Posted on 07/09/2025 4:16:16 AM PDT by MtnClimber
A Pair of Lawsuits Promise to Expose the Truth Behind the July 1996 Disaster.
On July 17, 1996, TWA 800, a Paris-bound 747, blew up ten miles off Long Island’s south shore, killing all 230 souls on board. In the days leading up to the anniversary, I will share some fresh insights on this tragedy and the much too successful cover-up that followed.
After 25 years investigating the destruction of TWA Flight 800, I have learned to temper my enthusiasms. That said, I continue to take heart when I see signs of life. Perhaps the most promising development in the case is the progression through the courts of Krick v. Raytheon.
Ronald Krick is the father of Oliver Krick, a 25-year-old student flight engineer killed in the crash. Krick has been joined in the suit by relatives of other deceased passengers and crew. The defendants are the Raytheon Company, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the United States government.
The Krick suit gained momentum when it absorbed information gleaned from a FOIA suit brought by Tom Stalcup, a no-nonsense physicist who has been pursuing this case since he was a grad student in 1996. To establish his claims Stalcup was granted subpoena power and was able to depose several key witnesses from within the investigation.
Stalcup appeared in the 2001 documentary, Silenced, produced by me and my late partner James Sanders. In 2013 Stalcup and the late Kristina Borjesson, formerly of CBS News, produced the excellent documentary, TWA Flight 800. What follows are extended passages from Krick v. Raytheon.
—On July 17, 1996, a Boeing 747 headed for Paris took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at around 8:20 p.m. Within twelve minutes of takeoff, the plane exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island, New York. All 230 passengers and crew members perished.
—After the incident, the federal government released a false report contending that the explosion was the result of an electrical fire in the airplane’s center fuel tank.
—Only recently, thanks to the work of physicist, Dr. Thomas Stalcup, through his Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) litigation in Massachusetts federal court, has evidence emerged proving that TWA 800’s explosion was not caused by any defect in the airplane, but instead by an errant United States missile fired at aerial target drones flying nearby.
—The evidence unearthed by Dr. Stalcup establishes that the United States, including its agencies, such as the United States Missile Defense Agency (formerly known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization), the United States Department of Defense, and the United States Navy (the “Government Defendants”), acting in concert and working side-by-side with Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation (the “Contractor Defendants”) and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive (collectively the “Defendants”) were testing the Aegis Weapons System and firing SM-2 missiles with live warheads from warship(s) at aerial missile targets off the coast of New York in close proximity to commercial airline flight paths. One such missile struck TWA flight 800, causing it to break apart and crash into the Atlantic Ocean, killing everyone aboard.
—Newly discovered evidence also shows that these Defendants engaged in a top-down cover-up to prevent the public from learning the truth about TWA 800. Proof of this cover-up, and of Defendants’ underlying culpability for the crash, was only recently unearthed by Dr. Stalcup after more than a decade of FOIA litigation against the Government Defendants.....SNIP
It’s your world truth is a stranger to you a pitiful thing.
That’s pretty much been the belief all along.. Accidental shoot down by US Navy missile.
“Compression raises the temperature up probably 6-8 times, (I’d have to do some calculations with Charles’ law to be sure) so inside a cylinder, the fuel temperature is probably around 600 degrees.”
#1 jet fuel would require a minimum of 2800 degrees created by compression and operating temp to self ignite. Now of course if you throw fuel onto a fire that is already burning at this temp it is going to burn. It takes a lighter and OXYGEN to start BBQ starter fluid. And BBQ starter fluid is literally jet fuel. But in a tank there is NO OXIDIZER. So even at that temp or even higher it is NOT going to just explode. But it will indeed burn if it is ruptured and meets oxygen on top of an existing fire from electrical wiring that is already burning.
It is the same with vehicle fires. There has to already be a fire from another source before the gasoline will ignite. I have watched fires burn under a tank full of gasoline burn for quite a bit before the gas expands and blows out of the tank and ignites. And even then it quite awhile longer for the tank to expand and rupture before creating a fire ball explosion.
Being in the heavy wrecker and towing business all my life I have had to sit and wait for at least 25 fuel delivery trucks to burn themselves out before I could extract them and remove them. Never once a violent explosion like in the movies... They just slowly melt and burn as the fuel pours out.
The facts are real science. Not the “official government narrative”.
TBall wrote: “What if President Clinton ordered it shot down? Would that be illegal or could it be argued done for national security?”
How would the naval crews know that Clinton had issued such an order? Do you really think that several hundred navy crewmen would follow such an order?
Yeah, especially when over 100 witnesses saw the SAME THING. Obviously, they were all delusional, to the same degree and recollection. /s
“What would atomize the fuel?”
Proof that you never read the NTSB report.
Such misdirection and forgetting of facts. Let’s review some items.
The plane had dropped into the restricted airspace to avoid another incoming aircraft. It was at 10K feet when hit and climbed up afterward. The restricted airspace was a weapons testing zone.
A target drone was seen heading toward and away from the area.
Electric boat maintains two diesel subs for weapons testing. I’m sure the minimum crew had top secret clearance and was told to keep silent.
Four years prior, Armada Magazine had a full page article on Litton’s award of a anti cruise-missile missile with a kinetic warhead aimed at the strongest electrical signature hence the missile locked on to the electric panel of the 747 and unfortunately severed the main spar as it passed through otherwise the plane would have kept flying. The electrical panel was next to main fuel tank. The missile’s search pattern started at 10K feet from that article. The missile was to be carried by the boomer picket subs.
From the comments here on FR at the time, this was the 7th of a 13 tests of the missile and monitored by the White House real time. Clinton was in the middle of the re-election campaign and didn’t need the distraction of a major fubar by the DOD of a top secret program hence the misdirection. Remember, the accident investigation was carried out by the FBI/Navy and the NTSB/FAA were told to bug off.
“So Jet-A has to be heated to above its flashpoint TO GIVE OFF VAPOR, but then requires the PROPER AIR/FUEL MIXTURE (concentration) and an ignition source.
Exactly right...
The 747 mixed high and low voltage wiring in cable bundles. Supposedly the low voltage level sensors in the center tank were exposed to high enough voltage to create arcs in the tank due to chafing in the cable bundle.
Planes are pretty flexible, take a beating on landings, and are exposed to quite a bit of expansion and contraction from temperature and pressure differences between sea level and 37,000 ft. I could see that causing cable chafing. Where I worked, cables would chafe from all the movement of just starting equipment and the resultant EMF.
“#1 jet fuel would require a minimum of 2800 degrees created by compression and operating temp to self ignite.”
LOL!
The autoignition temperature for #1 is 410 degrees F.
I remember from the time that it was obvious that flight 800 was shot down.
Many subsequent investigations/interviews have shown this to be certainly TRUE!
I HAVE ZERO DOUBT THAT FLIGHT 800 WAS SHOT DOWN. Likely by a U.S. Navy ship.
These are not the drones you are looking for.
“Exactly right...”
Yes. The temperatures in the center tank were above the flash point.
“How would the naval crews know that Clinton had issued such an order? Do you really think that several hundred navy crewmen would follow such an order?”
Yes... Once again they literally have absolutely no choice.
Let me share another one... A merchant marine friend of mine could never share his location with me the whole time he was employed for 20 years until he recently retired. And even then he has to be careful what he shares because operations and technological capabilities are so classified “For life” as per written non-disclosure contract.
You really do not understand how this all actually works do you? You must be in a bubble of false reality from brainwashing. Even with whistle blower protection laws if you do they will set you up and turn you into another Edward Snowden...
“But in a tank there is NO OXIDIZER. “
Most of the center tank was filled with an oxidizer!
You always have a friend that is sworn to secrecy. Interesting that a tow truck have so many friends in different branches that are sworn to secrecy but let you in on details.
sigh... yet another Clinton Legacy reveals it’s ugly head...
I’m one of the few around today that was on Free Republic back then and this is precisely what the eyewitnesses described and what we on FR way back then was saying happened.
It was a training accident caused by an errant Navy missile, and was covered up by the Clinton Administration with their Cock-and-Bull story about exploding center fuel tanks.
_______________
I remember those conversations. I had not joined until autumn but I was reading each evening
We had a lot of Aeronautical men here then, Pilots, and engineers, mostly military, some civilians . They took the whole accident apart in different threads IIRC. We could not have long threads back then. It was fascinating and informative.
No they were above the temp and produced gases. Those gasses in turn expelled all oxygen. Without the oxidizer it is impossible to “explode”.
If what you say is true, we should never turn on the ignition to our automobiles because of the fumes in the tank because the electrical arcing of the sending unit would make it explode.
I have literally had these out of the tank connected to power and watched the arcing they do... Personally, I am amazed that IT DOES NOT blow up tanks full of gasoline... Especially if you leave the vehicle running and then fuel it. The opportunity for oxygen to enter the tank is now present because the cap is off and it is a huge risk yet it has still hardly ever happened.
So you lurked for nine years before joining?
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