True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

TWA Flight 800 Part II

Analysis of reported witnessobservations

At the start of FBI's investigation,because of the possibility that international terrorists might havebeen involved, assistance was requested from the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA).  CIA analysts, relying on sound-propagation analysis,concluded that the witnesses could not be describing a missileapproaching an intact aircraft, but were seeing a trail of burningfuel coming from the aircraft after the initial explosion. Thisconclusion was reached after calculating how long the sound of theinitial explosion took to reach the witnesses, and using that tocorrelate the witness observations with the accident sequence. In allcases, the witnesses could not be describing a missile approaching anintact aircraft, as the plane had already exploded before theirobservations began. 

As the investigation progressed, theNTSB decided to form a witness group to more fully address theaccounts of witnesses. From November 1996 through April 1997, thisgroup reviewed summaries of witness accounts on loan from the FBI(with personal information redacted), and conducted interviews withcrew-members from a New York Air National Guard HH-60 helicopter andC-130 airplane, as well as a U.S. Navy P-3 airplane that was flyingin the vicinity of TWA 800 at the time of the accident.

In February 1998, the FBI, havingclosed its active investigation, agreed to fully release the witnesssummaries to the NTSB. With access to these documents no longercontrolled by the FBI, the NTSB formed a second witness group toreview the documents.  Because of time that had elapsed (about 21months) before the NTSB received information about the identity ofthe witnesses, the witness group chose not to reinterview thewitnesses, but instead to rely on the original summaries of witnessstatements written by FBI agents as the best available evidence ofthe observations initially reported by the witnesses. Despite the twoand a half years that had elapsed since the accident, the witnessgroup did interview the captain of Eastwind Airlines Flight 507, whowas the first to report the explosion of TWA 800, because of hisvantage point and experience as an airline pilot.

The NTSB's review of the releasedwitness documents determined that they contained 736 witnessaccounts, of which 258 were characterized as "streak oflight" witnesses ("an object moving in the sky...variously described [as] a point of light, fireworks, a flare, ashooting star, or something similar.") The NTSB witnessgroup concluded that the streak of light reported by witnesses mighthave been the actual airplane during some stage of its flight beforethe fireball developed, noting that most of the 258 streak-of-lightaccounts were generally consistent with the calculated flight-path ofthe accident airplane after the CWT explosion.

Thirty-eight witnesses described astreak of light that ascended vertically, or nearly so, and theseaccounts "seem[ed] to be inconsistent with the accidentairplane's flight-path."  In addition, 18 witnessesreported seeing a streak of light that originated at the surface, orthe horizon, which did not "appear to be consistent with theairplane's calculated flightpath and other known aspects of theaccident sequence."  Regarding these differing accounts,the NTSB noted that based on their experience in previousinvestigations "witness reports are often inconsistent withthe known facts or with other witnesses' reports of the same events."The interviews conducted by the FBI focused on the possibility ofa missile attack; suggested interview questions given to FBI agentssuch as "Where was the sun in relation to the aircraft andthe missile launch point?" and "How long did the missilefly?" could have biased interviewees' responses in somecases.  The NTSB concluded that given the large number of witnessesin this case, they "did not expect all of the documentedwitness observations to be consistent with one another" and "did not view these apparently anomalous witness reportsas persuasive evidence that some witnesses might have observed amissile."