TWA 800 FOIA Suit Yields Smoking Gun

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | August 30, 2007 | Jack Cashill

[neverdem]

More than six years after retired United Airline captain Ray Lahr launched his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition into the fate of TWA Flight 800, the FBI has shown him—likely by accident—one seriously smoking gun.

The Boeing 747 blew up off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996. One of the FBI documents received recently by Lahr and his attorney, John Clarke of Washington DC, details a communication that took place six days after the crash:

"On Tuesday, July 23, 1996, a representative from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) advised [the FBI] that after a visual analysis of both the videotape as well as a number of still photographs taken from various portions of the tape, the phenomenon captured by [name redacted] appeared to be consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD [Man-portable air-defense] missile."

“The FBI guy who looked at this must not have read it, or not have realized what it would reveal,” says Lahr. “Otherwise he would have redacted most of it as before.”

Adding a new level of intrigue to the investigation is the fact that the video in question appears to have been shot on July 12, 1996, five days before the crash.

The earlier, unedited FBI document reports that a fellow and his friend on Long Island were attempting to videotape the sunrise when they saw and recorded “a grey trail of smoke ascending from the horizon at an angle of approximately 75 [degrees].”

So compelling was the visual that the fellow made a comment to his friend, heard on the tape, “They must be testing a rocket.” The fellow calculated that object was heading towards the Atlantic Ocean.

On the document Lahr first received, the story of the video ends right there. The next two paragraphs had...

[Calpernia]

ping

[Uriah_lost]

I’ve still got a lot of uniform parts and some other “collector” stuff. I didn’t get in on the feeding frenzy when AA emptied the wearhouse of china and crystal and such though. I got my latest 5 year pin the same day I got my furlough notice, a month after 9/11.

[UCANSEE2]

Hmmmmmm... the Concorde.

[Army Air Corps]

So, you worked for TWA? What equipment?

[Uriah_lost]

I was a flight attendant, one of those rare, straight, male and single ones. Most folks didn’t know what to make of me. If I didn’t have the bum ticker I would have been a pilot.
Short answer...all of it!

[Army Air Corps]

So, you poor soul, you had to hang-out with the air hostesses. ;-)

Lucky bastard.

[Army Air Corps]

So, what routes did you fly?

Any really hairy landings?

[ntnychik]

For a non-fiction book credibly tying TWA 800, the Cole bombing, and 9-11 together, I recommend Peter Lance’s book, Cover Up.

[Uriah_lost]

I flew reserves so I could get the 12 day on/12 day off schedule. I flew just about everything that departed StLouis and some that didn’t. I had some hairy moments...three attempts to land in Springfield MO during a thunderstorm before we went back to St Louis, one night was probably the wildest. Fortunately it was in one of our DC9’s which were freaking tanks and always made me more comfortable(strange sounding but true). I was in the air from Omaha to STL when the planes hit the WTC. That was more like a bad trip(drug kind) than anything else. I wasn’t scared at the time, that came later. I just spent about a week on the couch watching the news reports.

[Uriah_lost]

That was my plan!! Some great “lay-overs” in some romantic cities, let me tell ya!

[Stonewall Jackson]

Thanks, I’ll have to check that out.

[Army Air Corps]

I remember the old British Caledonian advert where the guys sing “I wish they were all Caledonian Girls” while dishy air hostesses were displayed in their fetching uniforms.

A few years ago, I flew on Vietnam Airlines and decided that I needed to land a gig as an HR manager for the airline - some of the most beautiful air hostesses I have ever seen.

I bet that you saw a lot of changes during your years.

[isthisnickcool]

I don't know what happened to TWA 800 but you might expect that if there was a defect that it would not have been the only plane to fall out of the sky.

As far as muzzies and MANPADS? For many years DHS has been going to LEO get-togethers and showing them what the various parts of MANPADS look like so they can identify the parts if they see them. It's a certainty that the muzzies with the help of S. American gangs such as MS-13 have been smuggling MANPADS in to the US for years now. Considering that the kill zone for those damn things is 40 miles around an airport and that they can be taken out of the back of a car trunk and shot don't be surprised when one day a lot of US commercial aircraft get shot out of the sky at about the same time.

happy flying....

[Uriah_lost]

I started in the reservation center on a phone. One of the great things about TWA(for the employees) was the ability to move laterally within the company. I could do any job that didn’t require specialized certification(unless I got the cert). You could start anywhere and try different jobs(in 6 month blocks) until you found your perfect fit. I had a great deal of history with the Airline.
As an Air Force brat, I was loaded on a plane and sent to stay with the rest of my family almost every summer and my mother still has the cocktail napkin note that a FA sent home with me when I was 7 years old flying as an unaccompanied minor. It seems I called her over and warned her that the wings were “bending” but she said I whispered it so I wouldn’t upset the other passengers. I even still have my “Junior Captain’s” wings. I was flying U/M from the US to Cairo and back when I was 13. It really seemed like fate that I got a chance to work there and I had had every intention of staying until retirement.
We had all been through so much together with the Icahn era and such that there developed a level of camaraderie that can only form under adversity. To be honest though, some of the very best people to work with were the Ozark Airlines folks that came over when we bought them out. They didn’t have some of the bad habits that some from the heyday of TWA had.
I once had a very senior TWA FA (we called them the “senior mamas") mutter something under her breath about “we never used to hire people like that” when a perky young FA bounced on board. I knew one FA that had been sent home, in the '70s because she checked in “overweight”; she was 5’10” tall and was not allowed to be over 128lbs....so many tales...
Good times, good times, my friend.
Did you ever see our disposable uniforms(for female FA's only) ? They were made to look somewhat like the “national costume” of the destination country and were made of paper. That was an ill conceived plan, right there. lol
On the beautiful attendants topic, I always looked forward to layovers in NYC because they put us up in a hotel close to Times Square that served air crews from most of the international carriers. I'd sit in the lobby and drool!! After I knew my way around I was able to use that and voluteer as a guide if one of them looked lost....that worked out very, very well....when I wasn't cut out by a pilot. I always maintained that it was an unfair advantage that they got hats. That's the only explanation.
If you think I like talking about my airline, you should see me with a few drinks in me! It's embarrassing, really!

[calcowgirl]

= May 25, 1979 =
The engine of an American Airlines DC-10 separates during take-off from Chicago on a flight to Los Angeles. Within a minute the aircraft explodes after hitting the ground. All people on board and two on the ground died, a total of 273 fatalities.

= June 6, 1979 =
The FAA grounds the worldwide DC-10 fleet after inspectors find cracks in the wing pylons of two other DC-10-10s after the 25 May crash. The grounding includes the DC-10-30 and DC-10-40, although no aircraft of these versions show cracks.

= July 13, 1979 =
The FAA lifts the DC-10 grounding. It is founded that the cracks were the result of maintenance methods not complying with the manuals. American and Continental Airlines use forklifts to remove and attach the engines for maintenance.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

What was your point then?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

With all due respect, just because myth busters couldn’t reproduce it doesn’t mean that under the right conditions it could happen. Oh well.

[Non-Sequitur]

OK, one. I stand corrected. But that was 30 years ago. DC-10s have been lost since then and the fleet hasn’t been grounded. Also what about other crashes? 737s, 747s, 757s, 767s, 777s have all been lost. DC-9s, MD-80s, any number of Airbus aircraft have been lost and none of them grounded. The fact that the 747 fleet wasn’t grounded following TWA800 is meaningless. Unless you subscribe to all the conspiracy theories.

[Non-Sequitur]

I don't know what happened to TWA 800 but you might expect that if there was a defect that it would not have been the only plane to fall out of the sky.

Why not?

[Non-Sequitur]

Hmmmmmm... the Concorde.

I believe that the Concorde was grounded by the airlines, not by civil aviation authorities