TWA Flight 800 investigators break silence in new documentary, claim original conclusion about caus

Originally posted by orangutang
reply to post by NickDC202

 

i'll skip the 7 pages, hope no one has mentioned this.
it would seem the El Al flight was the real target.

well, i did read all pages and this "El al" business has been mentioned several times.

unfortunately, no one has had the courtesy to explain what an "El al" is.

perhaps you could oblige?

ETA: to offset my critical tone, I will say that this has been a fascinating read. thanks to all contributors.

reply to post by tgidkp


EL AL is an Israeli airline. The had a flight on the same flight path that night that was delayed.

I swore I would never sign up at this site because I tend to get easily sucked in to heated debates about conspiracy theories and factual events like the NSA spying scandal...but this topic regarding TWA 800 hit home for me. I too saw the video on the news and remember all the conjecture about a missile launch. Much like others here I can only relate what I saw on that video which was clearly something launched from the surface and heading toward the plane. Whatever it was, it did NOT come from the plane but flew from the surface in the direction of it. The object headed toward the plane had a bright glow and was trailed by what was clearly some sort of exhaust. The only things I've ever seen in my life that resembled what I saw on that video are missile launches, certain types of fireworks and flares both hand held and pistol fired. The object appeared to be too big for a firework or a flare, travelled extremely fast and certainly seemed to be targeting the plane.

When I showed up for my shift at the station the following day and told the guys I worked with they were stunned. Of course none of them had seen it themselves but an article in the paper carried a still shot (or screen grab) from the video and after seeing it nobody doubted my account of the news broadcast. To my amazement though, shortly after when the "missile" theory was pushed aside and the video of the incident had vanished all those guys (over a dozen) quickly ate up the official story and I became the shift conspiracy nut. Nobody really took it seriously and honestly I wasn't interested in hashing it out with people so I kind of just forgot about it. It's been eating at me in the back of my mind for over a decade though and this thread brought it right back to the forefront.

To this day I would swear on a stack of bibles that flight 800 was shot down. Why, I don't have a clue. By who I really couldn't say. All I can say is that it sure as hell looked like a missile to me and until someone brings that entire video to the surface and can give me a more logical explanation for the events seen in it, I will continue to wonder what the hell happened to that plane. I will also continue to wonder why the video was buried and who ordered the cover up.

On top of everything else this happened during the Clinton era and that raises all kinds of red flags in my mind. Events such as Waco, Ruby Ridge and the Elian Gonzalez scandal should give anyone pause to question the official story regarding Flight 800. I watched the news coverage of all of those incidents (in most cases live) and lie after lie came out of the administration. The lies just never seemed to end and their still going on to this day. Before the Clinton era I trusted my government, after Clinton not so much. Then came Bush and Obama. Now I want to move into a bunker lol

That documentary is absolutely incredible.

I don't see how anyone in their right mind can refute the witnesses or the experts in this case--especially those who were coerced to change their story.

This video should be distrubuted far and wide.

Absolutely incredible.

I had no idea it went so deep.

Anyone on here who is refuting that the official story is a crock didn't watch the video and doesn't have a right to comment.

reply to post by digitalzombie

Welcome to ATS!
So much for swearing, eh?
A lot of people saw the video, and they can't take that away. They took the video, but they can't take our memories.... yet.

I remember the night TWA 800 was shot down very well, because I was trying to listen to radio reports of it and ended up listening to Art Bell interview an aviation expert about what had happened. It was my first time listening to coast to coast, and I still listen to it nightly. This is blowing my mind.

I did also see a video on the news repeated over and over of a streak of light moving up to the jet. I remember "experts" saying it was ignited fuel leaking out of the jet, causing the illusion of a streak of light moving towards the jet.

To this day, that video looked like a missile to me.

Originally posted by tgidkp
unfortunately, no one has had the courtesy to explain what an "El al" is.

A search of el al puts their website at the top, so you can try using search next time:

www.elal.co.il...

Slogan: "It's not just an airline, it's Israel"

What a slogan.

Originally posted by minkmouse
I remember this event and I'll never forget a clip I saw on the news showing a surface to air missile being launched. The reporter said it was footage filmed by a tourist. Then...Bam! Never saw this video again, ever, anywhere. Then came the story of the center tank explosion which became the official line. In the back of my mind, I always wondered about the clip I'd seen and where the hell it went

Yep, I remember the footage of what appeared to be a SAM too. Saw it once during the accident coverage on the news and never saw it again.

reply to post by Zaphod58

They are large aircraft hit by missiles. How are they not similar? Because they landed, and TWA 800 didn't?

I should have been more specific but I had to go to bed right then.
The cases may be similar in that there were planes hit by missiles, and even possibly in all the cases they were shoulder launched missiles.
What I believe is not similar is the actual missiles themselves. Those other ones were probably really simplistic units given out to terrorists by people who are more interested in getting willing accomplices by giving them what would have seemed to them to be sophisticated weapons, but not really wanting those people to be able to do significant damage to their own country's aircraft.
In the case of the Afghan rebels fighting the Russians, the recipients of these weapons would have been more demanding of their effectiveness since they were fighting a real war against an enemy with sophisticated aircraft who could effectively retaliate and kill anyone who was firing inferior weapons at them.

I'm really curious how a missile designed to track on heat sources, with less than 10 pounds of explosives is going to cause a 747 to break into 5 pieces like this.

See comment above.

Originally posted by NickDC202
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

Most people weren't watching MSNBC at that time, frankly it had just debuted that week and with Brian Williams' Rand McNally map as the graphics, I'd assume that most watching when the news broke switched over to CNN (or local NY news). The TWA 800 video exclusive was what they hoped would put the network on the map (MSNBC won the bidding war and I hear the price was outrageous), but the FBI had other ideas.

LOL by the ratings, most people are still not watching MSNBC...

That event caused me to miss a flight. I had lost my driver's license like a day or 2 before leaving on a flight to Chicago. At the airport I was asked for a photo id and I quipped: "I don't want to drive it, I just want to ride in it"...wrong thing to do lol I almost got a cavity search out of that bit of humor. I had to get a new driver's license before I could make a flight the next day. My coworkers referred to me as "the terrorist" after that event

reply to post by madmac5150


I recall a video from a French Correspondent that showed an object streaking towards the airplane on a air traffic control radar screen. The assumption was that it was a surface to air missile from a USN vessel that was in the Atlantic.

Originally posted by bbracken677
That event caused me to miss a flight. I had lost my driver's license like a day or 2 before leaving on a flight to Chicago. At the airport I was asked for a photo id and I quipped: "I don't want to drive it, I just want to ride in it"...wrong thing to do lol I almost got a cavity search out of that bit of humor. I had to get a new driver's license before I could make a flight the next day. My coworkers referred to me as "the terrorist" after that event

That's pretty funny. After 9/11, either Christmas '01 or '02 I had lost my wallet the night before I was flying from San Francisco to JFK to celebrate the holiday with my family in NY. I had no identification, I had my gym membership card (no photo) and my bf at the time who wasn't traveling with me but I thought could help establish my identity. Needless to say with the terror alert color either orange or red, with only my picture-less gym membership card I got onto the flight as scheduled.

Since Flight 800 caused you that delay, I'd definitely recommend watching the documentary; it is phenomenal and more surreal watching it during this period of government shenanigans that many of us have known for years coming to light in the eyes of the general public.

reply to post by MRuss

Anyone on here who is refuting that the official story is a crock didn't watch the video and doesn't have a right to comment.

what video? Has this documentary even aired? Can someone post a link? Cause the article says it's going to air, not that it has.

I've seen documentaries on this before, but I'd like to see the one this thread is talking about. I scanned through countless pages, no link. where did you see it?

Anyhoo, i do recall the theory that a Navy test fire "accidentally" hit the jet, and that the FBI was trying to cover that up. That one seems a little more plausible in my opinion, than some terrorist getting his hands on a SAM. Besides, 99% of terror attacks against planes are hijackings or bombings, not missile attacks.

That said, I had no idea an El Al jet was supposed to take that flight path and time but was delayed, no idea at all. Could that have been the actual target?

god it feels like forever ago, what was the political climate like at the time, what was going on with Israel?

Think about it. Israeli passenger jet downed by terrorists in US controlled airspace. There's a first shot in a war for you right there friends.

I have read all 9 pages of the thread so far and there are some great comments from both sides. I am happy to see that this has remained a constructive discussion (not like some of the 9/11 threads). I have also watched the entire video and think there is some real substance in there. If you have not watched it, it is a must (regardless of your viewpoint).

I was going to university in Pennsylvania at the time, and I also remember seeing the video on the news that showed something traveling up into the sky, and then the explosion. I always found it strange that after a day or so, this footage was never aired again.

Another major point that I have is on the news networks in Pennsylvania, the military had stated that they were "testing flares at the time" and that is what the witnesses saw (and what the video was showing). However, this bit of information also vanished - never to be repeated again.

reply to post by JarsCloutLife

I remember the flare story(excuse) from the military also.

That's what caused the 'Phoenix Lights' too, according to the military.

Originally posted by NickDC202
I'm just going to post this link to an EPIX press release about the documentary because it "may" contain a link to a site and a password allowing you to view the EPIX TWA Flight 800 documentary (which debuts on EPIX on 17 July 2013) now.... allegedly...

press.epixhd.com...

The link given does indeed have the video listed. I am unsure of the rules about posting it here so I will just say that the link to watch the rough cut of the documentary is listed in the 4th paragraph down. =) Going to watch now!

Originally posted by phishyblankwaters
what video? Has this documentary even aired? Can someone post a link? Cause the article says it's going to air, not that it has.

No it hasn't aired but there's a press release link that's already been posted twice in the first few pages of the thread. It's been posted a third time for you.

Originally posted by elouina
Ok this one is a goodie... It relates to the radar pics that I have posted. The FBI thinks a navy ship did it, and the department of defense is covering it up.

Blank has stated that their experts have identified this anomoly as the missle that brought down TWA flight 800. Blank advised that 4 radar sweeps show the anomoly as traveling at mach 2.Etc...

Nice find! I haven't seen that one before.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by elouina

 

The image isn't very sharp, but basically you have flight ID or Tail number, speed and altitude. Usually they hit the printer and take a snapshot of the screen. I have a FAA screen dump somewhere.

Yes the flight id shows for the correlated targets, but what's apparently of interest on those radar screenshots is the uncorrelated target (there is no flight ID for that presumably because there's no transponder in the target). I don't know exactly how they determined it was traveling at mach 2 but if you know the time between screenshots and the distances shown on the screen it should be a simple calculation.

reply to post by NickDC202


There was a video and an interview with a fisherman who describes it. It was on once and I never saw it again.

reply to post by esdad71

There was a video and an interview with a fisherman who describes it. It was on once and I never saw it again.

I do recall a video of someone out on a boat who said they saw what they thought was a missile, as well there's that photo someone posted from a woman who captured what appeared to be the white whispy tail of a missile, but could be anything really.