Excerpted from the ENN Daily Report - Nov. 17, 1996 - Vol. 2, No. 322

TWA-800, Get Your Stories Straight! ...
Op-ed by Jeremy Zakis, ENN Australian Correspondent

Since July the 17th of this year, when I received a News Flash from ENN stating that an aircraft, TWA-800 had exploded over Long Island and have been following this story with great interest ever since. Being interested in aviation and a starting out pilot myself, naturally I feel a sense of need to find out what exactly happened on that fateful night 13,000 feet above the ocean. Living in Australia we often get a filtered version of news stories from other parts of the world, this case being no different. Hearing however the latest reports about the investigation I have been somewhat confused by what people are saying about the causes of this crash.

At first I thought because of my limited understanding of aircraft accidents like this, maybe I was just inexperienced to properly analyse the facts being given to me. But after discussing it with other aviation buffs and people who have taken an interest to this one, I have found I am by far not alone.

Theories about 'friendly fire' downing the jet, 'terrorist fire', 'terrorist bombs', explosions in the fuel tank and even one that suggests a fractured cargo door may have been the cause, all come together to cause a mess of hypothesis and possibilities. We have all heard former Kennedy aide Salinger go public with the charge that a naval vessel in the missile testing area TWA-800 was overflying at the time, accidentally fired a shot that hit the 747.

As has been reported the document his allegations were based upon was brought to his attention by a Secret Service agent in Paris, and is posted on the Internet. Reading the article left me with more doubts about this theory than support for it. The reasons why I will not go through in detail because Chief Military Analyst of the INTELLIGYST Group, Ron Lewis, has already summed up well the faults in a three part article sent through ENN earlier this week (Debunking The Friendly Fire Myth 10/11/96).

Whose to say however that it wasn't a friendly fire incident? That a major cover-up isn't occurring to protect the government? Early August I heard an analyst say that if it was a case of an American missile downing the jet, we would never hear about it, is this the case now? Evidence at the moment is scarce, but I challenge anyone to find any actual hard evidence of this being a possibility.

The other theory, a terrorist act. So far no real evidence has come to light that can be proof without a doubt that this was the cause. Sure traces of explosives such as PETN and RDX were found in the wreckage, both types apparently found in many terrorist bombs and air-to-air missiles. But just when it looked almost certain to be a terrorist act, the FBI disclosed that the same aircraft had been used in an explosives training exercise with those types of explosives. Also that the aircraft had been used to transport troops to the gulf during the Gulf War in 1991. The terrorist theory had been counteracted, but not completely disregarded.

As for mechanical failure, the latest is that the explosion on board was centred around the front of the main fuel tank, near the left fuel probe. No sign of electronic arcing was found but that does not rule out a small electrical spark occurring from a faulty probe. If a spark had've occurred, it would have caused a low velocity explosion amongst the fuel vapours, consistent with the physics involved in the explosion believed to a occurred.

Three possible theories, with three different groups supporting each. Unfortunately it is those who support the terrorist theories who gain the most attention because of the general appeal to the public, everybody likes a murder mystery. I have seen many pages on the Internet that are devoted to blaming groups involved in the 'shootdown', people who are angered by the belief that they think a government cover-up is involved, but not surprisingly I found only one page devoted to looking at the mechanical failure theory. Which in my opinion was easier for me to believe than the other so called 'truth of TWA-800' pages. Like I have said before, I would challenge these people to verify their sources, check out all the details because in reality all they are doing is confusing the public on this matter. If you wish to convince me of a certain possibility, feel free to e-mail me at: dainis@mtc.bns.com.au. I will look forward to hearing from you.

But until then, the moral of my report is that half-truth theories when in the hands of public figures such as Mr. Pierre Salinger, can mislead the general population and disrupt the official investigation which often comes under questioning following these incidents. In the case of TWA-800, because of the loss of 229 lives, it is in poor taste to hinder an investigation for the cause of the accident by making accusations that are not substantiated.

Please....think before you type!

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