Posted on 11/18/2001 3:22:40 PM PST by Map Kernow
AVIATION investigators were examining a security camera video tape yesterday which appeared to have caught the break-up of the American Airlines Airbus A300 which crashed over New York on Monday as inquiries continued to focus on the failure of the tail section.
A National Transport Safety Board official in Washington said evidence was growing that the complete tail section had broken off in flight before the engines, making the jet uncontrollable. He added that there "doesn't appear to have been sabotage in any way".
Large sections of the tail and rudder assembly, made of lightweight non-metal graphite composites, have been sent to the NTSB's forensic laboratories in Washington in search of evidence of why the assembly should have failed as the Airbus, which had just taken off from JFK International Airport in New York, ran through turbulence created by a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
American Airlines Flight 587 rattled and shook as it crossed two turbulent wakes after take-off, broke up in the air, and went into a 20-second nosedive before crashing into a residential section of Queens, killing all 260 people aboard and five on the ground.
The newly discovered videotape taken from a camera on the nearby Marine Parkway Bridge captured crucial seconds from the flight of the plane. It shows the white outline of the airliner before the image appears to break up.
Then the camera captures a spreading puff of pale smoke, followed by a plume of darker smoke. But the image is too hazy to offer clear evidence at this stage, and the film has been sent to FBI laboratories for enhancement.
New York has been left reeling as a new round of funerals begins. The Rockaway section of Queens, close to the beach and the airport, was known as home to the largest concentration of New York firemen and policemen who had died in the World Trade Centre terrorist attack on September 11. This weekend the neighbourhood mourns at the funerals of residents killed in the crash.
One young widow has emerged from the horror bearing a burden felt by the whole city. Mrs Naomi Gullickson, 38, lost her fireman husband, Lt Joseph Gullickson, in the collapse of the Twin Towers, and her father Jose Perez in Monday's air crash.
"I can't believe the two men I love most in the world are gone, my father and my husband," she told the New York Daily News. "Every day I spent wishing Joe would come back from the rubble, I had my father there for me. Now he's gone too. I can't understand what God's purpose is in all this."
Mrs Gullickson is left with two infant children, Amanda, three, and Isabel, one. Only on the Friday before the air crash, her father had helped her host a wake for Lt Gullickson, missing and presumed dead, at her home in Staten Island before a memorial service was held for him at his local Roman Catholic church.
The theory du jour about the Flight 587 disaster. Interesting how the "evidence" for the NTSB's latest theory is always characterized as "growing" right before they decide to abandon it for a new one.
ALL OUT OF JFK AIRPORT.
I know where *I'd* start looking....
They dont. They are telling a white lie that has a 50 % chance of being correct. It either is sabotage or it is not. We now simply cannot expect a federal government agency to have the ability to scientifically investigate a commercial airliner crash. The feds have invested millions in loans to the commercial airline companies. The commercial viability of these loans requires that this incident be something that can be fixed in a short period of time. Sabotage and terrorism cannot be fixed quickly. A set of loose bolts or weak bolts can be fixed in a few weeks.
Seen the tape? I doubt it. I don't think you can extrapolate the way you have from the account here either. Call it "fantasizing" maybe.
Tell us what is unfounded in #2. If you know.
Your point is compelling. Thanks very much for your informative post.
JMHO, they are really putting their credibility on the line here. I don't know many people who believe terrorism was not involved here, and for the government to be writing it off as a cause when they admit they don't know the cause is just a little much.
Come on, do you really think they are going to admit that there was "sabotage" a week before their busiest holiday of the year? No. I suspect the "investigation" will remain "inconclusive" until after New Year's Day. THEN we MIGHT hear about suspected sabotage...I don't trust anyone to tell us the truth, though. If it was a bomb, it would mean certain bankruptcy for the airlines at this point. The airline industry is such a huge portion of our national income (10%?) that the government has every reason to hide evidence of terrorism, IMHO.
FReegards...
Lockheed/Martin gets to build the new fighter.....
Airbus falls apart.....
Boeing stays afloat?
Maybe there isn't one? (a purpose and/or a God)
I suppose we'll all find out eventually, huh?
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