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James Sanders in his book Downing of TWA Flight 800 says terrorists intended to ram a airliner departing JFK with a smaller plane packed with explosives. US intelligence learned of the plot and alerted the US Navy. The Navy attempted to shoot down the smaller plane with two missiles but the plane was closing fast on TWA800.

Ideas like this always strike me as disinformational backfires. (i.e crazy ideas that are associated with an inconvenient truth, that can be used to discredit the inconvenient truth. Other examples are some of the stories about Vincent Foster and the "clipper chip" or supposed runs he made to Swiss Banks.) So the Navy knew about this "smaller plane" and just happened to decide to conduct some exercises in the area that day? I don't remember. Does Sanders suggest that this "smaller plane" was actually there and such an attempt was made. If yes: Isn't it remarkable that no one saw this "smaller plane" including the FAA Radar? If no: Did the Navy shoot at the nonexistent plane? And what kind of a "smaller plane" was this? None of the planes I've flown can fly and/or climb that fast. These are the ravings of a madman.

ML/NJ

Sanders cites testimony from the crew of a cargo plane that had to take evasive action to avoid a midair collision with a small plane in the vicinity of the TWA800 crash site. Apparently the small plane was intent on ramming the cargo plane and veered off because it realized that the target plane was not an airliner.

As I understand it, no one knows what was on the FAA radar because those tapes went missing. Also, if indeed the smaller plane was being flown by terrorist, they would have minimized traces of their plot by not filing a flight plan, not using their transponder, and taking off from an uncontrolled airport.

They could have used a twin engine aircraft, something like a King Air, to pack in over 1000 lbs of explosives. They would not have to be particularly fast. They could have waited at altitude for a target of opportunity. After all, it was perfect VFR conditions that day.

This scenario is consistent with prior reports of terrorists wanting to load small planes with explosives and crash them into buildings. Wasn't this one of Khalid Sheik Mohammed's plots that eventually evolved into the 9/11 attack?

I am not quite ready to write James Sanders off as a madman.