Group Says it Happened the Way the Witnesses Said it Happened

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the crash of TWA Flight 800, since that July night six years ago. A controversial group (Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization -- "FIRO") has now released its 'findings' on what it says is the 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. [Note: We just report what hits the news, folks... lunatic fringe and all.--E-I-C] 

FMI: (the FIRO report, with supporting links); NTSB report