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.
Investigators want to find and test the other two-thirds
of the cargo door, the source said.
Searchers looking for bodies and wreckage were hampered
for a second straight day by choppy seas and heavy rain,
but the salvage ship USS Grasp was able to raise a
40-to-45-foot-long piece of fuselage, the largest
fragment of wreckage yet recovered.
The piece, which contained 15 passenger cabin windows,
remained on deck because seas were too rough to move it
to land.
Robert Francis, head of federal investigation, said less
than 10 percent of the wreckage had been raised. The
bodies of 184 victims had been recovered over the last
two weeks, leaving 46 unaccounted for.
FBI Director Louis Freeh said in Washington that the
agency already had interviewed hundreds of people around
the world, and plied intelligence sources for clues.
"We have been doing all the things that agents would
normally do in an investigation," Freeh said. "If it's
turned over to us we will not have lost any time."
Investigators who think a bomb brought Flight 800 down
have theorized that the blast occurred in the front
cargo hold, which the source said carried passengers'
baggage. If so, the search for a potential bomber could
be narrowed to those with access to the bags.
Investigators also speculate that a bomb could have been
placed in the nose wheel, or in a food cart in the front
upper section of the plane, the source said.
Bombs placed in luggage stored in the front cargo hold
are thought to have destroyed a French airliner over the
Sahara in 1989 and Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in
1988. Investigators are studying both cases for
similarities to Flight 800, which exploded and plunged
into the Atlantic about 10 miles off Long Island.
In field tests, some pieces of debris had shown traces
of suspicious chemicals. But as of Thursday, the source
said, none of those readings had been confirmed by tests
with more sophisticated equipment in Washington.
Investigators have still not discounted two other
possible causes for the July 17 crash that killed all
230 people aboard: a missile, or some kind of
catastrophic mechanical problem.
Source: No Evidence of Bomb on Front Cargo Door
Aug. 01, 1996
EAST MORICHES, N.Y. (AP) - Tests failed to show evidence of a bomb on a
piece of front cargo door from TWA Flight 800, stalling investigators'
attempt to prove the plane was destroyed by an explosion in the hold, a
source close to the investigation said today.
The source, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity,
said that forensic tests also had failed to find bomb evidence on any of the
other pieces of wreckage recovered in recent days.
In a preliminary inspection of the cargo door, "nothing ... jumps out at
us," the source said. "Nothing that looks like it is going to get us closer"
to concluding what destroyed the plane.
The quest for evidence was hampered again today by bad weather, said Navy
Lt. Joseph Walker, when scuba divers' operations were suspended for the
second day in a row because of high seas.
Walker had no word on whether any wreckage had been recovered this morning,
and the medical examiner's morning update listed no new bodies brought up.
On Wednesday, neither of the Navy's super-salvage ships, the USS Grasp and
its sister ship the Grapple, raised any wreckage to the surface.
Investigators who favor the bomb explanation had high hopes for the cargo
door piece. They have theorized that a blast occurred in the front cargo
hold, which on Flight 800 carried passengers' baggage.
In field tests, some pieces of debris have shown traces of suspicious
chemicals. But as of today, the source said, none of those positive readings
had been confirmed by tests with more sophisticated equipment in Washington.
Neither was there any sign of physical damage to the metal characteristic of
a bomb, such as pitting or tearing, the source said.
If a bomb did blow up in the cargo hold, the search for a potential bomber
could be narrowed to those who had access to the bags. But inspectors also
have speculated that a bomb could have been placed in the nose wheel, or in
a food cart in the front upper section of the jetliner, the source said.
On Wednesday, officials unveiled drawings of the airplane to show how little
of the wreckage has been recovered. There was a lot of white - representing
the original outer skin - and very little blue - pieces that had been found.
But the diagram did show that the front cargo door and a piece of fuselage
on the opposite side of the plane had been recovered.
The exact cause of the July 17 crash that killed 230 remained elusive, and
frustrated officials had not yet discounted two other theories: that a
missile or mechanical malfunction may have cause the explosion.
"We haven't had enough things to come up with a concrete answer," said James
Kallstrom, the FBI agent in charge.
And each day that passes may allow sea water to alter any evidence, such as
traces of explosive on the submerged pieces of wreckage.
"Time is not to our advantage, certainly," Kallstrom said.
Bombs placed in luggage stored in the front cargo hold are thought to have
destroyed a French airliner over the Sahara in 1989 and Pan Am Flight 103
over Scotland in 1988. Investigators were studying both cases for
similarities to the Flight 800 explosion.
TWA spokesman John McDonald said Wednesday that the front cargo hold may
have contained either passenger luggage or commercial cargo. The source told
the AP, however, that it was carrying passenger luggage.
Officials said 184 bodies had been recovered as of Wednesday, and warned
that it was unlikely all of the other 46 would be found.
"It's not realistic to think we're going to recover every single person who
was on that airplane," said Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board.
Location of TWA
luggage suggests
bomb
August 6, 1996
HAMPTON BAYS, New York
(CNN) -- A Navy ship has located
what is believed to be luggage
from the cargo hold of TWA Flight
800 in an underwater pile of
debris west of the main wreckage
areas, a federal investigator told
CNN Tuesday.
The discovery of the baggage suggests an explosion
blew open the cargo hold, spewing its contents
through the underbelly of the Boeing 747 before the
aircraft broke in two and plunged into the Atlantic
Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard.
The site where luggage is believed to have been found is
closer to New York's Kennedy Airport, where the plane
took off, than the primary deposits of wreckage.
The luggage was detected by a high-resolution laser
scanner from the Navy chartered ship Diane G. CNN's
source said divers are being sent to retrieve the
luggage, which could provide important clues as to
what caused the explosion on July 17 that claimed 230
lives.
"We really won't know what it means until we see it," the
investigator said, cautioning against jumping to
conclusions.
Monday night, divers recovered what appeared to be a
cargo bay door and door sill, most likely from one of the
two main fields of debris further out at sea.
Search fans out
Tuesday the Navy was repositioning
ships to new debris sites away from
the area where the cockpit was found,
which has now been cleared by the
USS Grasp.
"We are looking at now shifting her
moor out to some larger debris and,
hopefully, should start bringing some of that up," Adm.
Edmund Kristensen said.
Divers recovered another victim Monday, bringing the
total number of bodies recovered to 195. Of that
group, 192 bodies have been positively identified, with
tentative identifications made on the remaining three.
Untangling the mystery
Investigators were preparing to take apart a
conglomeration of twisted metal, gauges and wires
that were once part of the plane's cockpit and
electronics. The wreckage is being examined at a hangar
on Long Island that serves as collection point for
pieces of the plane.
"This is not going to be
precipitous. It is really is quite
an extraordinary puzzle," said
National Transportation
Safety Board Vice Chairman
Robert Francis.
Francis said that so far, only a
small percentage of the plane has been lifted from the
water.
Investigators have made clear that unraveling the
mystery will be a long and difficult task. While they
suspect a bomb destroyed the plane, they have not
ruled out a catastrophic mechanical failure or the
possibility that the jumbo jet was hit by a missile.
(254K AIFF or WAV sound)
No physical evidence -- such as bomb residue on the
wreckage -- has been found to confirm suspicions of
sabotage.
Searchers begin lifting
TWA engines from
ocean
French authorities
asked to investigate
crash
August 9, 1996
HAMPTON BAYS, New York
(CNN) -- Investigators will soon be able to study the
engines of TWA Flight 800, the jumbo jet that
exploded without warning and crashed into the Atlantic
last month, killing all 230 people aboard.
National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman
Robert Francis told reporters Friday that search
teams had pulled out the first of the four engines from
the ocean and were hoping to hoist the third one soon.
The first engine was mounted on the far left of the
plane's wing; the third engine was on the right wing,
nearest the fuselage.
"They've located what they believe is part of a third
engine," Francis said. "Hopefully, the fourth engine will
be under what is still a substantial amount of wreckage
under (USS) Grasp."
Navy and police divers, who have
been working 12-hour shifts, will
be given 24 hours rest between
shifts, instead of the 12-hour
breaks allowed since the crash
three weeks ago, Francis said.
One diver said swimming through
the wreckage field was like "diving
in razor blades," Francis recounted. "There will be a
slight slowdown, so these guys can catch their
breath," he said. "They certainly deserve it."
Experts estimate that between 40 and 45 percent of
the Boeing 747 has been recovered since the July 17
crash; 34 bodies are still missing, Francis said.
A surprising find
A source who has seen pictures of the underwater
debris from the flight says there's a large and
surprising find in the debris field closest to John F.
Kennedy International Airport that is now the focus of
crash investigators.
This area contains many
small pieces of wreckage
from the front of the
Boeing 747, including the
nose cone, sections of
the first class
compartment and front
landing gear. But the
pictures in question show
a 20-by-50-foot section of the aircraft that came
from behind the wings.
No one is sure why this piece from so far back on the
aircraft would be with the earliest debris. But
representatives from the aircraft's manufacturer, who
viewed the pictures, said the section came from the
right side of the plane, behind the wings.
Investigators believe the explosion occurred in the front
of the plane, but it was still not known whether the
blast was caused by a bomb, a missile or mechanical
failure. Evidence was still being sought that might
prove any of the three prevailing theories.
The Paris-bound flight exploded in a fireball shortly
after taking off from New York's Kennedy Airport. Most
of those aboard were citizens of the United States and
France.
French probe possible
In France, two French families whose children died on
the plane have asked French authorities to investigate
the crash, the families' said. Under French law, citizens
may request a probe of French deaths aboard
international flights.
Forty-eight French nationals were among those killed
when the Paris-bound jet crashed shortly after takeoff.
Attorney Gilles-Jean Portejoie said in
Clermont-Ferrand, France, that she was acting on
behalf of the families of Alexandre Estival, 16, Noemie
Richter, 15, and Anne-Lyse Richter, 17.
The investigation could conclude
the deaths were the result of an
accident, manslaughter or
murder.
A memorial Mass for crash
victims was celebrated Friday at
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Church in the New York City
borough of Queens. Among the 500 people in
attendance were victims' families and representatives
from TWA and other airlines.
After the Mass, 230 white balloons were released, one
for each person who died in the disaster. A tree also will
be planted at the airport to commemorate the dead.
TWA probe refocuses
on center of plane
August 9, 1996
EAST MORICHES, New York (CNN) -- As divers
continued efforts to recover bodies and debris from
TWA Flight 800, investigators Friday proceeded with
plans to refocus their work on the center of the jumbo
jet.
They've decided to rebuild a
key 45-foot-long section
that includes the forward
cargo hold, which has been
identified as a possible hiding
place for a bomb. The section
also includes the fuel tank.
Among the conceivable
explanations for mechanical failure is a fuel tank
explosion, possibly triggered by a fire in a fuel pump, a
source close to the investigation told The Associated
Press.
In August 1995, the 747's manufacturer, Boeing,
recommended its customers check fuel pumps for
electrical problems. A federal source told the AP there
is no record that Flight 800's jet had undergone the
fuel pump inspection.
Previously, investigators have said that items from the
front of the plane -- pieces that fell into the Atlantic
Ocean immediately after the jet exploded on July 17 --
would be the most likely to reveal whether a bomb, a
missile or mechanical malfunction was to blame for the
deaths of all 230 people aboard.
Only 30 percent of the plane had been retrieved from
the dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean, where divers
with lighted helmets identify large pieces of wreckage
for cranes to hoist up to the surface or scoop smaller
wreckage by hand into steel baskets lowered into the
water.
Stronger hint of
criminal act in TWA
crash
Recovery vessels resume
search
September 3, 1996
SMITHTOWN, New York (CNN) -- There's stronger
evidence that a bomb or missile may have brought
down TWA Flight 800, an investigator told The
Associated Press. But investigators say they do not
know enough to declare the explosion a criminal act.
Preliminary tests by Boeing Co., which built the 747,
indicate that an explosion of the center fuel tank alone
would not have been powerful enough to cause the
plane to crash, according to the investigator, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Using computer models to simulate pressure within a
747's center fuel tank, Boeing engineers estimated 30
to 40 pounds per square inch of pressure inside the
tank would be needed to do the kind of damage to the
fuselage observed in the jet's remains.
The tests indicate that an internal explosion of the
tank, caused by a malfunction, would generate a third
less pressure than that, the investigator said.
It was determined previously that there was an
explosion of the plane's center fuel tank. A critical
question still unanswered is whether that explosion
caused the crash or whether it was a secondary blast,
ignited by another force.
Boeing officials said they do not believe any internal
source would have been sufficient to create the kind of
damage that investigators have seen.
Search vessels return
Two recovery vessels returned to
the crash scene off Long Island,
New York, on Tuesday after taking
shelter over the weekend as
Hurricane Edouard approached.
Although the storm passed without serious damage
on land, the Navy said it was possible Edouard had
moved debris on the ocean bottom. If so, it might be
necessary to use side-scanning sonar to make a new
map of the underwater search area, the Navy said.
The Navy already was planning to use sonar to
re-examine the wreckage area closest to Kennedy
International Airport, where the cockpit and the first
pieces blown off the plane sank into the Atlantic
Ocean.
Sharing grief
TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed July 17 on its
way to Paris. All 230 people aboard were killed. Their
relatives have been invited to share their grief with
families who lost loved ones in the 1988 bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103.
A group called "Victims of Pan Am Flight 103," which
holds meetings several times a year, has asked TWA
crash families to join the next gathering, scheduled for
later this month in suburban Albany, New York.
"We are inviting them, mainly, to let them know there's
someplace they can go and be with people who
understand," said Joanne Hartunian, mother of Flight
103 victim Lynne Hartunian.
Organizers said the meeting would also give families
torn apart by the TWA Flight 800 explosion an outlet
to work for changes in airport security, which many
family members criticized in the wake of the explosion.
Source: Traces of 2nd
explosive found in TWA
debris
RDX was used in 1988
Pan Am bombing
August 30, 1996
SMITHTOWN, New York (CNN) --
Investigators have found traces of
the chemical RDX in the wreckage
of TWA Flight 800, CNN has
learned. The substance was one of the ingredients in
the deadly bomb that exploded aboard Pan Am Flight
103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Investigators admitted Friday that they had found
traces of a second chemical on pieces of wreckage
from the July 17 TWA crash, but wouldn't say what the
substance was or where it was found.
But two sources close to the probe told CNN it was
RDX. RDX and PETN -- traces of the latter were found
on TWA debris earlier this month -- combine to make
Semtex, the explosive used in the Pan Am crash in
1988 that killed 270 people. That crash was blamed on
terrorists.
FBI scientists found the trace of PETN on a section of
flooring from the center of the TWA Boeing 747 jetliner.
According to one source, the RDX was found on a
curtain used in the cargo compartment of the jumbo
jet. This source said the curtain was thought to have
come from a cargo hold at the rear of the plane.
Officially, the cause of the explosion aboard TWA 800
remains undetermined and the FBI says its latest
trace findings are not enough to declare the crash a
case of sabotage.
FBI and National Transportation Safety Board
officials said in a joint statement Friday: "Based on all
of the scientific and forensic evidence analyzed to date,
we still cannot conclude that TWA Flight 800 crashed
as the result of an explosive device."
The investigators said evidence of "physical damage or
patterns characteristic of a detonation" still must be
found before they can say with certainty that a bomb
or missile brought down the flight.
'Striking damage'
A safety board official told CNN Friday that
investigators found "striking damage" to two seats in
Row 23 on the right side of the plane; the two rows
behind them -- 24 and 25 -- were missing. The row 26
seats were found.
"There's no question that's
interesting, but it does not
get us to the end game," a
federal investigator said.
A separate source identified
the damaged seats as Nos.
9 and 10, the far right seats
nearest the wing and over the center fuel tank. He
described the damage as fist-sized holes in the
steel-plated back supports.
"There are holes in those seats," the source said. But,
"there is no conclusion to be drawn from that evidence
at this time."
Families questioned
The FBI has begun questioning families of passengers
who were assigned seats in the missing rows 24 and
25.
Authorities want to know more about the background
of those victims, where they may have traveled
overseas in the past, and who their friends and
associates were.
Rows 23-26 were located just a few feet behind the
front edge of the right wing, where the wreckage shows
the greatest amount of fire damage.
Traces of explosive
found on TWA crash
debris
August 23, 1996
Web posted at: 7:45 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Minute traces of an explosive
substance "of unknown origin" were found on wreckage
from TWA Flight 800, but investigators have no
evidence to prove a bomb caused the jet to crash, the
top FBI investigator said Friday.
Also Friday, another body was
retrieved from the underwater
wreckage, bringing the number of
bodies recovered to 210 of the
230 people killed in the July 17
crash.
Theories that a bomb, a missile
or massive mechanical failure brought down the plane
off New York's Long Island were still being considered,
James Kallstrom, assistant FBI director, said at a
news briefing.
"Based upon all the scientific and forensic evidence
analyzed to date, we cannot conclude that TWA
Flight 800 crashed as a result of an explosive device,"
Kallstrom said. "The mere fact that there are chemical
traces is just not enough." (502K AIFF or WAV sound)
The New York Times reported Friday the FBI had
concluded that either a bomb on board or a
surface-to-air missile had downed the Boeing 747,
because traces of PETN explosive chemicals had been
found in the wreckage by FBI scientists.
Reading a prepared statement, Kallstrom said it was
possible that the PETN could have been brought on
the plane by a passenger and was not part of a bomb.
The existence of the chemical alone was not enough to
prove a terrorist act, he said.
"Other things like scarring or pinging (on the plane's
wreckage) would be the type of things we would be
looking for," Kallstrom said. "We don't have the
preponderance, the critical mass of information that
tells us what happened."
Given the lack of evidence, Kallstrom said, the National
Transportation Safety Board would remain in charge of
the investigation. The FBI will take over only if
conclusive proof of a criminal act is found, he said.
Navy Rear Adm. Edward Kristensen said there were no
explosives on the USS Grapple and Grasp, the two
main search-and-salvage vessels combing the Atlantic
Ocean for TWA crash debris, that could have
contaminated the wreckage.
PETN is often used in blasting caps or small
detonators, explosives expert Jack McGeorge said
on CNN Friday during a live interview. But he said it
would not be the "majority explosive" in a bomb or
missile warhead. (179K AIFF or WAV sound)
McGeorge described PETN as a "common" explosive
that is "typically used together with other things."
(179K AIFF or WAV sound)
NASA awaits fuel tank
pieces
The chemical PETN
(pentaerythritol tetranitrate) was
found on the right side of the
forward passenger cabin between
rows 15 and 25, a source told
CNN.
Rows 17 to 28 in the coach section of the doomed
jetliner have been under intense investigative scrutiny
for the past week or so because of fire damage where
the passenger cabin meets the right wing.
Investigators have said the explosion occurred in the
right front section of the jetliner.
The Paris-bound jet exploded and crashed into the
Atlantic just minutes after taking off from John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The NTSB enlisted experts from the space agency
NASA Thursday to inspect fuel tank pumps, fuel
probes and the fuel control panel from the TWA jetliner
to determine whether there was a catastrophic
mechanical malfunction.
These same experts analyzed pieces from the exploded
fuel tank of the space shuttle Challenger that blew up
shortly after launch on January 28, 1986, killing all
seven astronauts aboard.
A NASA spokesman said pieces of TWA wreckage were
expected to arrive at the Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama, late Friday.
A team of NTSB and FAA experts were accompanying
the fuel tank components to Huntsville. The NASA
spokesman said its experts will be working with the
safety team seven days a week to test and analyze the
wreckage.
Fourth TWA engine
located
August 12, 1996
SMITHTOWN, New York (CNN)
-- The crew of the USS Grasp,
still sifting through an area of
heavy crash debris in the
Atlantic have found the fourth
engine from TWA Flight 800,
sources close to the investigation told CNN.
Bad weather hampered attempts to retrieve the engine
Monday evening.
Three of the four engines from the plane are now in a
Long Island hangar, where investigators are combing
them for clues.
Meanwhile, another of the
main salvage ships in the
crash investigation has moved
to a more sparse debris field
closer to John F. Kennedy
International Airport. As
Francis explained, the area is
not at all like the Grasp's wreckage- choked field.
The USS Grapple spent the day searching the
underwater field for pieces of the aircraft which would
have come off early in the incident.
After 12 hours of steady searching, they produced only
one basket of debris -- about 15 pieces of the aircraft,
none large. Even though the weather was good, the
search team's progress was slow, Francis said. The
weather forecast for the next few days "is not terrific,"
Francis said, and could slow down the search even
more.
"This is slugging away,"
Francis said. "It's finding
those little pieces that will tell us
what happened." Contrary to the
notion that there is a "magic piece"
that will solve the crash puzzle, the
little pieces will probably help piece
together the answer, he said. (254K AIFF or WAV
sound)
Another body was also recovered Monday, bringing the
total number of TWA crash victims recovered to 199 of
the 230 people who were on the Paris-bound jumbo jet
when it crashed, killing everyone on board. Of the bodies
recovered, Francis said 196 have been identified.
Scattered fire damage perpetuates
TWA mystery
Meanwhile, the mystery of what happened to TWA
Flight 800 deepened Monday. Investigators who have
examined the center wing box -- the area between the
wings -- say it shows fire damage in some areas but
not in others, sources told CNN's Carl Rochelle.
Some of the fractures in the wing box have soot in
them, while others do not, according to the sources.
They said the finding suggests that a portion of the
Boeing 747 may have broken before it burned in the
July 17 explosion that brought down the jetliner.
Damage in the center section, where the metal bulges
outward in some areas and dips inward in others,
further puzzled investigators.
Only one of the jumbo jet's
three recovered engines shows
fire damage, the sources said.
Fans on the other two engines
were intact when found and
were not turning when the
engines hit the water, the sources said.
They said those two engines hit the water at a relatively
"flat" angle, meaning they were moving forward -- not
straight down.
About half of the wreckage has now been recovered,
but investigators said they still lack the pieces that
could help them conclude if a mechanical failure or a
criminal act was to blame for the July 17th crash.
Ill-fated TWA plane
used for troop
transport in Gulf War
August 26, 1996
EAST MORICHES, New York
(CNN) -- The TWA Boeing 747
that blew up and crashed into the
sea last month had been used to
transport U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf
War, U.S. officials said Monday.
The plane was part of a charter group used by the
military on request, Maj. Rick Sanford of the U.S. Air
Mobility command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois told
CNN.
It was used to take troops to Saudi Arabia in 1990
and may have been used again to bring troops home
after the war in 1991, he said. The plane was completely
refurbished in 1992, making it less likely any explosive
residue that might have been tracked aboard would still
be present, he said.
FBI tests turned up a trace of a chemical, PETN,
found in plastic explosives on a piece of wreckage from
near the floor of the plane's center section. But
investigators say they still lack enough firm evidence to
rule that sabotage was responsible for the crash.
First word that the aircraft had been used as a military
charter came from FBI assistant director James
Kallstrom at Monday's news briefing on the disaster.
Another victim's remains were recovered Monday, said
Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). That would put
the total number of bodies recovered at 211, leaving 19
unaccounted for.
The search for evidence in the explosion of TWA Flight
800 was being narrowed to a smaller area, as divers
retrieved smaller pieces of wreckage, Francis said.
Divers from the Navy
recovery vessel USS Grapple
worked the area where the
cockpit and the forward
part of the aircraft were
found.
The sister ship, USS Grasp,
worked an area farther east,
where most of the wreckage
from the center and back of the plane went down in the
Atlantic. One big part of the plane, a chunk of the
horizontal stabilizer, was being brought to shore from
the Grasp.
Grapple would be moved to the area currently being
handled by Grasp, which will leave later this week.
Grapple will then concentrate on a 400-square-yard
area. Authorities said the divers' labor-intensive search
could take weeks.
"The size of the pieces is starting to diminish," Francis
said.
More than 160 divers have worked for five weeks along
with Navy salvage vessels to recover about 60 percent
of the aircraft from water up to 120 feet deep.
The wreckage, which is being reassembled in a New York
hangar, probably would not be recognizable as a plane,
Francis said.
Lab tests found no evidence of mechanical malfunction
in two fuel pumps, he said.
Investigators refused to comment Monday on possible
new evidence. FBI assistant director James Kallstrom
warned reporters about the credibility of unidentified
sources.
"Don't believe for a second that everything you read in
the newspaper that's associated to unnamed sources
is correct," Kallstrom said.
Navy narrows focus
The Navy has begun wrapping
up its recovery operations in the
underwater debris field closest
to Kennedy Airport. The Navy
went back to that area with
high-resolution sonar to try to
find any small bits of wreckage
it may have missed earlier.
By late Monday, divers were
expected to complete checking every location identified
by sonar in the two debris fields closest to the airport,
said Navy Rear Adm. Edward K. Kristensen.
Investigators had hoped the site closest to the airport
might yield the clues critical to identifying the cause of
the crash, since that would include the wreckage
thought to have plunged first into the Atlantic after
the airborne explosion.
The Navy did recover luggage
in that area, but investigators
ruled out an explosion in the
front luggage compartment
after they found no signs of
bomb damage on the cargo
bins.
All 230 people aboard the New York-to-Paris flight
were killed July 17, when the jetliner exploded shortly
after takeoff.
Also Monday, another name was added to the list of
positively identified victims, Daniel Cremades of France,
bringing the total to 207. A Catholic funeral was held
for him in Manhattan.
More traces of
explosives found on
TWA debris
What happened behind
row 23?
August 30, 1996
SMITHTOWN, New York (CNN) --
Additional traces of explosive
residue have been found in the
wreckage of TWA Flight 800,
federal investigators said Friday, but that does not
prove the July 17 crash was caused by a bomb.
A source close to the investigation told CNN the
residue came from the same explosive detected in
laboratory tests on microscopic evidence last week,
but was found in a different part of the plane, making it
difficult to draw a pattern. The source didn't say where
the recent residue was detected.
Law enforcement sources said the earlier trace
evidence was residue from PETN, a chemical ingredient
of plastique or plastic explosives. Those traces of
PETN were found between rows 15 and 25 on the right
side of the passenger cabin.
FBI and National Transportation Safety Board
investigators said in a joint statement Friday: "Based
on all of the scientific and forensic evidence analyzed to
date, we still cannot conclude that TWA Flight 800
crashed as the result of an explosive device."
They said evidence of "physical damage or patterns
characteristic of a detonation" still must be found
before they can say with certainty that a bomb or
missile brought down the Boeing 747 bound from New
York to Paris.
Missing seats
Two rows of missing seats from the center of the
jumbo jet could help pinpoint the location of the
explosion that brought down the plane off New York's
Long Island, killing all 230 people on board.
As recovery efforts in the
Atlantic Ocean continue,
rows 24 and 25 on the right
side of the Boeing 747 are
still missing, a source who
has seen wreckage recovered
so far told CNN.
The missing rows are located just a few feet behind the
front edge of the right wing, where the wreckage shows
the greatest amount of fire damage. In rebuilding the
jumbo jet in hopes of finding the cause of the crash,
investigators have been concentrating on the
midsection, from rows 17 to 28.
Referring to the seats in those 12 rows, Robert
Francis, vice chairman of the NTSB, said Thursday
they were more heavily damaged than other parts of
the plane. (160K AIFF or WAV sound)
Two seats on the farthest right side of row 23 had
fist-sized holes punched into their sheet metal back
supports, sources told CNN Friday. Row 23 is directly
in front of the missing rows.
Computer simulation
Investigators are working with a computer simulation
to try to recreate what happened when the plane was
blown apart shortly after takeoff from New York's John
F. Kennedy International Airport, an NTSB official
confirmed. Such a simulation is standard in most
crash investigations.
However, the official said the computer results have
not yet led to any conclusions about the specific
location of the explosion. "We have not zeroed in on any
passenger seat. It's not that specific," the NTSB
official said.
Officials still say they lack sufficient evidence to say
with any certainty whether the plane was brought down
by a bomb, a missile or some mechanical catastrophe.
Divers have found and recovered at least 65 percent of
the jet but "there's a lot of the center fuel tank that's
missing," Francis said. Investigators are anxious to
find more of the tank because they know an explosion
took place there.
Francis said salvage work for the remainder of the
wreckage could be shut down this weekend if Hurricane
Edouard heads north toward the crash site.
Rough seas plague
TWA divers
August 13, 1996
WASHINGTON (CNN) --
Stormy weather and 9-foot
(2.7-meter) waves Tuesday
kept investigators away from
the Atlantic Ocean, where
they have been steadily
recovering debris from TWA Flight 800 for the past
three weeks.
"You do not motor around in 9-foot waves. The divers
couldn't even get to the boats," National
Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert
Francis said. (170K AIFF or WAV sound)
The choppy seas delayed retrieval of
the Boeing 747's fourth engine from
the waters off Long Island, where the
jumbo jet exploded and crashed July
17. All 230 people aboard were killed.
Investigators are looking closely at the
engines, especially the third engine, which reportedly
showed evidence of fire damage.
In the Calverton, New York, hangar where wreckage is
being examined and reassembled, a crew is using
wooden scaffolding and chicken wire to build a
structure that will house pieces of the center of the
aircraft. They hope to find clues in the reconstruction
that will help determine the crash cause.
Recovered and identified portions of
the plane
[ Overhead view | Right side view | Left side view ]
The attention of investigators has shifted toward the
center of the plane, where the right wing was attached
to the fuselage, as a likely location for the explosion.
Investigators say pieces
from the center of the jet
show extensive burn
damage. From that area,
investigators will try to piece
together one of the plane's
kitchens, the "C" galley,
located in front of the wing
of the aircraft.
Sources close to the investigation say the galley
suffered "crushing damage." Investigators want to
study how the metal is bent to see if it was caused by
impact with the water or by a possible bomb brought
aboard on a food cart.
Beam is twisted
The investigators hope to reassemble all five of the
plane's galleys if they can recover the parts. But,
they're not holding out much hope of finding vital
evidence in them.
"There is a lot of galley that is out in the hangar and I
don't think ... it's extraordinary," Francis said.
At a lab in Washington, investigators are looking
closely at a beam recovered from the center section.
Sources say it is twisted and bent in a way consistent
with an explosion. The beam was found in an area where
the center fuel tank is located. Investigators believe the
tank exploded, but it's not clear how or why.
In the Long Island hangar,
investigators began tearing
apart the No. 3 engine, the
only one of the three
recovered so far that shows
fire damage. It's the engine
closest to the fuselage on
the right side.
Workers also planned to lay
out carpets, blankets and other items from the cabin
to see if any holes or tears can provide clues to the
location of the explosion.
The investigative process involves eliminating
possibilities as much as trying to prove them, and is
painstakingly slow. But officials are convinced they will
learn what caused TWA Flight 800 to fall from the sky.
Flight 800: Faulty Wiring?
Washington - National Transportation Safety Board investigators, increasingly dubious that sabotage caused the explosion of TWA Flight 800, are
looking for evidence that deteriorated wires could have allowed sparking or electrical surges in or near the center fuel tank that triggered the plane's
destruction.
Airplane-wiring specialists said potentially dangerous arcing and wiring fires have plagued military aircraft flying in harsh environments and have been
an issue for civilian airliners as well. They said faulty wiring could have played a role in igniting fuel vapors in the nearly-empty tank, which exploded in the
crash.
Federal investigators, sorting through miles of high- and low-voltage wires that snaked through the downed plane, have found no evidence so far that
wiring is to blame in the demise of the TWA jumbo jet.
But a number of incidents, including the fatal crash of a Grumman-built E-2C Hawkeye surveillance plane in 1990 and the explosion of a Boeing 737
on the tarmac in Manila that same year, may hold lessons as they search for clues to the mystifying destruction of the 747 jetliner off Long Island
on July 17.
Investigators are looking specifically for evidence that electrical arcing, or sparking, from deteriorated wiring could have allowed much more current
through one of the tank's fuel-measuring probes than the minuscule amount they were designed for, according to a senior NTSB official.
"We're concerned that there is a possibility of introducing a much higher amperage," the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Although Boeing engineers have discounted that possibility, arguing the circuits are designed to allow no more than 1/10th of the energy needed to
ignite fuel vapors, the NTSB official said, "We're not 100 percent convinced - or anywhere near close to that - that there isn't some way."
The NTSB's database includes 27 incidents from 1983 to 1995 involving electrical-wiring malfunctions on commercial airplanes, according to a letter
from the NTSB to Edward Block, a former Pentagon wiring specialist who has been raising concerns about wiring for a decade. The majority involve
improper maintenance, which led to excessive wear, chafing and short-circuits.
The type of wiring insulation used in 747-100s such as Flight 800 - known commercially as Poly-X, according to industry specialists - has been one
of those of particular concern.
In the early 1980s, the Navy ordered the military version of the wire stripped from 323 Grumman F-14 Tomcats because the insulation sometimes
degrades when exposed to moisture, allowing sparks that could interfere with flight controls. Commercial airlines complaints in the 1970s about
Poly-X on 747s, reporting wire-to-wire abrasion in high-vibration areas of the planes, led Boeing to issue a service bulletin to all its customers revising
the wire routing, clamping and installation in those areas. It was unclear whether that included wiring around center fuel tanks.
And in a letter to the NTSB last year, Boeing said it was aware of radial cracking in some Poly-X wires in military craft, but added the company had no
other reports of unusual deterioration.
"Poly-X was a miserable wire," said Robert Dunham, a retired Navy maintenance-engineering manager familiar with the wire's problems. Patrick Price, a
retired Boeing specialist who worked in the firm's wiring-test facility, said Poly-X could deteriorate in the presence of even distilled water. He said newer
wiring insulation Boeing uses on some of its later 757 and 737 models, is more resistant to degradation.
There is no program for upgrading wiring on aging jetliners, a costly job that would require taking planes out of service for extended periods, experts
said. Wiring is inspected during major overhauls and replaced as necessary. But some vocal critics have accused the Federal Aviation Administration
of failing to aggressively assess the potential risks of degraded wiring in aging commercial aircraft.
The FAA is considering a program to examine the condition of wiring in some aged airliners, according to one federal official who asked not to be
identified. An FAA spokesman could not confirm that yesterday. Boeing officials have said the wiring on its jetliners has performed well over the years
and is not a safety risk.
Flight 800 investigators have been frustrated in trying to determine which potential suspects in the ignition of the center fuel tank's vapors were at
the root of the crash, whether mechanical flaws, bomb, or missile. With 95 percent of the plane estimated to be recovered, they are uncertain whether
the missing pieces such as the tank's scavenge pump or several fuel probes were involved. They are looking into all possible scenarios, even some that
at first might have seemed remote.
Whether deteriorated wiring could have triggered the disaster has not been determined. The senior NTSB official said investigators have not found any
evidence of arcing in the tangle of recovered wiring from the jetliner's center tank region.
There are precedents, however. When a Philippine Air Lines 737 exploded and burned on the tarmac in Manila in May, 1990, investigators found
damaged insulation on low-energy wiring to a float switch (a fuel measuring device) in that craft's center fuel tank, which was empty, like Flight 800's.
They also found exposed 115-volt wiring in the same region.
The NTSB for weeks has been reviewing that accident for parallels to the TWA explosion, calling it a model for its Flight 800 investigation. In its own
report on the Manila incident, the NTSB said "the combination of a faulty float switch and damaged wires providing continuous power supply" to the
switch "may have caused an electrical arc or overheating of the switch leading to the ignition of the center fuel tank vapor."
Outside experts, some of whom formerly worked on wiring safety for industry or the Pentagon, say deteriorated wiring could have played a role in the
igniting the center fuel tank of the TWA 747 as well.
If a 115-volt power wire was near a low-voltage fuel-probe wire, they said, and both had been damaged, perhaps by rubbing against metal or exposure
to the moisture that can collect in the belly of an aircraft, it is possible a spark could pass from the higher-voltage wire to the low-voltage wire and
trave toward the fuel tank.
In a statement, Boeing said wiring for the fuel probes runs in a separate bundle from the rear of the fuel tank to the flight deck. But it added, "in
certain areas it passes near other wire bundles" and that all of the wire bundles are "tightly configured" as they come together behind the flight
engineer's panel in the cockpit.
If there was a failure in the current-limiting system, which includes resistors to pinch off surges of electricity through the fuel-probe circuits, a spark
could have discharged into the tank, the specialists said. Boeing engineers discounted that possibility.
Experts said it also is possible a major insulation failure in high-voltage wires running near the center tank could have produced sufficient sparking
from exposed wires to directly bore a hole through the metal skin of the fuel tank and ignite vapors within.
The NTSB official said investigators are interested in wires running to the air-conditioning equipment located beneath the tank, wiring raceways that
pass just above the tank and a cluster of wiring near the front spar of the tank. He said the wires running past the forward part of the tank include
the main power cables from the aircraft's engines.
Boeing said the main power cables have multi-layer insulation and a braided outer jacket. The wire conductor is a special-purpose aluminum used for
its light weight. One wiring consultant said such power wires are durable - but if they were to fail, they could produce extremely hot arcs due to the
flammability of the aluminum.
"It is a plain and simple question of massive arcing," said another wiring specialist who worked for years in the aviation industry. "I don't think it would
make a difference what kind of insulation you have on those main power feeders." He said it is possible for such localized arcing to occur rapidly and
without tripping circuit breakers elsewhere in the power supply system.
While the specialists cite past wiring incidents and laboratory experiments on wiring durability, they also caution that much depends on the specific
types of wiring used on the 25-year-old TWA plane and how they had been handled during routine maintenance and repairs.
The NTSB did not respond to questions of what types of wiring are being examined by investigators and whether the fuel-probe wires run adjacent to
higher-voltage cables. Shelly Hazle, a board spokeswoman, would say only that investigators had determined the TWA jetliner did not have
Kapton-insulated wiring, a type that has been implicated in some of the more violent arcing incidents on military jets.
John McDonald, a spokesman for TWA, said the company would not discuss maintenance procedures or the wiring history of the TWA 800 jetliner.
Several wiring incidents on commercial airliners involve Kapton-insulated wires. An industry source confirmed that TWA had found 22 instances of
severe arcing on its fleet of Lockheed L-1011 jetliners between 1972 and 1981. Company engineers recommended that Kapton be prohibited in future
aircraft purchased by the airline.
An FAA technical report published last year cited several other cases, including a Scandinavian Air Service MD-87 jetliner that experienced smoke
and fire that penetrated the fuselage as it landed Nov. 24, 1993. Investigators found that two wires, one 115 volts and the other 28 volts, had been
pinched together and were arcing to the fuselage structure.
In the military realm, arcing from damaged Kapton-insulated wires apparently was the cause of a fatal 1990 crash of a Grumman-built E-2C Hawkeye
surveillance plane as it returned to the naval base in Puerto Rico.
Dunham, the retired Navy engineering manager, said investigators concluded that arcing from a failed wiring bundle created a blowtorch effect that
likely penetrated a fuel line.
11/22
Sikorsky Aircraft of Stratford, Connecticut, the world's foremost
manufacturer of helicopters, confirmed on November 19 that it had
previously released to the FBI a tape of a radar session of July 17, this
at the request of the FBI.
A spokesperson contacted through the office of the president of Sikorsky
confirmed that Sikorsky operates sophisticated radar equipment at its
airfield, and that, following the July 17 crash of TWA 800, Sikorsky,
along with other aviation firms and airfields in the region, was requested
by the FBI to provide radar tapes to investigators.
Sikorsky will neither confirm nor deny that any missle track or other
anomaly appeared on their radar (or the tape), stating that such an
announcement concerning a matter under federal investigation is the
purview of either the FBI or NTSB.
For reference to original matter concerning supposed evidence of
air-to-air missle on the Sikorsky radar tape, see the recent posts
"Salinger was right - TWA 100" and "radar tape" in this newsgroup. The
author of these posts claims a Sikorsky employee as source.