not see any missile, air to air
or ground
to air, as I have seen in the press. I did mention this to my
F/O just
after the explosion. I still think it was a landing light I saw
that was
ON the other aircraft (TWA 800) but can’t rule our that it may
have
been an engine or wing fire due to the color of the light and
its
brightness. I’m not that familiar with a B-747 landing lights.
Note by Richard Hirsch:
I retyped this report from the original because the type size
was so
small that it could not be read on the web page. I included all
of the
typo’s that were present in the original. I left justified the
heading
of the report to make it easier to present on the web page.
Richard Hirsch
11/30/98
