Posted on 06/07/2016 5:18:37 PM PDT by Kaslin
On the pleasant summer evening of July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 left JFK Airport in New York bound for Paris. Twelve minutes after takeoff, about ten miles south of the popular south shore of Long Island, at least two surface-to-air missiles blew the 747 out of the sky, killing all 230 people on board.
I write the above with 100 percent confidence. I owe that confidence to the efforts of a small corps of committed individuals -- eyewitnesses, independent researchers, whistleblowers from within the investigation, and family members who have turned their grief into action. In attempting to get at the truth, at least three of these people were arrested, several others were thrown off the TWA 800 investigation, and every one of them was ridiculed.
In TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy (Regnery: July 5), I get to tell their story, an epic one. What makes the story so compelling is that these everyday citizens have struggled against a Goliath that could not have been more powerful. The opposition includes, among other powers, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the FBI, and the CIA.
In a totalitarian country, authorities can suppress information at will. In America, the media have to collaborate in that suppression, and this they did, closing their eyes to the obvious and accepting without evidence the governments unproven theory of a spontaneous fuel tank explosion.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
What do you base your assertion on? The poster I was responding to said that shoulder-fired missiles did not have the range. It appears they do.
I do know from personal experience that at sea at night you can see and hear at long distances. I have no idea at what distance a MANPAD’s propellant ceases to exist, but even at 5,000 feet, it can be seen very far away at night. As an example, fireworks set off over the ocean can be seen at a great distance. And they don’t go over a mile in the air.
Depends on the missile; older MANPADs, which would have trouble reaching 16,000 ft, were designed to hone in on the largest IR signature, typically the engines, after-burner, etc. First generation weapons of that type (SA-7, Redeye) were strictly tail chase weapons; the target had to be moving away from the gunner to present the largest possible IR return.
Newer MANPADs (Stinger, Russian SA-16/18/24) use a cooled seeker that gives them greater discrimination. That allows them to lock on to smaller IR returns, such as the heat along the leading edge of a wing, hot spots on the fuselage, etc. Some of these weapons can actually scan in two different frequency ranges and the gunner can select the best target. These are the same weapons with the ability to reach higher altitude targets, up to 23K.
I find it hard to believe that a Piper Cherokee could do a 13,000+ altitude intercept on a 747 climbing out at 300+ knots/1000 feet per minute.
Well outside it’s performance envelope.
If he had irrefutable evidence and information of a cover, he would have had a brand new gig, way beyond his job and retirement with the government. Didn’t he retire right after the investigation?
Rush was buds with Kalstrom and part of the MCLIF long before flight 800 , IIRC .
Who somehow befriended Rush Limbaugh and Rush used his megaphone to further the cover up.
There’s two conspiracy theories going around about Flt800 - it was shot down by the Navy doing missile firing exercises off the coast or, as in your case mussie terrorists. So in the case of the Navy you’re telling me that some low paid sailor wouldn’t be running to the New York Post with his story for a hundred grand or where’s the terrorist claim to have shot down the plane with a missile? Neither one happened. But I guess people like you have to have a conspiracy angle, write a book maybe, make a few bucks ....
Didn’t happen before or since.
There was something about how the seats were stored if I remember correctly.
Agreed, 100%. Loved it.
Notice the foot dragging when it comes to locating the Black boxes for Egyptair? They do not want the bad publicity so they won't pursue a serious investigation.
And you won't. They could have had the Black boxes weeks ago, but they want to cover up the terrorism - it's bad PR.
Sorry about the delay. Suddenly, my computer is having problems. What a coincidence!
Answers? I don’t have answers to all questions.
However, I think it is wrong to make assumptions. I do not assume the the system was operational in 1996. I think this was a live fire test.
As you know if you read AWST, several nations now have the ability to launch anti-aircraft missiles from submerged subs.
I think it is a mistake to assume that a Navy sub was used for the test. The same company that was developing the missile also makes subs. The launch platform could have been very small and used for testing new capabilities.
Yes, I find it hard to believe that everyone kept their mouth shut. However, I see that NTSB personnel kept quiet until they retired. I kept quiet until 10 years after I retired when I saw that others had opened up.
When I was briefed, the idea was to launch the anti-aircraft missiles when the sub heard sonobuoys begin operating. The fabulous new sensor was designed to go after the largest solid object in the sky.
Once again, I think it was an accident. It probably shut down the program for years. It probably sent shock waves through the Black World. But, Black World people don’t talk to anyone. I have seen situations where no one including the SecDef had a need to know.
Gotta log off. Computer is not operating properly.
First, the Navy (and not just ours , but from several nations) were conducting exercises shooting down drones.
If one ship (as you say) had shot just one missile, and none of the others had, then your speculation makes sense.
HOWEVER, if each ship had been firing missiles over and over, all day long during these exercises, how would any of the crew have any idea if ONE of those missiles hit an airliner ?
Now, to the missing point. It may not have been a missile that hit the plane. It could have been the DRONE that the missiles were supposed to shoot down.
Yeah... where would anybody get an idea like that?
(source: www.indiastrategic.in)
That range is total distance, not just altitude. A plane a mile away at 16,000 feet altitude is actually 16,848 feet from away from the launch site. To be out of range at 25,000 feet distance, the plane would be at 16,000' altitude, and only 3-3/4 miles away from the launch site. Wiki says max range on the FIM-92 was 26,000', so that would be 16,000' altitude and around 3.9 miles away. Also, the plane would be moving, and depending on those variables, the MANPAD would have had to have been damn near right under the plane's flight path and timed just right.
I don't discount the plane was shot down, I just don't think a MANPAD did it. If it did, they were damned lucky.
Passed right past that guy in the super market with my basket right after this tragedy.He was avoiding all eye contact
I dont have a strong opinion either way, just a tendency to believe the eyewitnesses.
...
Eyewitnesses do not provide reliable evidence, and as usual they disagreed on what they saw. They also saw something unusual that the brain would have a hard time processing, a jet with its nose removed climbing several thousand feet while on fire.
In 1991 a Lauda Air 767 tore itself apart in midair when the thrust reverse on the number 1 engine deployed on it's own. That hadn't happened before. That hasn't happened since.
And the source for that is?
HOWEVER, if each ship had been firing missiles over and over, all day long during these exercises, how would any of the crew have any idea if ONE of those missiles hit an airliner ?
The air traffic corridor out of New York to Europe is one of the most heavily traveled air traffic corridors in the world. And you're saying the U.S. Navy was shooting off missiles near that? Really?
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