The Downing of TWA 800 - Part 3 - The Eyewitnesses

A Web version of TWA 800 Google Earth simulations has been created that shows the perspective of each eyewitness. Download Google Earth or download the mobile app.  Look at the tutorial. To access the Google Earth link: 1. Open Google Earth. 2. At the top menu bar, click on the "Add" button, then click on "Network Link".  3. Enter TWA800 for the Link in the "Name" box and then paste the following link in the "Location" box:

 http://twa800.com/google-earth/flight-800.kmz  

4. Click OK.  Click on the triangle next to the new link and it will expand all the links.  To zoom to a location, double click on that link. When you zoom to a witness location, an information balloon comes up.  Most balloons have a link to a jpg drawing of the missile trail the witness described.

Out of the dusk a shadow ... then a spark .... out of the clouds a silence - John Banister Tabb

Over 600 eyewitness reports from the NTSB, the FBI, private citizens, and media interviews were analyzed by numerous private investigators.  TWA 800 was brought down by classic triangulated fire.  Most of the witnesses who were on shore or out on boats saw at least one missile go up to TWA 800 and a large fraction saw two.  These were the missiles that exploded under the nose of the aircraft causing it to separate from the aircraft and the one that exploded at the left wing which was the closest one to the shore line when fired.  Only a few saw the third missile primarily because it was fired from further out to sea. It struck the plane on the right hand side exiting on the port side and leaving a trail of rocket fuel residue along several rows of seats in that area of the plane. 

I can not present all 600 eyewitnesses in this article but this is a sample. I will tell their story through that of the newspaper articles published at the time of the crash.

Prior to the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center intelligence chatter rose to a crescendo; the U.S. government anticipated an attack would occur in the Middle East.  Five years earlier prior to the attack on TWA 800 intelligence chatter rose to a crescendo; the U.S. government anticipated an attack in the Middle East. 

December 17, 1996   The Washington Times 
An official with the Defense Intelligence Agency, spy arm of the Pentagon, has informed congressional staff members that, in his opinion, a shoulder-fired missile brought down TWA Flight 800. The same DIA official, described as an expert in missile technology was called in by the FBI in the days following the explosion of the TWA jet to assist with witness interviews. "In his opinion, the plane was brought down by at least one shoulder-fired missile," said the congressional source .

This news item is supported by the bulk of the eyewitness evidence which shows that: 

a) A missile exploded to the left of the aircraft in the region of the left wing. This missile shattered the upper surface of the left wing.

b) A missile struck just forward of the wing area on the starboard side and transited the aircraft exiting on the port side See this diagram where the firing location of these missiles and their trajectories is plotted using 600+ eyewitness data base.  

c) A missile struck the nose of the plane in an upward direction severely damaging the front landing clear and causing the nose of the plane to separate from the main fuselage.   

The Village Voice February 24 - March 2, 1999
Noting that the "severe shattering of the left wing upper skin" had puzzled investigators, military expert Richard Bott speculated in the report, obtained by the Voice, that a missile striking the inboard left wing fuel tank would create "a significant hydrodynamic ram event" that would account for the wing's peculiar fragmentation. Some wing pieces were recovered near JFK, suggesting that they fell from the aircraft in the first moments after the plane exploded.

These pieces came off the aircraft while it was at an altitude of over 13, 000 feet.  As we shall see shortly the Center Wing Tank blew up at about 7,500 feet altitude.  For further information on the damage to the left wing read the Report to the Subcommittee on Aviation on the Crash of TWA Flight 800  

In a previous article Major Meyer who with Captain Baur flew first helicopter to arrive over the crash scene described what they saw.  Meyer saw only one of the missiles in flight that were fired but he witnessed all three of the "flak-like" explosions from the three missiles. The missile Meyer saw exploded near the left side of the aircraft and shattered the upper surface of the left wing.  Captain Baur saw the missile which approached the aircraft from the front and this was the missile that exploded in the vicinity of the nose wheel, forcing the aircraft nose upwards and separating it from the aircraft.  Here is a Google view as described to investigators by Baur and Meyer.

March 12, 1997 The Associated Press
An Air National Guardsman who witnessed the explosion of TWA Flight 800 repeatedly told authorities he thought a missile had struck the plane.  After searching for survivors the night of the crash, Capt. Chris Baur, a helicopter pilot, returned to his base and "told officials immediately he thought he saw a missile".  Read Baur's complete testimony to the NTSB.

Witness 484- NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix F
Witness stated she saw a streak rising into the sky at an angle curving a little to the west. It made a slight arc then she lost sight for about one second, then saw an explosion. Witness stated the explosion sounded like a loud firework, almost as loud as an M-80 going off. Witness then heard one boom sound. The explosion was a huge ball which dropped down to the horizon.

Following these sharp, gunshot-like explosions the damaged aircraft immediately began to fall.  The next witness (63) is clear on this point - the airplane "dipped before stopping".  The CIA produced a movie in an attempt to explain away the "streaks" seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses.  In the CIA movie a headless aircraft in flames climbs several thousands of feet after 8:31:12 before crashing in the ocean.

The physically and aerodynamically impossible CIA scenario was not observed by a single eyewitness!

Witness 364 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix E
Witness was sitting on a bench at the Bellport dock. He saw a red streak rise (Google View) from the horizon. It ascended at a slight angle to the right, very high and then curved downward slightly and then leveled off and appeared to explode resulting in two similar objects falling down.

Approximately twenty to thirty seconds after the flight data recorder ceased operation at 8:31:12 the Center Wing Tank exploded in the "soft" fuel explosion described by Meyer in the previous article.

The CIA and the NTSB would have you believe that the aircraft's Center Wing Tank exploded at 13,000 feet at 8:31:12 and then the headless aircraft climbed several thousand feet before falling into the ocean.  All the while the aircraft was trailing flames which fooled the eyewitnesses into thinking they were seeing streaks, rockets, or missiles going upwards in the sky. The reader might logically ask: 

At what altitude was the smoke observed that came from the center fuel tank explosion?

The smoke was not at 13,000 feet, where the NTSB and CIA say it should have been, but was at 7,500 feet where the aircraft exploded after falling from 13,000 feet as a result of the missile explosions and loss of its nose.

Witness 702 flew over the smoke cloud and measured its height with his altimeter.

Witness 702 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix I
Witness (Faret) was flying in a private plane cruising at 8,500 feet over Riverhead, Long Island.  Witness stated that the object exploded below his plane because the smoke trail after the explosion was at 7,500 feet. He realized it was a plane that exploded when he flew over to the area. Witness emphatically stated the explosion took place at about 7,500 feet.

Witness 441- NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix F
Witness was Captain of Piedmont Flight 3112 at 11,000 feet. Witness saw a bright orange flash of light forward and to the right of his plane. The flash appeared to be below his altitude. He turned the MD-80 left to avoid the fumes. At the time of his turning, the column of smoke rose to 11,000 feet.

The New York Times reported that most of the NTSB investigators had arrived at the same conclusion too that the fuel tank did not explode until the aircraft had fallen over 5,000 feet towards the ocean.

August 14, 1996  NY Times
Investigators examining the wreckage have concluded that the center fuel tank caught fire as many as 24 seconds after the initial blast that split apart the plane. Evidence shows that the initial event that severed the plane occurred forward of the spot where the wings meet the fuselage. In field tests at Calverton, L.I., chemists detected residue consistent with an explosive. The pieces of the plane that were blown off first have been recovered from the debris field closest to Kennedy International Airport. Investigators showed evidence suggesting that the blast occurred where the front of the wings meet the fuselage. The blast's force decapitated the plane, severing the cockpit and first-class cabin, which then fell into the Atlantic Ocean. The rest of the plane flew on, descending rapidly, and as it did thousands of gallons of jet fuel spilled out of the wings and the center fuel tank between them. At 8,000 feet, about 24 seconds after the initial blast, the fuel caught fire, engulfing the remainder of the jetliner into a giant fireball. While investigators said they have concluded that the center fuel tank did not explode, publicly they have refused to say that.

The Pentagon was one of the first sources on the aircraft explosion.  It is very interesting that the top military brass knew within an hour of the crash that the plane’s center wing tank had exploded at approximately 8,000 feet and not at 13,000 feet as was later stated by the FBI and the CIA.

NBC July 17, 1996 10:00pm
Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, says a Pentagon spokesman says Coast Guard reports say the plane exploded at 8,000 feet.

Some witnesses saw all three missiles that were fired and several others saw two of the three missiles. We have used all of the eyewitness testimony to triangulate the launch points of the individual missiles and this is consistent with the radar evidence. 

Witness 261 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix D
Witness was on a beach in Southampton standing at the shoreline looking out over the water. Witness saw an orange fire work, with a tail, in the air southwest of him. The firework traveled up, then arched down before Witness lost sight of it. Seconds later Witness saw a second and third ‘firework’ in the sky simultaneously. Both were orange with tails and they traveled in the same arching pattern of the first firework. Approximately 30 seconds later witness heard a rumble.

The CIA scenario attempted to explain away one streak as being a climbing, noseless aircraft.  But Witness 261 did not just see a single streak, he saw three missiles - one alone and then two others simultaneously – the latter two were the ones seen by Baur and Meyer.  

Some more examples ...

Witness 86 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix B 
Two orange streaks ascending in a curved path. Witness stated that the streaks left long trails to the water.

Witness 218 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix D
Two objects flying up coming together and exploding.

Tom Dougherty was in the vicinity of Dune Road. The missile he describes is the one whose flight path was seen by Meyer as it was in the process of making a tight turn to the east before exploding on the port side.

"I saw a flare come off the water. The flare, trailing orange flame, shot up roughly at a 45 degree angle, then rapidly increased its angle of ascent Then it appeared to strike something."   He saw the missile during most of its flight from Dune Road on Fire Island. He was interviewed by the FBI and the FOX TV program Hard Copy. Tom said that he first heard two booms (the launch noises). Then he saw the missile shoot upwards, from the ocean, which was behind a sand dune in front of him. He saw it "shoot in another direction" briefly and then it corrected itself. He said that after the missile hit the plane, the plane glowed very bright as part of it fell and then, after becoming luminescent, it burst into flames. "This was the strangest thing I ever saw. Everyone calls it a 'missile theory,' but when you see something, you know what you see, and I didn't see a theory." (Click for Dougherty RealPlayer audio file)

Richard Goss was interviewed by Cdr. Donaldson in October 1997.

I was looking right out at Moriches Bay. It was near dusk and it was then that I saw a flare-type object go up and feeling that someone along Dune Road has fireworks and other members of the club saw it also and said hey look at the firework. And everybody turned to look and we all watched it climb and I particularly watched it and it was bright, very bright, and you know that almost bright pink you know and orange glow around it and it traveled up and it looked to go straight up from the area that I was observing it and then it reached it's peak and it seemed to go away in the distance towards the south and that's when I saw it veer left which would bring it out east. It was a sharp left and then it did not disappear. From my vantage point there was a direct explosion that followed and then after that there was a second explosion that was off to the east a little farther that was much larger. The smoke was black. It was obviously some petroleum. I knew it was an airplane or aircraft of some sort and I didn't realize what size it was. And then it took some time to come down, probably three or four seconds and there was just a stream of black and white smoke and then when it hit the horizon over the barrier beach and when it hit the horizon there was a bright flash.  (Click for Goss RealPlayer audio file)

Witness after witness testified that the "streak", "flare", "rocket", or "object" went up!

Witness 73 saw a missile trail as it moved up from ground level and witnessed the strike in the vicinity of the aircraft's right wing...

Witness 73 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix B
Witness was on the Mobay section of Long Island Beach. She noticed an aircraft climbing in the sky traveling from her right to her left. Witness noticed that the aircraft appeared to level off. Witness thought that the aircraft was too low of an altitude to be leveling off at the time. While keeping her eyes on the aircraft, witness observed a red streak moving up from the ground toward the aircraft at an approximate 45 degree angle. The red streak was leaving a light gray colored smoke trail. The red streak went past the right side and above the aircraft before arcing back toward the aircraft's right wing. At the instant the smoke trail ended at the aircraft's right wing, witness heard a loud sharp noise which sounded like a firecracker had just exploded at her feet. Witness then observed a fire at the aircraft followed by one or two secondary explosions which had a deeper sound. Witness observed the front of the aircraft separate from the back. Witness then observed the burning pieces of debris falling from the aircraft.

Witness 73's testimony is very strong as proved by her acute observation about the aircraft flying level "at too low of an altitude".  TWA 800 had been told to hold at 13,000 feet by the air traffic controller....

2026: 24  CTR:  TWA eight hundred amend the altitude maintain ah one three thousand thirteen thousand only for now.
2026: 29 TWA 800 CAM- 1:  Thirteen thousand.
2026: 30.3 RDO- 2:  TWA's eight hundred heavy okay stop climb at one three thousand.
2026: 35  TWA 800 CAM- 1: Stop climb at one three thousand.

Physical evidence was found which also supported Witness 73's testimony.  PETN and RDX were found in the aircraft and explosive residues were found on the right wing. The right wing also had holes punched in it indicating travel of an object transiting the right wing.  The entrance point for this missile is directly below the fourth window to the right of the starboard door and just in front of the right wing. The exit point is forward of the wing on the port side.

August 23, 1996   NY Times
Chemists at the FBI crime laboratory have found traces of PETN between rows 17 and 27 senior investigators said. Five days after the crash, a chemical test indicated a trace of PETN on the right wing where it met the fuselage. 

The government's explanation for the finding of explosive residues inside the aircraft were that they came from a "dog sniffing" exercise conducted on the aircraft some time previously.  This explanation can not explain any explosive residues that may have been found on the bodies of passengers. Further, the "dog sniffing" explanation raises a very simple question:

Was the dog walking along the right wing?  

What were the "residues" found on the bodies of the TWA 800 passengers?  Was it the red residue that was found on several seats that is believed to be missile exhaust residue. The "official" explanation for this red residue is that it is "glue". Again the "glue" explanation can not explain any red "chemical residues" found on the bodies.  

March 16, 1997   The Tribune Review
James Kallstrom has categorically denied the Press-Enterprise claims that a red residue found on the plane's seats came from rocket fuel. The FBI chief says the residue is equally consistent with the chemical composition of the glue that held the aircraft's seats together. The sequencing report noted that wreckage found from the front of the plane's fuselage - including dozens of bodies and passenger seats from rows 17 through 19 - were ejected from the plane first. The sequencing report demonstrated that more than 4,700 feet after this initial debris was found, the front section of the plane broke off and fell. At about that time, the center fuel tank erupted, causing the rest of the plane to spiral into the ocean. The trail of wreckage clearly shows that the initial event that caused the crash was not the explosion of the center fuel tank.

So the question remains:  What were the chemical residues found on the bodies?    Was it PETN/RDX? Was it missile exhaust?  Was it glue?

Mike Wire - Witness 571
Wire was looking south-southwest toward the beach. He saw a white light that was traveling skyward from the ground at approximately a 40 degree angle. Wire stated the white light "zig-zagged" as it traveled upward and at the apex of its travel, the white light "arched over" and disappeared from view. He estimated the white light was in view for approximately 15 seconds. He stated the white light traveled outward from the beach in a south-southeasterly direction. He stated two or three seconds after the white light disappeared, he saw an orange light that appeared to be a fireball in the sky approximately one-half mile away. The fireball descended at approximately a 30 degree angle and left a fire trail burning behind it. Here is how the streak looked (Google View) from Wire's perspective.

Wire gave an interview to Bob Donaldson (Cmdr. Donaldson’s son) in 2006 the outcome of which was that Wire went to the location where he stood observing the destruction of TWA 800. As you can read in the interview Wire took a digital photo, on which he then drew black lines indicating the route of the smoke trail he saw and the path of the burning debris falling to the ocean.  Bob Donaldson then edited the picture to show more of what Wire had described.  After several iterations, Wire and Donaldson developed an edited photo of the crash scenario from which, using Google Earth, Donaldson plotted Mike Wire's position on the bridge, the exact location of Flight 800 according to the Islip radar and  overlaid the drawing on the perspective in Google Earth.  The result was an extraordinary match up between Wire's recollection and where the events took place according to the Islip radar. 

Witness 649 – NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix H
The witness made a drawing which shows a missile rising from the surface and impacting the plane. Detailed analysis of this witness’s testimony completely debunks the CIA explanation of what he saw. Ian Goddard created this animation showing what witness 649 described. (Note, this animation will take some seconds to download before it will run). Here is a Google View of the streak from Witness 649's perspective.

And the eyewitness testimony was further corroborated by the United States' own spy satellites ....

July 23, 1996    The London Times
An American spy satellite positioned over the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island is said to have yielded important information about the crash. A law enforcement official told the New York Post that the satellite pictures show an object racing up to the TWA jet, passing it, then changing course and smashing into it.

March 16, 1997   International News The Telegraph (U.K. Electronic Edition) Issue 660
An internal memo from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), dated November 15, 1996 …. according to the document, the radar data indicated that a missile was converging on the Boeing 747 seconds before the aircraft broke up off the coast of Long Island.

May 30, 1997  The Press-Enterprise
The Federal Aviation Administration has rejected a plea by the National Transportation Safety Board to reverse its radar analysis that a missile may have hit TWA Flight 800. The NTSB had asked the FAA to renounce its early analysis, in part to contend with potential public or media inquiries about the findings.

Witness 145 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix C
Witness was sitting in the house looking out towards the ocean just about dusk. Witness stated that she saw a plane and noticed an object spiraling towards the plane. The object, which she saw for about one second, had a glow at the end of it and a gray-white smoke trail. Witness stated she saw the object hit the plane and then the object headed down toward the ocean. She could not be sure where the object hit the plane, but said it could've been the side or near the back. She heard a loud noise and saw an explosion just as the object hit plane. The plane dropped towards the water and appeared to split in two pieces.

The CIA explanation that the streak observed by eyewitnesses was the aircraft in "various stages of crippled flight" is again shown to be false by the appearance of the undamaged aircraft subsequent to witnesses sighting of an object ascending into the sky.

Witness 527
This witness was looking south when he saw a white line tracing up (Google View) into the sky. The line went straight vertical the entire time for a total of 2 seconds.

Witness 496/534
She observed what she thought was a flare ascending (Google View) in the sky. The object traveled from her left to her right in a straight line at a steep angle, which she described as more vertical than horizontal. She observed the object traveling for approximately 10-15 seconds when a large explosion occurred just above and to the right of the object. She stated that it took less time for the object to fall that it took for the flare-like object to go up and reach its maximum altitude. Approximately 5 seconds after the objects disappeared from view behind the tree line, she heard a loud boom which she described as sounding similar to an intensely loud thunder rumble.

Witnesses 641/642
They observed what looked like a flame rising up (Google View) over the Atlantic Ocean, then arching in an easterly direction. They then reported seeing a flash of bright white light followed by a large red and orange fire type glow. They said what they saw appeared to be a flare being fired from a boat in the bay. They stated that the flare did not appear to be an ordinary flare, and it could have been something like fireworks, but the burst at the end of the flare seemed pretty unusual. It was not a normal boat flare that they are used to. The boat that these individuals thought that the flare came from was a Pro-line center console occupied by two white males."

September 5, 1997 CNN 
Federal officials investigating the crash of TWA Flight 800 are baffled by the discovery of impact damage on the doors that close over the front landing gear. National Transportation Safety Board investigators have been trying to figure out what could have caused the nose gear doors to blow inward. Examiners are said to be mystified about the significance of the damage on the doors, which are located below the flight deck and well forward of the plane's center fuel tank. The investigators are equally troubled by the fact that these nose gear doors were among the first things on the plane to have come off in flight. One crash investigator told CNN on Friday that the discovery keeps open the question of whether the fuel tank explosion was the primary or secondary event in the in-flight breakup of TWA flight 800.

The explosion of this missile underneath the front of the aircraft forced the nose upwards and broke it off the aircraft.

Here is another witness describing a "small explosion" (at 13,000 feet) which is followed "quite a few seconds" later by the fireball (at 7,500 feet).

Witness 92 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix B
Witness was at Smith Point Park, Mastic, New York. Witness observed a flare ascending into the sky from east to west and outward toward the ocean. Witness described the flare as a slow moving flare with a bright red trail followed by orange-yellow and a smoke trail. Witness claimed that the flare reached the point in the sky where it appeared to die out at this time witness heard a small explosion. Witness claimed that quite a few seconds went by, maybe even a minute, when she saw a huge fireball in the sky that was bright red.

Witness 359 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix E
Just as witness reached the first red buoy marker, at about the center of Moneybogue Bay, while facing due south, he saw what appeared to be a boat flare shoot straight up into the sky from the horizon beyond Dune Road. Witness's initial though was that it was either a boat flare or fireworks. Because it arose from south of Dune Road, Witness knew it originated from the ocean. The flare was yellow-orange in color and shaped like a round ball. The flare ascended straight up into the sky. It did not arc or curve. The flare ascended for what witness estimated to be about 15 seconds. It then burst into a yellow flash, slightly larger than the flare itself. Witness thought that the yellow flash looked a little like "heat lightning". The yellow flash remained illuminated and descended. It then burst again into a huge fireball, yellow-orange in color. This second fireball was about 20 times the size of the yellow flash.

Recall again that the first missile struck the aircraft about 8:31:12 which is the time that the flight data recorder ceased operation.  The CWT exploded about 30 seconds later as the fuel spilled into the atmosphere and misted.  This puts the time of the CWT explosion at sometime about 8:31:40.

This 747 pilot disputes the CIA's headless aircraft zoom theory. No climb of several thousands of feet here - the plane stopped in mid air and fell straight down ....

Witness 139 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix C
Witness was the pilot of Virgin Atlantic Flight 009. Witness believes that what he saw was not a plane malfunction because there was no horizontal component to the fire. He felt that it was a catastrophic occasion in the extreme to make a plane stop in mid air and fall straight down.

Witness 551- NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix G
Witness was aboard USAir Flight 217. As he observed it the aircraft exploded and a large round orange fireball appeared which seemed to emanate from the front area of the plane. The plane seemed to stop in mid air "like a bus running into a stone wall - no forward motion".

And a passenger in the cockpit of the Virgin Atlantic flight saw an arcing missile too .....

Witness 140 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix C
Witness 140 was a passenger on Virgin Atlantic Airways Flight 009 from London to JFK. She is a private pilot. During the flight, she visited the flight deck and was invited back to observe the approach and landing. While sitting in the jump seat in anticipation for the approach, she saw what she described as an orange-white "flare" light which ascended slightly before it "bulged" and descended downward. She stipulated that the flare gave an indication that it appeared to be going slightly back, as if it was changing directions and going back on itself. She likened to the ascent to a "roller-coaster" with the ascent ending with what appeared to be a "big bang" followed by the descent.

Same thing from the ground looking up as from the air looking down ....

Vasilis Bakounis: 
Private Pilot and Olympic Airlines engineer - "Suddenly, I saw in the fog to my left, toward the ocean, a small flame rising quickly towards the sky. Before I realized it, I saw this flame become huge. My first impression was that it was a flare shot off a boat."

Witness 241 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix D
Witness observed a bright white light arching into the sky from west to east. It appeared to her to be emanating from Westhampton Beach, at an angle not exactly vertical, and travel over the ocean. At the time, she thought it was a firework. This light reached high into the sky, at an angle of greater than 45 degrees, and took approximately three seconds to reach its apex. At its apex Witness observed that the light appeared to fizzle out, then moments later, a huge explosion occurred.

Witness 239 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix D
Witness was sitting with his back to the bay. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light, and when he turned, he saw a red-orange color flame going up in the sky in a southeast direction. He assumed it was a flare from a boat although he believed it looked larger.

When should a "rocket" be called a "missile"?

September 22, 1996 The New York Post
Struck by the number and confidence of the witnesses, the FBI sat down many of the witnesses with U.S. military experts, who debriefed them and independently confirmed for the FBI that their descriptions matched surface-to-air missile attacks. "The military experts told us that what the witnesses were describing was consistent with a missile," a federal official acknowledged. "They told us, 'You know what they are describing is a missile' "

Witness 166 had personal experience with missiles  .....

Witness 166 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix C
Witness and his wife noticed a large commercial plane flying east. Looking south east he noticed something ascending which looked like white yellow fire trailed by black smoke. It ascended in a straight line at an angle of 7 to 10 degrees away from a vertical 90 degree. It arched slightly at the top. He could not observe exactly were the object originated, but believed it was from the water. The ascension lasted 10 seconds. He then observed an explosion which appeared like a pulsing yellow and white light. He then saw this fall, which lasted approximately two minutes. .

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck , it must be? ....  If it has a flame in the rear, leaves a smoke trail in the rear, it must be? .....

Despite what the U.S. military experts told them, Federal investigators preferred to explain the eyewitness accounts as a problem of biasing by news media reports.

March 21, 2000  CNN.com
Federal Investigators' Comments:
The witnesses were on land, sea and air. Some were surfers. Many may have been influenced by news media reports about the explosion.

On the other hand he NTSB explains the eyewitness accounts as a problem of biasing by the FBI.

March 21, 2000  CNN.com
NTSB comment in its Witness Group Study report:
FBI witness interviewing was focused on the possibility that a missile had been used against the accident airplane. This focus may have resulted in bias on the part of some of the interviewers. The NTSB witness reports conclude that the cause of the explosion cannot be determined through eyewitness accounts alone.

Lisa Perry had a very good view of one of the missiles ....  

Witness 150 - NTSB Docket No. SA-516 Appendix C 
Witness was at her father's Fire Island beach house, located at Davis Park. As she was on the deck, her attention was drawn to an unusual movement in the sky. She turned to her left looking straight east and noticed an unusual object traveling at high speed from north to south. Witness described the object as being cylindrical, tubular and bullet shaped. Having no apparent wings, except perhaps, a small vertical shape at the rear, it did not appear to be any kind of passenger airplane. It occurred to her that it had no projections on it, like wings, but why would there be such a huge bullet hurtling through the sky? It looked like it was all steel and too fast for an airplane. It came from behind the beach and already had altitude when she saw it. She followed the object for approximately two or three seconds when she noticed a large commercial airliner which appeared to be traveling at the same altitude, "just stop" and begin to disintegrate. The object headed toward the side of the plane, directly south.

Lisa Perry - Dan's Papers, Long Island, May 15, 1998: 
I saw the missile. I was facing eastward, toward the Hamptons, the ocean on my right, the deck of the house on my left. The deck is about 22 feet about the beach. On a clear day, as you look straight down the beach along the line of the shore, you can see the parking lot at Smith's Point Beach, 12 miles away. There was a plane in the sky ... out from the left, from the North, something was moving North to South over the dunes ... from the direction of the Great South Bay. The object came over the dunes of Fire Island. It was shiny, like a new dime; it looked like a plane without wings. It had no windows... It was as if there was a flame at the back of it, like a Bunsen burner .... It was like a silver bullet ... It was moving much faster than the plane.   The silver object took a left turn, and went up to the plane. The plane stopped for an instant, as something would when it had suffered an impact. Then it began to fracture - as if you had slammed a frozen candy bar down onto a table. You could see the spaces in between the parts of the plane.  Then a moment later there was another explosion and the plane broke jaggedly in the sky. It was sideways to the way it had been ... there is smoke, fire .. the plane starts to fall apart in the sky ... the nose is continuing to go forward: the left wing is gliding off in its own direction, drifting in an arc gracefully down; the right wing and passenger window are doing the same in their direction out to the right; and the tail with its fireball leaps up and then promptly into the water below.  The sounds were huge BOOM! - then another BOOM! There was a huge rumbling rolling in the sky... I told the FBI the nose of the plane had come off; and I told them this before the Navy pulled it out of the water. Mrs Perry was interviewed by the FBI - The two agents were very supportive; I was very comfortable with them .. I got the impression that they themselves thought a missile had hit the plane.  After the (NTSB) hearings I spoke with one of the agents, who told me the FBI had concluded I was too far from the accident to see what I had seen.  (Speaking of the CIA video) It wasn't like that at all.   They said most people turned to the sound and then saw something. I was already looking at the event, before any explosion. Having asked for a copy of her testimony to the FBI she was told to file a FOIA request.  

Lisa Perry wrote to me in September 2000 as follows 

One missile didn't hit the plane. It exploded without hitting it, looking like a big bright white puff. Sort of like a light bulb glass shattering, bright white and brittle. I remember feeling relieved, that the plane would be alright cause it hadn't hit the plane, when I suddenly saw the other one coming up under the plane. I'm sure that one hit it, as I almost expected to see a hole popped in the plane from it.

Again the CIA explanation that the streak observed by eyewitnesses was the aircraft in "various stages of crippled flight" is shown to be false by this observation of the undamaged aircraft and the bullet-like object which was heading towards it.

Witness 151 was not the only one to see a "wispy" trail from one of the missiles. On the evening TWA Flight 800 went down, Heidi Krieger was taking pictures from a boat off the coast of Long Island. One of her photos appeared to show at least one missile contrail. The FBI confiscated Krieger's negative and stated that the photo did not show a missile contrail, just the effects of "debris on the negative."

Some witnesses just could not be moved ..  up is up, down is down, and down is not up!

Donald Eick: October 20, 1997 The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, CA.  Ian Goddard created this animation showing what witness Eick described. (Wait for animation to run).

For Donald Eick and his family, the scene in the July 1996 summer sky is a permanent memory: a reddish flare-like object just off the water heading upward, zigzagging a little in an unmistakable vertical climb, a fireball erupting at the end of the ascent. The initial drama took no more than 12 to 15 seconds, Eick estimates. Then, he saw three sections of aircraft "fluttering" toward the Atlantic Ocean. ...... Eick's description, previously given only to FBI investigators, is different than others because he says he and his family saw the plane separate: two parts in flame and one part seeming to arch upward before heading toward the Atlantic. All other published accounts, including reports from airline pilots in the air, tell only of seeing lights, explosions or fireballs, but not the fuselage. Eick is a civilian pilot and has participated in accident investigations. "It was what we would best describe as a boat flare, a reddish object going up," Eick said. "It went up and a few seconds later we saw an explosion in the sky. At first, we thought it was a boat flare. It zigzagged a little. We thought it strange. "Then, several seconds later, we saw an eruption of fire. We never heard anything. We saw a fireball, and at that point we identified what was an aircraft. We could see it fluttering down. We were the third boat on Long Island to report the incident to the Coast Guard." Eick said the family clearly could see three sections of wreckage, one of which lofted upward a bit before heading downward. That piece did not catch fire, he said. ... "When I was interviewed by the FBI the next day, they were interested in the wreckage I saw go upward," Eick said. "I think it probably was the nose." A classified NTSB report based on an examination of the wreckage said the nose separated almost simultaneously with some unknown event. The nose then plummeted, without catching on fire, to an Atlantic site separate from the main fuselage. The report said the main part of the fuselage began a steep dive after the nose separated and the wing tips ripped off because of the intense strain, followed by the left wing and, sometime later, the right wing. Eick said it was "completely erroneous" to believe that the red flare he and his family saw was fuel or other descending plane debris. "It was something going up to it beforehand," he said. "Yes, I saw flaming debris go down. He said he and his family were about 10 miles from where TWA's wreckage rained into the ocean.

Roland Penney:  Newsday, Sept. 1, 1996  
Roland Penney has told the story of the streak of light to four different pairs of FBI agents. "It was something going up that hit that plane," said Penney. "Whether it was a missile or what God only knows, but if it was a bomb or mechanical failure, I feel the plane would have still gone forward," he said. "With this, the plane went straight down and it didn't go forward an inch. This was, "Bam!' and it came down."

Roland Penney: Interview by Cdr. Donaldson presented at the AIM conference October 18, 1997.
    
Penney: They said "Are you sure you didn't see something going down ...and not going up"? ...... I said  "No.... Gosh sakes I ain't that stupid ....I ought to be able to tell if something is going up in the air or going down in the air .... No and I said I'm not changing my mind about it ... I'll stick to that until I die. I said I saw something going up and I said there was no question in my mind. I said I'm telling you what I saw. I'm not telling you what I think I saw. I said I saw something and..... that's the way I am stating it. I'm not trying to make up a story just to be on the news or whatever... I said I have no desire to be on the news - I don't even want to get involved in this stuff anymore. But I said there was definitely something going up and then it went behind ... I said I'm assuming it's a cloud and then we saw this white light. 

Donaldson: OK. And when we were off .. when the recording was off ... you mentioned that a neighbor ... we won't mention the name .. but had a similar experience apparently with an FBI interview that they were trying to get her to say that it was going the other way...

Penney: That's right.  She was upset because she says I'm a grown woman - She says I saw something definitely going up and there is no question in my mind about that and she says I'm not changing my mind either.

Here's a guy that is even prepared to do something to the President's desk if he doesn't believe that up is up ....

William Gallagher: October 20, 1997  The Press-Enterprise, Riverside,CA.  
Gallagher saw a reddish light in the sky. "I thought it was fireworks. And then I didn't know what to think because from the white ball, I saw two wide orange bands of light fall down, obviously the fuel igniting." It was TWA Flight 800. When he returned to port, he called the FBI. "I'll lay my ass on the table and tell the president or the FBI, and someone can hypnotize me: There was no way that red light was descending," Gallagher said. "It was ascending. It made contact with what turned out to be that airplane and made a white bright light and then split in two." He thinks something is wrong with the investigation. "I saw something hit the right side of the plane," said Gallagher. "My opinion was it blew the wing off on impact. I assumed something went through the airplane, like behind first class and into the wing." "My honest opinion, Gallagher said, "If they've been on scene for a year and they've not come up with something, as a critical thinker I have to ask, could they be covering up something?"

Gallagher saw something going through the airplane behind "first class" and investigators reconstructing the debris backed him up ...

September 23, 1996 Associated Press
Investigators reconstructing the debris say there is a hole going into the plane and a hole going out of the plane. "There's metal bent in, metal bent out. I see a hole going in and a hole going out" (See entrance hole on starboard side photograph that accompanies this article on the right hand side of the picture).

November 9, 1996 St. Louis Post Dispatch Post Dispatch and Pulitzer Technologies Inc. 
The TWA veteran said a source on the (crash investigation) committee had told him investigators had found a hole in the center of the aircraft they believed was caused by a missile.

Fist-sized holes were found in the backs of several seats .....  

August 30, 1996 NY Times
An aviation expert and a law enforcement official both said they saw several fist-size holes that had been punched through the backs of two seats on the far right side of row 23. The holes in the sheet metal on the seat back are pushed through from the rear and row 24, the seats just behind them is missing. Traces of PETN were also found.

September 4, 1996 CNN
The source said RDX was found on a curtain that would have been near row 40 in the passenger cabin, an area located behind the wings. The PETN found earlier was on a piece of the flooring in the mid-section of the plane, on the right side between rows 17 and 27 which begin just ahead of the front edge of the wings.

Some of the eyewitnesses have apparently given up on both the CIA and the FBI. Paul Angelides give this account of incident given to Cmdr. Donaldson on July 12, 1998:

A red phosphorescent object was quite high in the sky (about 50-60 degrees). At first it appeared to be moving slowly and was leaving a white smoke trail. My first reaction was that I was looking at a marine distress flare which had been fired from a boat. The object was too large and then began moving too fast to be a distress flare. I then saw a series of flashes, one in the sky and another closer to the horizon. In the area where I lost sight of the object there was a long, wide, white cigar shaped cloud (flak explosion). At the eastern end of the white cloud was a wide black smoke trail (fuel tank explosion), which followed the same path as the fireball, which had dropped to the horizon. The path of the black smoke left a trail that was slightly to the east of a vertical drop. There was also a thin white, parabolic contrail, which extended upward and westward from the white cigar shaped cloud.

I gave the FBI a sketch with a sequence of the events, which I had recalled at the time. During the interview, I noticed they had a questionnaire with an item which read, "when did you first see the missile?"

I became increasingly concerned that the investigation was off the mark. I realized that the delayed long rolling thunder sound which I heard probably corresponded to the object traversing the sky. The first two bursts corresponded to the two white flashes, the third loud burst corresponded with the fireball.   

Months later I saw the CIA video reenactment on various TV newscasts. It does not correlate in any way with my observations. The FBI has explained eyewitness sighting of a "flare" as the body of the aircraft as it ascended, (prior to exploding) after the nose section fell off. I strongly disagree. My observations tell me that the aircraft was not just flying along and then suddenly blew up as the center fuel tank exploded. The large fireball, which would have occurred from a fuel explosion in the sky, was a later event in the sequence of my observations. The red, phosphorescent object which first attracted my attention traveled a great distance and at great speed to the area of flight 800's demise. The object originated in a vastly different sector of the sky than the Flight 800 path. The object traveled in a generally north-south direction whereas Flight 800 traveled west-east. The official explanations do not address the flashes of light I observed prior to the fireball and long rolling sonic boom, which ended with 2 small burst and one large burst, followed by silence and then two additional loud bursts. The video does not explain the long white cigar shaped cloud, which was left in the sky. I have been disappointed with the results of the investigation so far. The official explanations of the disaster are vastly inconsistent with my observations. 

Al Gipe:
He saw what he thought was an emergency flare go up about 15 miles to the north. He said it looked like a 40 mm. tracer bullet, streaking upward, from south to north, until it exploded high in the sky a few seconds later.

SUFFOLK LIFE: "Flight 800: Accident Or Terrorist Attack? - Part 4 Was There A Cover-up?" By Joey Mac Lellan. December 17, 1998
Long Island's Channel 55 cameraman James Hughes, said during an interview that he and another camera crew from one of the networks were at the airport when the C130 (that was to practice with Meyer and Baur) landed. The crew stated they saw a missile heading toward FL800 just before they witnessed the explosion. The C130 crew members were pulled away from the two camera crews by what Hughes said appeared to be their superiors and came back claiming they had seen nothing."

"Men occasionally stumble over truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill

In part 4 of this series I will discuss other missile incidents involving passenger aircraft over a period of several years surrounding the TWA 800 downing. The article will be entitled "The Tale of the Tapes". 

I recommend the book 'First Strike - TWA 800 and the Attack on America'. The authors provide an excellent description of the facts surrounding the downing of TWA 800. The book builds on the work of numerous researchers including myself and puts to rest the government's explanation for the TWA 800 crash. Ignore the final chapter which neither Donaldson nor I accept. You should use your own judgment as to whether the missiles fired were from terrorists or the navy. Another good book that I recommend is by Jayna Davis entitled "The Third Terrorist" about the OKC bombing - but that is another story.

Michael N. Hull is a retired senior citizen who now writes opinion pieces on theology, philosophy and local political issues.