World Net Daily/Western Journalism Center
Tuesday.July 21, l998 by Steve Allen
WASHINGTON -- "Somebody came into our waters and shot down -- for the first time ever -- a flag carrier of the United States," an expert on the explosion of TWA Flight 800 said at a Washington briefing yesterday.
Commander Bill Donaldson, a retired Navy pilot and accident investigator who has spent 15 months examining the case, said that two missiles were fired in the vicinity of the airplane, and that one of them exploded close enough to bring the plane down. It's no wonder, he said, that investigators did not find evidence of a direct missile hit; the missile was of a type specifically designed to explode near (rather than in contact with) its target.
Flight 800, Donaldson said, "was intentionally destroyed by a powerful, proximity fused, airbursting, anti-aircraft weapon launched from a position approximately one nautical mile off shore and three nautical miles east of Moriches Inlet, Long Island, New York." In addition, the airplane was "engaged seconds later by a second missile fired from a closer position to the south of [the plane's] track."
There were 230 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 747 when it was destroyed, on the evening of July 17, 1996. The plane was bound for Paris and, at the time of the explosion, was eight miles off Long Island.