Posted on 11/17/2001 10:58:21 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Saturday, Nov. 17, 2001 11:39 a.m. EST Flight 587 Video Shows 'Puff of Smoke' in Sky A second-by-second videotape of the final moments of doomed American Airlines Flight 587 shows a puff of smoke in the sky seconds after it crashed outside New York's JFK Airport Monday, lending credence to eyewitnesses who say the jetliner exploded before slamming into a Rockaway, N.Y., neighborhood. Though Flight 587 probers have not released the key videotape, shot from a Metropolitan Transportation Authority highway surveillance camera, reporters from New York's Daily News were allowed to view it Friday. "The tape ... shows a white outline of the jetliner against a clear sky in fairly steep decline," the News reported in Saturday editions. "Seconds later, the outline disappears and the video shows a blurry, white, undefined patch as the plane apparently breaks apart." Visible in one of the final frames of the sequential videotape is "a puff of white smoke in the sky." The images of Flight 587's final moments are said to be "very unclear." FBI and NTSB investigators hope to learn more through video enhancement techniques. On Friday, MTA spokesman Tom Kelly told NewsMax.com that the FBI had turned the videotape over to the NTSB, but apparently both agencies now have copies and continue to analyze them. Enhancement of the Flight 587 video could confirm the accounts of eyewitnesses like Jackie Powers, who, minutes after the crash, told both ABC News and WABC Radio in New York that she saw "an enormous flash" near the wing on the A-300 Airbus before it dropped from the sky. "I don't know if it was fire or an explosion," she said. "It appeared that debris fell from the left side [of the plane]. It just plummeted. It had no momentum whatsoever. It just plummeted." Dozens of other witnesses told various media outlets they saw the jet either explode or catch fire before it crashed. An explosion would be a problem for NTSB officials, who spent the better part of the last few days trying to sell the idea that the plane's vertical stabilizer snapped off, causing the in-flight breakup, because of "wake turbulence" from a Japan Airlines 747 that had taken off from JFK two minutes earlier. Independent aviation experts have generally scoffed at the NTSB theory. "[747 wake turbulence] is not strong enough to be able to break off a tail or to compromise any sort of a normal airplane," said ABC News aviation analyst John Nance on Friday. "They could turn a little airplane upside down. But especially an A-300, which is a jumbo jet - no way in the world should that ever have any potentially disastrous impact on the aircraft or the tail," he explained. On Wednesday, an unnamed aviation expert quoted in New York's Newsday said one likely explanation for Flight 587's breakup was a bomb exploding on board. (See: Aviation Expert: Bomb One Likely Cause of Flight 587 Crash.)
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
TWA 800
War on Terrorism
I sent a copy of it to a mechanical engineer friend of mine also.
That didn't happen. Upon hearing of the explosion through "sources" the FBI sped to the crash site, grabbed the crumpled stabilizer, threw it on a flat bed, covered it with a tarp, and whisked it away to an unknown, secure location. Meantime, another team of FBI agents had attached a mockup tail fin to a crane and dropped it into Jamaca Bay while everyone was watching news of the crash on television. They spread rumors of the tail section coming off in flight and then said, "Hey, everybody, overhere!" Once the TV cameras arrived they lifted the tail section out of the water.
It is not hard to unravel these conspiracies once you know how these people think.
Oh. Thanks for the clarification. I completely agree. From now on, everytime someone makes an asinine claim they are unable to support, I will exercise even more inititiative then giving them specific numbers proving they are wrong (ref post 114), and instead make up an equally asinine and unsupportable claim so idiots like you can imagine they live a life weaving across double yellow lines.
Freeper 1: Interesting pictures, what is your interpretation?
Jimhotep: See the pictures.
Freeper 2: Yes, we see them, what do you mean?
Jimhotep: Be the pictures.
Freeper 3: Argh, what's your game, man?
Jimhotep: Ask yourself this question. Recall the fable of the monkey and the aerospace engineer...
I had to go back and read your previous post to me. Having re-read it, I now remember why I didn't respond. I didn't respond because I couldn't figure out what you were trying to say. I still can't. Empathy?!?! Anyway, the only data on this topic (TWA800) presented by anyone on this thread is the unsupported "Hundreds" of witnesses, and the 7 witnesses listed in the WT ad. It took me 2 seconds to consider that data. My post #91 stands uncontested.
Thank you for the ping. Yes please keep me on your list, pretty please. thank you.You're always on my good list, Snow Bunny! ;-)
The Eyewitness Evidence of Flight 800
"Of the 183 who observed a streak of light, 102 gave information about the origin of the streak. Six said the streak originated from the air, and 96 said that it originated from the surface."
-- NTSB exhibit 4A: Witness Group Factual Report
As I recall, the first A300 in its debut at the Paris Airshow was showing off its state-of-the-art flight control system and flew itself into the trees. The pilot was their best and most experienced, their head pilot, and he said he could not regain control of the plane to correct its course. They blamed him and fired him in disgrace. Now why would a pilot with his experience and reputation risk death and dishonor, as well as loss of a high paying job and pension, to fly a plane ionto the ground and lie about it? Not likely to happen.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the NTSB pulled off the case by the FBI about 2 or 3 days after the crash? All evidence after that came from the FBI and CIA.
I'll have to pull out my Flight 800 book again to check for sure.
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