Free Republic

A group of eyewitnesses to the Nov. 12 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 are charging that the National Transportation Safety Board has engaged in deliberate cover-up; complaining that investigators have ignored their accounts of a fiery midair explosion and even tried to persuade some of them to change their story. "The plane was definitely on fire. It was in the middle of the plane," said Maureen Hager, a flight attendant who watched Flt. 587 crash from her apartment window in Belle Harbor, New York. She told the New York Daily News that crash investigators tried to get her to...

<p>An FAA memo shown to CNN concludes that stress was concentrated at the same points on the Airbus A300 tail fins of American Airlines Flight 587, above, and Flight 903, which experienced tail damage over Florida in 1997.</p> <p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In the ongoing investigation into the November crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, New York, pilots are sounding warnings that the damage to the tail section of another A300 tested for comparison may have been worse than reported.</p>

Monday March 11, 3:34 pm Eastern TimeTest Reveals Problem With Tail on Another American Airlines' Airbus Jet By: J. Lynn Lunsford, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal DALLAS -- Testing on the tail fin of a second American Airlines Airbus A300 involved in an in-flight upset in 1997 has turned up problems with the all- composite tail that could provide clues about what caused another American jetliner to crash in November. The tests, which were the result of the ongoing investigation into the crash of American Flight 587, showed that one of the six lug nuts that holds the...