Posted by Elmer Barr on September 02, 19100 at 13:42:28:
The timeline of the major events of the Flight 800 disaster was approximately as follows:
8:31:12 Initiating Event took place at about 13,800 feet.
8:31:47 Massive Fireball exploded at about 5500-7500 feet.
8:31:55 Splashdown of the Massive Fireball flames and the wreckage enveloped therein.
Question: Did the fiery streak PRECEDE the Initiating Event or did it appear THEREAFTER?
Note that the Massive Fireball explosion ENGULED the small explosions also reported by witness Meyer.
It appears that the fiery streak was the IGNITION SOURCE of the Massive Fireball explosion [clearly a large amount of jet fuel exploding], that the fiery streak FOLLOWED rather than preceding the Initiating Event, that it was indeed a fire in the falling wreckage and that it was DESCENDING rather than ascending when seen by the streak witnesses.
Perhaps the gentlemen who wrote the following will provide the readers with the courtesy a meaningful response.
---------------------------------------------
Accuracy In Media August 30, 2000
[quote]
Print And Send The Letters Below, Or Your Own Letters, To The Following:
Mr. James E. Hall
Chairman
National Transportation Safety Board
490 L'Enfant Plaza East, S.W.
Washington, DC 20594
Dear Mr. Hall:
I am writing to protest your refusal to pay any attention to the hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800. It is a disgrace that your board has not heard the testimony of a single eyewitness. You presume to discredit their credibility without hearing from them face to face. You caved in to pressure from the FBI not to follow previous procedure and allow them to testify at your public hearing in December 1997. The FBI rightly feared that their testimony would expose the dishonesty of the video produced by the CIA to prove that not one of them saw anything except the damaged plane trailing burning fuel. You are pushing this theory, but you showed your lack of confidence in it when you stopped Reed Irvine from giving the Eyewitness Alliance ad to those coming to your meeting and having him carried out when he insisted on his right to freedom of speech. What a commentary on how you reach your decisions!
Cong. John J. Duncan, Jr.
Chairman
House Subcommittee on Aviation
Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman Duncan:
No commercial aviation disaster in history has had as many eyewitnesses with credible evidence as TWA Flight 800. The NTSB has not heard the testimony of a single one of them. It has tried to discredit them all, claiming that they mistook the damaged plane trailing burning fuel for a missile. It found nothing that could have caused a fuel tank explosion on TWA 800 or on 990 other airliners whose fuel tanks have been examined for a recently published study.
The TWA 800 Eyewitness Alliance has run full-page ads demanding that they be heard. The NTSB showed its contempt for them by barring distribution of copies of their ad to persons coming to the NTSB's public meeting on TWA 800 on Aug. 22. This is a disgrace, and I urge you to hold hearings as soon as possible and compare the persuasiveness of the evidence for a fuel tank explosion with the statements of the hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw the plane shot down.
-----
WRITING THESE NOTES HAS BEEN DELAYED PARTLY BECAUSE OF AN AD THAT WE PUT IN the Washington Times on August 15 for the TWA 800 Eyewitness Alliance. Since there are no TWA 800 eyewitnesses in the Washington area that we know of, I agreed to take the phone calls that the ad stimulated. It has been keeping me busy. The ad had a big, bold headline that read, "We Saw TWA Flight 800 Shot Down by Missiles." It expressed the anger of the eyewitnesses that none of them was allowed to testify at the NTSB public hearing on TWA 800 in December 1997. That was done at the insistence of the FBI, which rightly feared that their testimony would undermine the video produced by the CIA to discredit the evidence offered by all the eyewitnesses who said they saw anything like a streak of light. You can see this ad on AIM's web site, www.aim.org. The response was so encouraging that we ran the ad again in the Washington Times on Aug. 22, the day the NTSB began its incestuous discussion of its final report on the cause of the TWA 800 crash.
FRED MEYER, THE COORDINATOR OF THE EYEWITNESS ALLIANCE, WROTE TO ALL FIVE members of the NTSB, sending them a copy of the ad and warning that history will not treat them kindly if they close down the investigation without having heard from a single one of the hundreds of eyewitnesses who have said that they saw a missile or missiles destroy the plane. Meyer said, "Your conduct of this investigation will go down in history as a good example of how aviation crash investigations should not be handled. As one of your employees has told us, this investigation would be much closer to finding the real cause of the crash if it had been handled with fairness and objectivity."
"AMERICA MUST KNOW THE TRUTH" WAS THE HEADLINE OVER THIS MESSAGE: "ON AUG. 22-23 the NTSB will meet to review and approve its final report on what caused the crash....[T]his board will be under heavy pressure to say the initiating event was a fuel tank explosion....We, the eyewitnesses, know that missiles were involved. We don't know who launched them, but for some reason our government has lied and tried to discredit all of us to keep that question from being addressed....The claim that our evidence is worthless is false and we want to know who is behind it. Hundreds of us saw what happened. The FBI, CIA and NTSB must not be allowed to get away with this cover-up by defamation of the eyewitnesses. We appeal to those who know why this is being done to share their information with us. Confidentiality is guaranteed."
THIS HAS GENERATED A LOT OF CALLS. SOME ARE EXPRESSIONS OF GRATITUDE THAT someone is doing something about this cover-up. Some callers can hardly believe that our government would behave so badly. Many of them want to know how they can help. Some have volunteered without being asked to contribute to the cost of running the ads. A few have interesting information to offer. A retired lieutenant commander called to say that he has wrestled with his conscience and has decided that it is better to tell what he knows because his first duty is to the Constitution. What he knows is that in August, 1996 he learned that the highly specialized unit he commanded had been designated to take part in the bombing of Arab training camps in Sudan where the terrorists who shot down TWA 800 were believed to have been trained. They trained for this with an F-14 squadron for several weeks, but they never got the order to go. Someone evidently had second thoughts about it. This is evidence that in the first month after the crash many in the Navy were convinced that missiles were the cause. It doesn't prove that they were, but it does show that disregarding eyewitnesses is dumb.
ANOTHER CALLER SAID HE HAD A GOOD FRIEND WHO IS A GRADUATE OF WEST POINT who claims that everyone at the Pentagon knows that the plane was shot down by a missile that was launched from one of our ships by mistake. His friend had knowledge of the maneuvers that were scheduled to take place off Long Island that night. The caller promised to check with the friend and see if he would be willing to go public. We haven't yet heard back from him. Another caller, evidently an employee of the NTSB, advised us not to put all the blame for the botching of the investigtion on the FBI. He said a lot of it should go to Dr. Bernard Loeb of the NTSB. He was the genius who played an important role in the decision to blame the crash on the fuel tank.
THE NTSB DEMONSTRATED HOW MUCH IT FEARS THE EYEWITNESSES AT THE OPENING OF its board meeting on August 22. They got up in the morning and opened their Washington Times and found themselves confronted with that powerful full-page message from the TWA 800 Eyewitness Alliance. Then when they came into the auditorium where the meeting was held they were offered an 11 x 17 copy of the ad. I and others were handing them out. After 30 minutes or so, a security guard came up and told me that I could not distribute the ads. I pleaded my 1st Amendment rights to no avail. The guard, Jose, threatened to remove me forcibly if I did not leave. I said, "You will have to carry me out." The lobby was loaded with television crews that didn't have anything to shoot, and I seized the opportunity NTSB Chairman Jim Hall was giving me. I went limp on the floor and they carried me out, with half a dozen TV cameras recording it all. As soon as I was on my feet, I gave a speech to those cameras. I said that the government not only won't let the eyewitness testimony be heard, but it has tried to discredit all those who described seeing anything like a missile by having the CIA produce a ridiculous video. It made the ABC evening news that night.
[end quote]
------------------------------------------------
Aubrac - Aubrac@AOL.COM - Fri, 1 Sep 2000 19:21:48 EDT Flight 800 Forum
To: NIABBOT@twa.com, Contact@afp.com,
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Please pass on to everyone on your mailing lists. It must reach the public!
-----
Greetings:
Evidently some of you did not receive this message so I am sending it
again. If you did receive it, just hit the delete key. Sorry for the repeat
but a number of people to whom I sent it report that they did not.
Dick Russell
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press
On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, I was in Washington, D.C. to
attended the final NTSB hearing about TWA 800. On Monday, a group of
professional accident investigators asked me to participate in a news
conference. The purpose was to point out a number discrepancies in the
NTSB's findings. Dr. Tom Stalcup, president of the Flight 800 Independent
Research Organization (FIRO) stepped up to the dais and faced at least 8
video cameras and microphones representing most of the media. Several FIRO
members made short presentations followed by a question and answer period.
That night, not a single source dared to air any of the news conference.
It was completely "blacked out!" Can you believe that this could happen in
our "free society" in a country where we "enjoy freedom of speech and freedom
of the press?"
My experience dates back when the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was the
agency to investigate aviation accidents. In 1958, the Congress created an
independent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and charged them with
this chore. They quickly developed an excellent reputation and high
credibility. Board members are political appointees but very few are
technical people. The Board is supposed to be unbiased in their reports.
The job of the five members is to review the recommendations of their
technical staff and accept their reports.
It was a frustrating exercise for me to watch NTSB Chairman Jim Hall's
introductory speech. He expressed his displeasure about anyone who would
dare to question the NTSB findings. In my humble opinion, it appears that
the approach used by the NTSB in this accident is flawed. First, they
announced the cause of this tragedy, then the investigators were supposed to
fashion their reports to support this "adopted" cause.
It was, also, interesting to watch chief investigator, Bernard S. Loeb
exercise his autonomy over the assembled NTSB investigators. It is obvious
that he rules the agency with an iron fist and any investigators wishing to
keep their jobs should not dare to disagree with him.
During a break, retired airline pilot and accident investigator, Captain
Ray Lahr approached the aerodynamics expert to ask some questions. Mr. Loeb
interjected himself into the conversation and an unfortunate heated exchange
ensued.
Dr. Tom Stalcup, president of FIRO, approached the restricted area to
speak with the NTSB radar expert about his finding. The security agent told
him to write a note and that he would pass it to him. The individual was
standing just 15 feet away. Upon reading the note the NTSB radar expert
wadded it up and threw it into the trash. These are the actions of our
public servants in whom we are supposed to place our trust.
The FBI conducted ALL the witness interviews and would not allow any
other agencies to participate in this phase. The FBI withheld these reports,
even from the NTSB. When the interview reports were turned over, three years
later, it was learned that the agents had failed to ask proper questions.
Trained aviation accident investigators would have asked the correct
questions. After the review process was completed these four year old
reports were declared invalid and useless in the investigation! Timely
witness information is extremely important. Can you imagine attempting to
work a jigsaw puzzle when someone is hiding some of the pieces? It is not
only difficult but almost impossible to get the big picture.
At an earlier hearing in Baltimore, experts attempted to prove the CWT
explosion theory. They admitted that they had difficulty in getting the jet
fuel to explode. First, they installed a high-energy jet engine igniter in
the tank without success. Next, propane was introduced into the tank but
still it would not work. Finally, out of desperation, they added enough
hydrogen to make it explode!
It is amazing to me that such a theory is accepted by the public. A
hijacked B-747 aircraft sat in the torrid desert for days with its
air-conditioning packs operating and little or no fuel in the center wing
tank. The CWT didn't explode either on the ground or after takeoff.
Hundreds of B-747 flights are conducted each day under similar conditions and
they don't blow up.
One fix, that the NTSB is demanding, is to introduce nitrogen into an
empty fuel tank to preclude an explosion. It has not been done because of
the cost and weight penalty and the fact that it is unnecessary. The
airlines have adopted the manufacturer's recommendation to leave
approximately 50 gallons of fuel in a tank to keep the seals from drying out.
If this procedure is determined to be a problem, it could be solved by
pumping ALL the fuel from the center wing tank into one of the other tanks.
The design of the tanks and quantity measuring systems eliminate the chance
of an ignition spark. If the remaining fuel is pumped from the CWT tank this
removes the second leg of the combustion triangle and eliminates the problem.
If the FAA mandates these changes, at this late date, they have dropped
the ball by allowing these dangerous aircraft to continue to fly for the past
4 years.
We have operated the B-747 for over thirty years using the same
procedures without any problem. In my opinion, the Boeing B-747 is a safe
aircraft and the proposed modifications are unnecessary. I further believe
that concentration on the exploding fuel tank premise is merely a smoke
screen to cover up the real cause. The original report that TWA 800 was shot
down by a missile has yet to be disproved.
Richard D. Russell - B-747 Captain (ret)
1797 Mitchell Court
Daytona Beach, FL 32124-6760
904-760-6188
Best regards,
Dick Russell
"Because I fly, I envy no man on earth!"