Piecing It All Together: Researchers Study Flight 800 Remains

ASHBURN, Va. - TWA Flight 800 burst into flames, broke into pieces and plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, N.Y., in July 1996. All 230 passengers and crewmembers lost their lives.

More than 10 years later, a large section of the fuselage has been reconstructed in a Loudoun County hangar at the National Transportation Safety Board's Training Center, a facility rented from GW's satellite campus here in Ashburn, Va. While so many lost their lives on that plane, its reconstruction now serves as an educational tool for students and professionals studying disaster.

Most people are unaware of the airplane's presence because the NTSB does not give public tours of the facility, said John Ziemba, director of marketing and communications at the Virginia Campus.

"They don't use it as a tourist attraction," Ziemba said. "It is in honor of the people who lost their lives."

Roughly 500 NTSB investigator trainees and members of disaster management agencies view the wreckage each year, Kudson said. Despite restrictions, Loudoun County Public High School students participating in Engineering and Technology Day at the Virginia Campus toured the facility with reporters April 11.

Upon entering the building, the jigsaw of metal and wires stands long and tall. Windows and doors are still intact, and "Trans World," the beginning of the plane's former owner's name, is still visible. The aircraft is the largest reconstruction of its kind in the world, Wildey said, and often leaves observers silent.

"Most people are awed by the size and scope of the reconstruction," said Peter Knudson, the NTSB communications manager at the training center.

The Boeing 747 had a rough journey to GW. After disintegrating over the ocean, the airplane was recovered by the NTSB in 100 feet of water, and the wreckage was reconstructed in a Long Island warehouse, Wildey said. TWA did not want the wreckage, Wildey said, so the NTSB became the owner.

The investigation into the cause of the crash, one of the most complex in civil aviation history, officially ended in 2000. The pieces of the plane were packed into boxes, the NTSB Materials Laboratory chief said.

The NTSB began its lease of a building from GW at the Loudon County campus in 2003, and it has since remained the wreckage's storage facility, Wildey said. After an eight-week reconstruction, the plane began to serve as an educational tool, he said.

During Engineering and Technology Day, Wildey explained how the accident occurred to the group of high school students. Although the FBI originally blamed the crash on a criminal act, the NTSB determined that an electrical current was able to propagate through wires into the center section of the aircraft's fuel tank, which was full of flammable vapors, he said. Within six months, Wildey explained, the investigators decided that the explosion occurred in the center section of the wing tank.

Conspiracy theories about the ignition source and cause of the crash still circulate today. Wildey said the NTSB will continue utilizing the wreckage for educational purposes and that the downed plane's remains will stay at the Virginia campus indefinitely.

___ The initial event that started tearing the 747 apart took place at about 13,800 feet at approximately 8:31:12.

The huge fireball exploded long after that and below 7500 feet.

___ First airborne witness radio report of the huge fireball explosion - 38 seconds after the initial event:
0031:50 [Eastwind Airlines 507] we just saw an explosion out here stinger bee five oh seven http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/CRASH/TWA/ATC_TRANSCRIPT.html

___ NTSB Exhibit 4-A AIRBORNE WITNESS MATRIX - There were several airborne witnesses. Their observations are recorded on the chart below. Except for summaries 070-29,30, and 52, which was the Air National Guard helicopter crew, no airborne witness observed streaks.
http://www.twa800.com/4a/exhibit4a.html
Those who gave estimates of the altitude of the huge fireball explosion gave these estimates of that explosion: 5/8,000 feet - 5/6,000 feet - 3/5,000 feet - 8,000 feet - 7,500 feet - 7,000 feet and 4/5,000 feet.

___ From: Thomas Shoemaker
http://www.montereypeninsulaairport.com/800newsreports2.html
Subject: eyewitness report
Below is the eyewitness account e-mailed to me by Sven Faret.

BEGINQUOTE:
Witnessing the downing of Flight 800 by Sven Faret and Ken Wendel
These events outlined below are actual and accurate. No part should be discounted in any way.They are presented without personal opinion and exactly as viewed by us from our perspective.Our intent is to offer as much factual detail as possible in order to aid in this investigation. Situation:
Pilot: Sven Faret
Passenger: Ken Wendell
8500 feet over Riverhead LI, NY.
Apx 20:40 hrs, July 17, 1996
N1182J climbing at 95 knots (AC-12 privately Owned)
090 heading
Visibility 8 miles in haze below. Top of haze 6500 feet
Visibility 50+ miles above haze setting sun lighting up clouds to the north, above the haze Ground very dark,, ground surface lights outlining Long Island
< Ocean waters very black
Prior contact with Long Island departure control on 118.00
Frequency change approved, squawking 1200
Monitoring 118.00, listening to local traffic
Observation:
Being cautious of traffic in a dark sky, we had all marker lights, strobes, and sky flasher operating on our aircraft. Ken pointed out traffic at 3 o'clock low (actually 2:30). Sven saw a white light steady in the sky. My first impression was landing lights pointed towards us putting it in a northerly direction. Ken saw two lights very close together. A short "pin flash of light" appeared on the ground (perhaps water). Very shortly thereafter the white light exploded instantaneously into a huge red-orange ball. My initial response was, "Who's shooting fireworks tonight?". The magnitude of the fire ball, and altitude, quickly (less than a second) ruled that out. Immediately thereafter a large fire ball emerged from the bottom of the initial fireball, accelerating straight down, as if it had just started to fall. Like a teardrop it drew with it a tail of fire down to the water surface. We watched intently as the descending fire fell closer to the water. Sven was awaiting the fire to illuminate the water surface as it fell. At the same moment a pilot reported it to the controller on 118.00. A second pilot responded and then we reported it. We saw it hit the water, lighting up the surrounding surface very well. Large splashes could be seen around the fire. The fire on the surface was relatively small, but was spreading quickly. I asked Ken, "What was that!? Its probably the National Guard boys losing a C 130 or something...Maybe they shot down one of their own planes."
We proceeded to fly over to the smoke cloud. As we crossed the shore line I looked down and saw 3 boats en route to the fire, about 25% of the way. I estimated the flames to be 6-7 miles off shore. We watched intently seeing a flashing light at the SE edge of the flames, but it soon stopped. We observed a steady blinking light drifting SW away from the scene. Ken said it appeared to be a helicopter just west of the flames. Sven thought it could have been a marker beacon on a life raft. This was about 5+ minutes after the explosion. We approached the black-gray smoke cloud on the west side. We were at 7700 feet and were at the top edge of the cloud. The cloud center was at 7500 feet. There were two small bumps upon it. There was no smoke or smoke trails above it. it was still lit up a little by the sun, clear above. There was a tornado like tail leaving the bottom of it leading down to the flames. It had a small arc in it as the winds gently moved the cloud NNW. I said to Ken, "I have an eery feeling about this place, what ever stung this thing could sting us too. Let's bolt out-a-here." We swung north. As we were turning, we saw twin engine commuter traffic above us at 8000+ traveling NW. We called Flight service on 122.6 and reported what we saw. We flew back to Riverhead and east. Over Mattituck Airport we decided that the event had to be enough of a finale for the evening. We called approach on 132.25 for clearance back to Islip. We also told that controller what we saw.
Immediate Personal Impressions:
No thoughts of commercial air traffic accident.
Some aircraft with a lot of fuel.
A missile attack seems improbable, but not impossible.
The quickness of the eruption.
A white light exploding into a fireball. Very vertical accelerating descent of debris.
The length of the flame tail extending from the descending debris.
Clear sky above the gray smoke cloud.
Dark thin drifting smoke trail down to the debris on the surface.
Post Flight Actions:
We returned back to the hanger and called our wives. We let them know that we were O.K., in case they might have heard of any air accident reports. When we got to Ken's house, we heard that a 747 went down. We called fox News and told them what we saw.
Post Media Personal Impressions:
We were interviewed by the FBI and NTSB. They took our report, but we felt they did not capture the detail we expressed, or the certainty of our facts.
Comments:
Although Sven and Ken are in no position to conclude anything, this piece of the puzzle MUST fit into any official version of the incident.
Notes:
Only burning debris was visible to us.

___In short, TWA 800 was not shot down by a missile. The altitude of the huge fireball explosion - below 7500 feet - tells the tale.

I certainly could not speak for Bill Whittle in rebutting (or not rebutting) any specific conspiracy. I would have to personally look at all the evidence to come up with any kind of conclusion.

I would think that the bald facts of the case, no matter how interpreted, would look pretty grim for the Clintons.

Victor, you might want to read Part I which in my opinion is even better. It discusses typical leftist tropes like “No blood for oil” and “Bush is a dummy” in amazingly straightforward ways I have never seen before.

Read about what a war for oil would really look like, among other topics, here:
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000136.html

Finally, I should add that I went through the whole NTSB report for Flight 800 and found it convincing. I’m not saying all government is this way, but I do think the investigators did a first-rate professional job. As Bill Whittle said, about Rosie O’Donnell:

“To her, and to her audience, it is taken as granted that the government is capable of such things. As if “the government” was operated by cyborgs grown in Haliburton vats, rather than by well-meaning and patriotic people that love this country.”

I think the conspiracy theorists about Flight 800 are making the same mistakes in trying to smear the NTSB. I have read a lot of NTSB reports - they often make fascinating reading - and I believe them to be a group of the well-meaning and patriotic people Bill Whittle refers to above.

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