JD> Not sure but I seem ot remember that TWA 800 wa delayed for the arrival
JD> of a late conneting flight from here in Denver that carried many of
JD> the pax who were later killed.
That might be true, as far as it goes, but that might not be all. That
has been one explanation offered. I never heard the city. I think maybe
the idea of several flights was mentioned. But a 1-hour delay (I think
one hour) because of a failed passenger-bag match has been mentioned
also. I would certainly like to get a blow-by-blow account of what
delayed the TWA flight (and how unusual that might be) The thing is,
it might be that the explanation would not sound right, and it could
be then that we could see how this might have been caused on purpose
by someone working at the airport (perhaps then, as I said, in order
to gain some time to secretly damage the plane)
And you know, there is another mystery - why was it so difficult for
TWA to get an accurate paassenger list?
That also happened in the July 30, 1992 TWA crash at Kennedy Airport -
the largest crash in which everybody survived. TWA initially said 291
passengers weer aboard that plane about 2 hours after that crash, but
sometime later on corrected that to 292. That was a flight within the
United States, bound for San Francisco. the pilot had aborted the
takeoff just after the plane left the ground because the plane didn't
feel right and he had a warning it was about to stall - unlike the way
the pilots in the DC-10 at Chicago O'Hare Airport on May 25, 1979, or
the Air Florida 737 crash in Washington, D.C.  on January 13, 1982,
although there at that point it would have been too late by the time
of takeoff, but the plane had not acted right before. In the 1992 crash,
it turned out the back of the plane was on fire, near the tail engine.
The tower warned him but the pilot, Captain William Kinkead, had
already taken action. He had seized the controls from the pilot,
reversed the engines, hit the breaks, and veered left near the end
of the runway to avoid hitting a blast fence. He wound up in a
grassy area 100 feet off the runway. The nose gear collapsed, but
the landing gear remained in place. All passengers were evacuated
off the plane before it burst into flames, but some of them had
broken bones because escape chutes are not *really* designed to be
used. There surely ought to be a way to build them so that people
suffer injuries. 55 people out of the 292 were injured. The L-1011
had two aisles - otherwise maybe not everybody would have gotten oiut
alive. One passnger lost all copies of her first novel, and another
lost his slides of his trip to Africa.  Initially, the speculation was
that the Rolls Royce RV-211 engine, near the end of its legal life,
had broken apart, and that the pieces, maybe blades or other spinning
parts, had cut fuel lines and that that started the fire. The reason
was that pieces of metal were found strewen on the runway. But this
was not so - no fuel lines had been severed, nor was there evidence
the engine had broken up. John Lauber, a member of the National
Transportation Safety Board, told the New York Times's Robert D.
McFadden that the bits of metal on the runway were "fasteners of
some sort" but wouldn't say any more and said they had no idea of
the cause of the fire. That was in the Saturday, August 1, 1992
paper. I do not know what the NTSB eventually concluded, but I
would like to find out. Maybe somebody knows. Fred Shabec said
that the NTSB web site would have the report, and that you could
also call the NTSB at 800-877-6799 and tell them your are a student
doing research on aircraft accidents and they will send you the report
for free. And you could call the NTIS at (703)487-4650 and they would
charge $35.00 for a paper copy, or $12.50 for microfilm (he didn't
think of it, bit microfilm readers are available at many public and
college librtaries - where ever the New York Times microfilm can be
read, and I think there's nothing stopping you from bringing your
own roll)
If the 1996 crash was sabotage, maybe the 1992 one was also - they
probably didn't conclude that, but I wonder if there's room for that,
or if the explanation they came up with is good.
Back to what delayed TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996:
The New York Times about this, or that touched on this, on Monday,
August 5, 1996  by Barry Meier and Pam Belluck. The article said that the
passenger-bag matches system in use wasn't done anyway  like the way
it was done in Europe - and there employees of U.S airlines telephone
a list of passengers coming to the United to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (which they get by having passports scanned
into a computer)
Mark Abels, a TWA spokesman, who seems to have sided with the mechanical
theory, (Later, in December, he wrote a letter to the New York Times
that was published criticizing them for adopting the bomb theory earlier)
told the New York Times in August that nevertheless every bag was matched.
® "Every piece of luggage aboard that plane was matched to each passenger
and accounted for," Mr. Abels said. He acknowledged that it took T.W.A.
hours after the crash to verify the number and identity of the
passengers, but said the confusion bore no relationship to the airline's
control of the luggage. He pointed out that Flight 800's departure was
delayed for an hour, in part because some luggage was removed to await
the passenger who had checked it. ¯
- article by Barry Meier and Pam Belluck on page B4 of the Monday,
August 5, 1996 New York Times, continued from the front page.
I should add that I remember hearing on television that that passenger
later actually showed up, and his bags were put aboard again, thus
further delaying the plane. Notice that Mark Abels said one hour and
that the reporters said "partially" I think the plane altogether was
delayed two hours.
TWA first said, at 11:30 P.M. on July 17, that there were 229 passengers
aboard the plane. Twelve Hours later, they changed it to 228. Later,
on Thursday afternoon, they said 230.
Mark Abels said confusion might have arisen because sometimes people
traveling together book their tickets under only one name, and some take
only carry on bags but no luggage. Mayor Giuliani said after the crash
that he and his staff repeatedly tried to get an accurate passenger list
from TWA the night of the crash, but they were told that they couldn't
because the F.B.I. - or maybe some other law enforcement agency - had
taken crucial records - I think they even claimed the New York City
Police Department, which wasn't the case, or maybe it was that one list
was handed over to the New york City Police Department, and that's how
Mayor Giuliani was able to get a list and start answering questions of
family members.
Some people at TWA also said that the National Transportation Safety
Board had told them not to release the information, something the NTSB
told Mayor Giuliani was untrue, and later said the same to the public.
(But I think it is maybe possible that indeed some people at the NTSB
told this to some TWA employees - but without any justification.
another possibility is tht some TWA employees were lying to others. It
could have been an inside job, in part. People at TWA were telling
different people all kinds of different things, most of them untrue.)
I certainly would like to know what went on, with the delay of the plane,
and the trouble with the passenger list and I think all of us should want
to know if we want to get to the bottom of this. This whole thing has been
dropped, after a little spin was started about how unfair Giuliani was
to TWA, and he caved in like Newt Gingrich caved in about not being
allowed to discuss the government shutdown on the plane, but I think it's
very important to go into these unaswered questions - it has to contain
important clues to SOMETHING.
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