Probable cause announced at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on October 8, 2003

Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization (FIRO) announced their probable cause determination for the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 during a talk at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on October 8th, 2003. The talk, entitled "TWA Flight 800 and Official Obfuscation" and sponsored by the student group "Power of One," contained graphics and animations that called into question several key findings in the government's official crash report.

TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed off the coast of Long Island, NY in the summer of 1996. Although dozens of eyewitnesses were sure they saw a missile, federal investigators took four years to release an ultimately inconclusive final report.

FIRO has documented evidence the government concealed, omitted, and misrepresented during the investigation. Much of this evidence was used by FIRO to buttress their findings, which purportedly account for more evidence than the government's theory of a spark inside a fuel tank.

FIRO Chairman Dr. Thomas Stalcup gave the talk, which focused on the government's mishandling of key pieces of evidence that conflicted with a preconceived crash scenario. That evidence was then shown to support a theory for the crash that accounts for nearly all of the available evidence. The talk concluded with the release of FIRO's findings and their probable cause determination.

Findings

• Radar data shows the first pieces of wreckage hurling out the right side of TWA Flight 800, landing in an area not listed in the NTSB debris field database. This wreckage was confirmed recovered by the Navy more than 1/2 mile south of the flight path.
• Objects consistent with incendiary pellets used in missile warheads were found during victim autopsy exams.
• Explosive traces consistent with explosives used in missile warheads were found throughout the wreckage. The traces that were found in a cargo compartment cannot be explained by an alleged explosives spill, during a bomb detection exercise conducted in the passenger cabin weeks earlier.
• Overwhelming statistical evidence from hundreds of eyewitnesses is consistent with an ocean-launched surface-to-air missile and its subsequent impact with TWA Flight 800 at an altitude of 13,700 feet.
• Based on radar data and the law of conservation of energy, TWA Flight 800, at no time during its crash sequence, climbed as depicted in government animations.

Probable Cause

A surface-to-air missile, launched from the ocean off the coast of Long Island rose up and exploded at or near TWA Flight 800. The explosion of the near-empty center wing fuel tank was a secondary explosion, initiated by the explosion of a missile warhead. The combined destructive power of the missile and the fuel tank explosion caused catastrophic structural failure of TWA Flight 800.

Supporting Documentation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the probable cause for the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996 was an explosion within the aircraft's center wing fuel tank. Neither the ignition source nor its location within the tank "could be determined from the available evidence."[1] Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization (FIRO) reviewed the NTSB's findings and probable cause determination in detail and found several errors and omissions that required further review.

In July 2002, FIRO filed a petition with the NTSB requesting that these errors and omissions be corrected in a revised accident report.[2] The petition explained in detail that evidence which conflicted with the official probable cause for the crash, was not adequately investigated, or was withheld from certain investigative parties and the public. Nearly a year after receiving the petition, the NTSB responded by simply dismissing a majority of FIRO's assertions without even a cursory review.[3]

FIRO believes that the probable cause for the crash of TWA Flight 800 was an explosion caused by an external ignition source. Radar data [4, 5], forensic analyses [6, 7], debris field evidence [4], secret government test results [8], and multiple eyewitness observations [9, 10] all suggest that the external ignition source was most likely a surface-to-air missile.

FIRO does not intend to ascribe theories as to why a missile may have been fired. Rather, the main goals of FIRO are to factually establish that an external initiating event caused the demise of TWA Flight 800, and to compel the proper investigative agencies to re-open the TWA Flight 800 investigation so that the cause of the accident may be firmly established.

Parties interested in assisting FIRO with its investigation or liaison contacts with the United States government should

About FIRO

Formed in April of 1999, FIRO is a group dedicated to uncovering and publicizing the facts surrounding the crash of TWA Flight 800. Its membership includes former airline crash investigators, scientists, engineers, and aviation professionals.

References

1. NTSB, AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT, In-flight Breakup Over the Atlantic Ocean, Trans World Airlines Flight 800, Boeing 747-131, N93119, Near East Moriches, New York, July 17, 1996. NTSB Public Docket, 2000.

2. FIRO Petition http://flight800.org/petition/pet_contents.htm

3. NTSB Response to FIRO Petition
http://www.flight800.org/petition/doc_1.htm
http://www.flight800.org/petition/doc_2_p1.htm
http://www.flight800.org/petition/doc_2_p2.htm
http://www.flight800.org/petition/doc_2_p3.htm

4. FIRO Petition: Section 4 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect4.htm

5. FIRO Petition: Section 7 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect7.htm

6. FIRO Petition: Section 2 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect2.htm

7. FIRO Petition: Section 3 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect3.htm

8. Flight 800's Secret Archive http://flight800.org/secret_documents.htm

9. FIRO Petition: Section 8 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect8.htm

10. FIRO Petition: Section 10 http://flight800.org/petition/pet_sect9.htm