"While many witness accounts remain a mystery to me, I believe that my effort to pin the crash of TWA 800 on the Navy was reckless and a mistake. I apologize to all those in the Navy I have wrongfully accused. I also apologize to those who believed in my efforts and who are now upset with me for my change of mind. "
"How can you argue with four government agencies?" Grassley asked.
While some critics had accused Boeing of quietly pushing a bomb-and-missile theory, the tests and court records reveal for the first time evidence that Boeing has actually refused to rule out a bomb or missile in the July 1996 TWA crash. Boeing's seemingly conflicting role - as a key participant in crash probes and a manufacturer fending off liability claims - was examined in a study of crash investigations by the Rand Corp., a California-based think tank. The study, commissioned by the NTSB and expected to be turned over to the safety board in the next two weeks, will propose an overhaul of crash investigations, according to people familiar with its findings. While still endorsing Boeing's participation in crash investigations, Rand is prepared to outline safeguards to prevent manufacturers from using their investigative role to slow or confuse crash investigations. In particular, Rand is expected to propose that manufacturers be kept at an arm's length from certain scientific studies to ensure the independence and integrity of investigations. Boeing engineers are again playing a critical role as the investigation into the fate of EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 jetliner, gets under way in Rhode Island. The jet plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Mass., one week ago, killing all 217 aboard. At the same time last week, Boeing was continuing to pursue evidence of foul play in the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, N.Y. Two years after the FBI and federal aviation investigators ruled out a bomb or missile in that crash, Boeing has refused to abandon the sabotage theory. Safety officials have concluded that the jet's center fuel tank exploded but have yet to identify the ignition source. On Wednesday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed a General Accounting Office (GAO) report showing that Boeing for three years failed to share with Flight 800 investigators a scientific study that could have helped determine the cause of the TWA crash. Boeing's refusal to eliminate a bomb or missile as a cause of that earlier crash is a strategy that appears to be coming largely from company attorneys, including those at the Seattle firm Perkins Coie, which is defending Boeing in a lawsuit filed by family members who lost loved ones in TWA Flight 800. While that case is pending, several other families have settled their cases. But the legal message also is being echoed by Boeing's top official, Chairman Phil Condit, who told The Seattle Times last week that the bomb-or-missile theory "is improbable at this point. But until you find a probable cause, you are never sure." Grassley, the Iowa senator who has been looking into the flaws in the investigation of Flight 800, said Boeing could be inviting ridicule by trying to disprove the NTSB, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and others who rejected bomb and missile theories. "How can you argue with four government agencies?" Grassley asked. "I don't think they enhance their own public relations if they continue to pursue the missile or bomb theory."