EAST MORICHES, NEW YORK (AFP) -- The discovery of a far-flung cargo door
from doomed TWA Flight 800 could provide crucial
evidence about what let to the crash.
Investigators refused to go into details about the cargo door Tuesday, but its location on the seabed, ahead of much of the rest of the
wreckage, could indicate that an explosion first occurred in the front cargo hold, disabling the plane and then shearing off the front part of
the fuselage.
The cargo door was found at a point "earlier in the flight path" than both the front and rear sections of the aircraft, which have been located
on the seabed some 10 miles off Long Island, said Rear-Admiral Edward Kristensen.
The Boeing 747 suffered a sudden and unexplained loss of electrical power, after which it broke into two parts and plunged in a ball of fire
into the sea July 17.
All 230 people aboard were killed.
Kristensen, pointing to a map, indicated the cargo door was found at least one mile (1.6 kilometers) to the southwest of the front part of the
plane, which itself splashed down 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) southwest of the rear part of the aircraft.
EAST MORICHES, N.Y. -- Tests found no bomb residue on a piece of the front cargo door from TWA Flight 800, dealing a setback to investigators looking
for proof that an explosive brought down the jetliner, a source said Thursday.
The source, who is close to the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the door also did not appear to have the scars usually left by a bomb.
In a preliminary inspection of the door, "nothing ... jumps out at us, nothing that looks like it is going to get us closer" to proving what destroyed the plane,
the source said.
Federal agents still have not discounted the possibility that some kind of catastrophic mechanical problem caused the July 17 crash.
Investigators want to find and test the other two-thirds of the cargo door, the source said.
SMITHTOWN, N.Y.-- FBI officials investigating the crash
of TWA Fight 800 said Thursday that testing of
debris from the plane's underwater wreckage including a
recently discovered cargo door -- had not detected any
chemical residue or other traces of an explosive.
The forward cargo door was viewed by investigators as a
key test of the theory that the Paris-bound jumbo jet was
blown out of the sky two weeks ago by a bomb, possibly
located in the 747's cargo hold. In two other relatively
recent airplane bombings -- including that of Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 -- explosives
were believed to have been placed in forward cargo holds.
"We have not found [any evidence] yet," said James
Kallstrom, the assistant director of the FBI, referring to
agency technicians who are testing for residues left by an
explosive and looking for telltale deformities in the plane's
metal skin. "But I don't think that we have gotten results
back on everything we've pulled up."
Among the pieces recovered are the nose landing gear, the landing gear housing doors, the front cargo hold and a cargo hold door, parts of a
galley and passenger seats, miscellaneous parts of the right wing, the tail and the fuselage.
But the pieces from the front end are among the focal points for investigators, who believe that whatever happened to Flight 800 caused the
nose of the plane to snap off and fall into the ocean first.
The front cargo hold? This had been a favorite of some investigators, a theory that could click the pieces of circumstantial evidence together
like a Rubik's cube.
It had precedents: That's where a bomb was planted in the two cases that seemed like eerie preludes to this one, Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988
and Air India in 1985. It could fit coroner's office findings that showed blast injuries on passengers coming from below them.
And it would explain one key, but puzzling finding: that the front of the plane actually fell into the water closer to Kennedy Airport than the
rest of it, indicating that the plane had been "decapitated." A bomb planted in a front cargo hold would be the perfect place to pop off the
plane's nose.
One by one, the four cargo bins that had been filled with luggage that night came up from the ocean battered and bent, and one by one, they
showed no evidence that a bomb had gone off inside.
The wire that carried electrical power from the cockpit to the tape recorder mounted in the rear of TWA Flight 800 ran down the right side of
the airplane. The wire that carried power to the flight data recorder ran down the left side.
Yet the two were severed within an instant, without any warning.
Investigators seeking a mechanical explanation have had to wrestle with this reality since the two boxes were retrieved less than a week after
the crash: The destruction of Flight 800 was sudden and complete, and inconsistent with other crashes caused by pilot error or faulty
parts, where there were signs of technical trouble.
One of the engines, which were manufactured by Pratt &
Whitney, showed signs of damage from an unidentified object that had apparently blown into the engine.
Investigators also said that a cargo door, presumably the front one, had been found significantly closer to Kennedy International Airport, where
the flight originated, than almost all of the other parts located so far.
That find tended to support the theory that a bomb exploded in the forward cargo hold, blowing off the door.
So far, investigators have been frustrated in trying to decipher the only audible evidence of the blast, a sound heard for 130 milliseconds, or just over
one-tenth of a second, before the recording abruptly ended. The sound lasts 20 milliseconds longer than the one heard from the high-energy explosive
planted in the front cargo hold of Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland.
One pilot reported seeing a "streak of
light'' on the same trajectory as a shooting star. His remark was viewed by some as supporting the missile scenario. But the pilot, a Vietnam
veteran who has seen missiles fired in combat, dismissed that notion. He said the orange-red streak was descending across the sky and, as he
followed it, eventually erupted into the large fireball described by other witnesses.
While the pattern of destruction does not indicate whether the crash aboard TWA Flight 800 was caused by a bomb, missile or mechanical
failure - or whether the damage was done by the initial explosion at 13,700 feet or a fireball that was seen by witnesses about 5,000 feet
lower - it does confirm that something blew up inside the plane, a source close to the investigation said.
A computer simulation of the final moments of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 has placed the blast that downed the plane in a small
site on the jet's right side, The New York Times reported Friday.
The simulation shows that almost everything in the first spray of metal, luggage and other material blown from the plane came from a confined area above and
ahead of the right wing.
Discovery of cargo door could provide clues in TWA crash
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AD Airworthiness Directive 79-17-02
Airworthiness Directive Amendment to 89-05-54
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Cargo door accidents
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