Posted on 01/07/2002 10:09:49 AM PST by Beach_Babe
New Yorkers who believe they saw American Airlines Flight 587 explode in flames before its tail sheared off have accused crash investigators of ignoring their eyewitness accounts and prematurely ruling out a terrorist attack.
Six witnesses, including a recently retired police lieutenant, an FDNY deputy chief and a former firefighter, have written to the National Transportation Safety Board demanding they be called to testify at a public hearing.
Tom Lynch, 59, a retired firefighter, said he had also spoken to 18 other people who saw the Airbus A300 flying on fire before it crashed into houses in Belle Harbor, Queens, on Nov. 12, killing 265 people.
"The NTSB is not publicly acknowledging the many eyewitness accounts of the in-flight fire or explosion, many from people who are adamant that the fire occurred before any tail or engine breakups," he told The Post.
Lynch, who organized the letter, said he was standing on Rockaway Beach Boulevard when he saw a bright orange ball of flame streaming from the right side of the plane.
Two or three seconds later, he said, he saw a larger eruption of flames consuming the entire right side of the plane's fuselage.
"There were no falling parts until the second explosion of flames - I'll go to my grave with that," he said.
The witnesses said they were surprised NTSB Chairwoman Marion Blakey was able to say, only hours after the crash, that all indications pointed to an accident, rather than a terrorist attack.
"How could that statement be made while the flight-data recorder had not been recovered, the crash-investigation team had not yet showed up and initial eyewitness reports included many accounts of one or two explosions in flight?" Lynch said.
Another witness not involved with Lynch's group, Michael Benjamin, said he saw a huge orange fire engulfing the front third of the plane's right side while he was driving along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.
Benjamin, who works for the Oversight, Analysis and Investigations Committee of the state Assembly, said he had attempted to contact the NTSB but had not received a return call.
Preliminary reports written by the NTSB have not mentioned in-flight explosions, but have focused on air turbulence, the composite materials used to build the jet's vertical tail, and sudden rudder movements.
An NTSB spokesman said more than 200 eyewitness accounts had been recorded and were being considered as part of the investigation.
But he said if the NTSB decided to conduct a public hearing, it would most likely seek opinions from air-safety and aeronautical-design experts rather than witnesses.
The people who signed the letter, in addition to Lynch, are retired NYPD Officer James Conrad, FDNY Deputy Chief Peter Hayden, retired transit cop Richard Kvies, sales manager John Power and food-services manager Ellie Scholfield.
Woops, that should be Beach 131st Street
The airline industry might have collapsed if the public thought that yet another airliner had been successfully brought down by Al Qaida. No one would have gotten on another airliner except for absolutely necessary air travel.
IMHO, the AA587 crash is in coverup mode because the government didn't want the public to percieve that it was, and my still be, unable to protect airline travelers. The economy was already in the tank and the effect on the travel and tourist industry would have been devastating.
1. Those witnesses with the best and most prolonged view of the crash say that there was an explosion before the plane began to break up.
2. A surveillance camera on one of the nearby bridges showed smako coming from the airliner prior to its crash. 3. Loss of the vertical stabilizer would have caused the plane to go out of control and crash (from a relatively low altitude), but should NOT have caused the plane to break up and burn in the air.
3 good points!
I'd sure like to know how much fuel/oily substance was found in the bay....and why. Do fuel lines run thru the vertical stablizer?
If the plane was low on fuel it would at least explain why the impact area was so small. I remember watching TV that morning when they were reporting that 4-6 houses were involved. I thought to myself, "that's all?"...that was an awfully big plane and houses are quite close together in Belle Harbor. I had expected to hear, but thankfully did not, that blocks were aflame.
Have you checked out the maps on www.usread.com? It pinpoints the locations of the witnesses.
I never believe anthing until the government denies it.
What are the odds of an engine falling off? Since that model has thousands and thousands of take offs and climb outs without an engine falling off, let's really trash the design and say the odds are 1:10,000.
What are the combined odds of TWO engines falling off during the same flight...? 1:100,000,000
Okay, what are the odds of a complete vertical stabilizer/rudder assembly falling off clean? Since that's never happened in all the testing and experience of the airframe, let's again really trash the design and say 1:10,000.
Those are combined odds of 1:1,000,000,000,000, or 1 in a trillion. Now, what are the odds of those three INDEPENDENT events all happening within seconds of each other to the same airplane? You've got better odds of finding a highly developed civilization native to the other side of the moon and still living there....
Interesting theory. I'll have to give this some thought. I've seen photos of the tail and of the one engine that landed in Bullock's gas station on 129th, do you know where the other engine landed or if there are any photos of it?
UFOs
bigfoot
middle earth
hell
heaven
mars
So does anyone here know which planes had the WORST death/mile record before 9/11...and AFTER??? hmmm?
what airline stopped using airbus planes cross atlantic?
What group of pilots from what airline has called for all airlines to stop using airbus?
Must answer all parts for credit. but I'm sure no one can.
That being said...your washing machine is spying on you for the FBI. (so is your toaster...but the toaster is the CIA) You may continue freaking out.
Which 4 year university did you attend to get an aviation degree that has a sattelite campus at a major international airport--and their own passenger jetliner to tear apart and put back together?
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