While the U.S. media faithfully blacked out the
press conference of a panel of independent experts
who disagree with the official investigation of the
TWA Flight 800 crash, Agence France Presse cites it.
Of particular note is that the flight data recorder
(FDR) expert who examined the black boxes claims
that four seconds were removed from the FDR data.
Indeed, one FDR second found in the NTSB's 1997
report was suddenly erased from that report at
(http://users.erols.com/igoddard/coverup3.htm)
the NTSB's website shortly after former Navy
crash investigator William Donaldson presented
an analysis about that erased FDR second which
concluded that it indicates a missile strike:
http://members.aol.com/bardonia/analysis.htm
http://members.aol.com/bardonia/2seconds.htm
=======================================================
Agence France Presse
=======================================================
Tuesday, August 22 5:29 AM SGT
Independent panel criticizes TWA Flight 800 crash report
WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (AFP) -
An independent panel of experts on Monday lambasted the
results of an official investigation into the 1996 fatal
TWA Flight 800 crash, and maintained its theory the plane
was downed by a missile.
According to the Flight 800 Independent Research Organization
(FIRO), the official investigators had concealed crucial
pieces of information from a final report to be presented
Tuesday and Wednesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report is
expected to argue that the crash which killed 230 people
off Long Island, New York, was most likely caused by an
explosion in the plane's central fuel tank.
Many former investigators, military experts, and airline
pilots continue to insist the Boeing was shot down by a missile.
"Thirteen witnesses have seen an object strike the plane,"
FIRO president Tom Stalcup said in a press conference here.
Stalcup also argued against the investigators' theory that
the plane had gained altitude following an initial explosion.
"The magic climb theory contradicts the laws of physics,
the radar data which recorded the flight path, and the
witnesses accounts," he said.
Moreover, Stalcup continued, there were numerous ships
within five kilometers (3.6 miles) of the area, but only
one that had never been identified and which continued on
its path as if nothing had happened.
Aviation consultant engineer Glen Schulze, who analyzed the
so-called "black boxes," also claimed that information was missing.
"Four seconds of data has been removed from the Flight Data
Recorder when the FBI was in charge of the investigation," he said.
Lending his weight to the argument of possible foul play,
retired United Airlines pilot Richard Russell claimed he had
received a copy of radar data showing a small object flying
next to the plane that indicated a possible missile.
"An (air traffic) controller has identified the target as
potentially being a missile," Russell said, declining to
identify his source of information.
NTSB investigators have explained that bystanders may have
been looking at an arc of fire in the sky that occurred after
the airplane broke in two and a part of the fuselage was briefly
hurtled into the sky in flames.
The FBI initially tried to probe the missile theory, but later
abandoned it and withdrew from the investigation altogether in
the fall of 1997.
Six months after the catastrophe, the NTSB concluded that
chemical analyses of metal from the fuselage showed no proof
of damage caused by a bomb or missile.
Nevertheless, after four years of recovering debris from the
ocean floor and partially reconstructing the plane in a huge
hangar, investigators are preparing to close this most mysterious
chapter in aviation history -- but without giving a definitive answer.
"It's a mystery, but a manufactured mystery," insisted Graeme
Sephton, a projects engineer at the University of Massachusetts
office of Information Technologies.
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GODDARD'S JOURNAL: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/journal.htm
____________________________________________________________
Asking the "wrong questions," challenging the Official Story
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