Posted on 11/16/2007 10:04:18 PM PST by Sioux-san
On the Sunday morning of July 3, 1988, at the tail end of the Iran-Iraq War, an Aegis cruiser, the USS Vincennes, fired two Standard Missiles at a commercial Iranian Airbus, IR655.
The first missile struck the tail and right wing and broke the aircraft in half. All 290 people aboard were killed. Misunderstanding America, the Iranians claimed that our Navy had intentionally destroyed the plane.
The Navy did no such thing.
(Excerpt) Read more at cashill.com ...
Global Security.org Narrangansett Bay Complex
W-105 is used for surface-to-air gunnery exercises using conventional ordnance and Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) exercises. Live firing of conventional ordnance is authorized in the northeastern and western portion of W-105. The airspace is also used for flight testing. Effective altitudes in W-105 are: W-105A/C, surface to FL500; W-105B, surface to 17,999 feet; W-105D, surface to 14,999 feet; W-105E, 15,000 feet to FL500.I assume 'conventional ordnance' precludes SAMs.
Well, the term 'gunnery exercises' alone would preclude that.
Exercise areas like W-105 date back to the Second World War, and I've no doubt that when established they were used for gunnery exercises. Being that close to New York it would make sense. But in my 30 years experience in the Navy I never heard of a single live fire gunnery exercise of any kind north of the Virginia capes. And no missile firing of any kind outside of the Atlantic Fleet Missile Range off Puerto Rico. And the reason is simple, it's insanely stupid to shoot off ordinance around civilian air traffic.
What you did have in W-105, during the night in quesiton and many other nights before and after TWA 800, were P-3 exercises. W-105 lies close to the sub base at New London. The Navy would often take advantage of subs transiting to and from the base and allow P-3s from Brunswick to try and track them. That's what was happening that night. The ordinance in question were sonobuoys and flares. The P-3 was flying low and all ordinance ejected from it went down, not up.
It was the first episode of the Best Evidence series that also has examined such subjects as Bigfoot, The Roswell Incident, and Chemical Contrails. The TWA 800 episode was the first one in the series, and originally aired in January of 2007.
The episode will next air on the The DiscoveryTimes Channel on Christmas Day at noon EST. DiscoveryTimes seems to be having an all day marathon of Best Evidence.
The program also airs on the Discovery Channel, but there are no listings for the TWA 800 program yet.
So you did see the program, and it was on The Discovery Channel. It just wasn't an episode of MythBusters.
No. I distinctly remember the two “Mythbusters” guys, esp. the guy with the quasi-handlebar moustache. He’s hard to miss. Also, it was just the two of them, mostly, on camera. It was definitely “Mythbusters.” Sorry you guys can’t track it down, but it’s out there.
I also searched around online, but found nothing.
Searching through the 'official' Mythbusters Encylclopedia of Myths for keywords, 'TWA 800' or 'kerosene' returns nothing.
Searching for '747' returned two episodes (#90) about whether a real 747 could blow a car off the runway and whether someone with no flight training could safely land a 747 (#94).
Searching for 'gas tank' returned one episode (#88) about the various myths surrounding gas tanks in cars.
Not a flame, but since you mis-remembered the altitude of TWA 800, it stands to reason that you might also be mis-remembering this, too.
Nope. And I’m not “misremembering” anything. It was the TWA 800 gas tank explosion.
I”m not registered there, but just go on the forum and ask who remembers the episode. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of hits.
Fine. Whatever. I watch Mythbusters pretty regularly and I've never seen anything like what you claim.
I”m not registered there, but just go on the forum and ask who remembers the episode. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of hits.
The episode guide to which I linked requires no registration.
I'm not going to do your searches for you. You made the claim, so it's up to you to back it up. I provided a source to the complete episode guide. If you truly believe that you're right, go there and find the episode.
“True enough. All I was pointing out was that the VLS that launch Tomahawks is physically also able hold SM-2s. There have suggestions to test sub launched SM-2s that would be guided by a nearby Aegis, in much the same way a single F-111F could lase targets for several aircraft carrying Paveway PGMs but had no target designators of their own.”
There has never been a test of a submarine launching a SM-2 because there is no need for that capability.
“Why do that? I don’t know, but maybe so that the search radar and the missile come from different directions.”
That is already done with the other surface combatants so there is no need for submarines to have the capability to fire SAM’s.
“Harpoons have been test fired from canisters,”
All surface launched Harpoons are launched from canisters. Submarine launched Harpoons are fired through the boat’s torpedo tubes and have a booster on it to help during the launch sequence.
Air launched Harpoons are hung from missile rails in their flight configuration.
“and that allows the sub to at least vacate the immediate area prior to launch, and also to allow launch from depth.”
There is no “delay launch”, and like launching all other missiles they are launched from shallow depth because if launched from a deeper depth it would require more compressed air to launch the weapon thus taking away compressed air that would be needed to launch additional weapons.
“Global Security.org Narrangansett Bay Complex
W-105 is used for surface-to-air gunnery exercises using conventional ordnance and Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) exercises. Live firing of conventional ordnance is authorized in the northeastern and western portion of W-105. The airspace is also used for flight testing. Effective altitudes in W-105 are: W-105A/C, surface to FL500; W-105B, surface to 17,999 feet; W-105D, surface to 14,999 feet; W-105E, 15,000 feet to FL500.
I assume ‘conventional ordnance’ precludes SAMs.”
The crash happened outside of the warning area.
That and the Hindenberg episode are as close as I can come to anything aircraft and exploding.
That and the Hindenberg episode are as close as I can come to anything aircraft and exploding.
Thanks. Saw both of those. I thought the Hindenburg episode was particularly interesting.
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