TWA 800 an accident, say investigators.

Fox News/ AP ^ | 7/02/2013 | AP

[Carriage Hill]

Current and former federal officials who played key roles in the investigation of one of the nation's worst aviation disasters said Tuesday they stand by their conclusion that the explosion of TWA flight 800 was caused by overheated fuel tank vapors, and not a bomb or missile.

The officials spoke to reporters at a briefing on the National Transportation Safety Board's four-year investigation following the explosion and crash of the Boeing 747 off Long Island, N.Y., on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board. The board took the usual step of organizing the briefing on an investigation that has been closed for years. That's in response to a new documentary film set to air this month on the 17th anniversary of the tragedy. The film says new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/02/twa-800-accident-say-investigators/?test=latestnews#ixzz2XyoJDbTM

[Alberta's Child]

The most plausible missile theory I had seen involved speculation that the Navy was conducting tests using an advanced missile that was designed to track a target through the sky using the target’s own radio signals, rather than a heat signature from the engines. This type of missile doesn’t destroy a target by striking it directly like a heat-seeking missile does ... rather, it is similar to an old-fashioned flak burst from an anti-aircraft gun. The missile carries a small warhead that explodes in close proximity to the target, sending out a burst of “shrapnel” made of tiny fragments of a very heavy metal (tungsten carbide, for example) that shreds the skin of the aircraft and destroys any of the mechanical systems located in the body of the aircraft near the blast.