By Jack Cashill
On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound 747 out of JFK, blew up off the coast of Long Island. It seemed somehow fitting that James Kallstrom, the public face of the FBI investigation into the plane’s destruction, would die two weeks before the 25th anniversary. As a patriot, a Vietnam vet, and an outspoken critic of all things Clinton, Kallstrom once held promise as the insider most likely to come clean. He never did.
As to my own involvement with this story, until the evening of February 23, 2000, I was as naïve as a CNN anchor. Before that evening, I would have dismissed out of hand anyone who dared suggest that elements of the FBI and CIA would conspire with the White House and the New York Times to cover up the cause of so public a disaster.
February 23, 2000, was the night my education began.
Earlier that evening I had listened with some interest at a Kansas City country club as investigative reporter James Sanders spoke about his inquiry into the 747’s fate. At a dinner afterward, I found myself sitting next to James’s wife, Elizabeth. A sweet and soft-spoken woman of Philippine descent, she filled me in on the personal details. At the time of the disaster, she was a trainer for TWA. She had been a flight attendant for some years before that.
Of the 230 people killed on that ill-fated flight, 53 were TWA employees, many of them Elizabeth’s friends. At one of the numerous memorial services, Elizabeth introduced James to Terry Stacey, a 747 manager, and pilot who was working on the investigation. mroe here
Sadly, I have a relation to this tragedy. One of my best friends in high school was on that flight and going to continue on to Egypt and Giza to visit the pyramids. I still miss her.
Seems like a lot of swampers thought highly of James Kallstrom. I think this episode of his career is why. The center fuel tank? Not many agree. Kallstrom led the coverup.
Same MO, cover it up, by the time the truth becomes exposed everyone has moved on and nothing ever happens. And was it an accident or was someone on the plane they targeted and figured the other lives were just casualties of a needed action that they could cover up.
I used to never believe conspiracy theories.
Those days are gone.
Does anyone know if a nitrogen purge of empty fuel tanks is required by the FAA after the so-called cause of this “accident?”
If not, then this didn’t happen like they say…
I watched a very good presentation of the Miami condo collapse.
Not a conspiracy, neglect and human error…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPyE2h6P4k&ab_channel=jeffostroff
I have cousin who was a mayor of a Long Island town. The day TWA 800 went down he was on a boat for a fund raiser . A lot of people on that boat thought they saw something in the air before the plane went down.
The question I’ve not heard asked, if indeed this is what it appears to be, is “The Who and the Why”?
My Dad was a pilot for TWA, and the sentiment among the pilots was the whole “fuel tank exploded” explanation was complete and utter bullshit!
We both read Sanders’ book ‘The Downing Of TWA Flight 800’ as did many of his fellow pilots and we all believe that it is an accurate account of what really happened.
So just how bad was it? There was evidence that the Clintons were probably watching the whole thing unfold in real-time as the Navy was conducting a littoral warfare missile test at the time.
The most intriguing thing I remember was the Air Traffic Control Center radar tapes revealing an “asset” overhead at something like 110,000 feet traveling at only 20 or 30 knots. No known aircraft can fly that slowly in the thin air at that altitude, except for a gas balloon and those are not controllable, so there is no way it could have tracked the Navy vessels as the radar tapes indicated it had. I’d still like to know what type of aircraft it was?
Nelson DeMille covered this in a Fictional Account…(Firefall?) But one of
the Witnesses was a Retired USAF Officer, and He said Missile.
The thing is, They blamed the Center Tank…But no Mod’s were ever assigned the
remaining Fleet to fix said Issue….Kinetic Energy so no propellant residue.
Loco; I suspect “a nitrogen purge” is a phony panacea to placate the masses, I’ve never heard of it. Besides, fuel tanks are vented, and there would be no way to seal them up so that air (oxygen) didn’t infiltrate, plus there will always be some residual fuel left in the tank because there are numerous little nooks and cranny’s due to the shape of the aircraft’s structure.
Andy’s dad; the most likely scenario is that the littoral warfare (meaning close to shore with lots of radar interference) missile test got away from them. That particular missile is designed to seek and reacquire a target if it loses its primary target. TWA 800 just got in the way. According to Sander’s, the Navy fired a “backstop” missile to intercept the test missile once they realized they had lost control, and it may have been that missile that brought down flight 800.
It isn’t hard to believe the Clintons’ would authorize such an ill-advised test given their staggering arrogance, is it?
The question is, who on that was the target?
A short time after the incident, my Dad, my Wife and I were having a rather heated argument about this. My Dad wanted to believe the government version and my wife and I were using Cashill’s version as I was ample follower of his info. I guess we got a little loud, we the table next to us pointed out that while they were visiting us at the space center, They were there at the time of the incident and all said they saw the missile vapor trail and explosion. After some conversation they reasonably convinced us the they had seen it. The Clintons should be in Jail
You would think the fuel tank fix would be along the lines of the 737 SuperMax issue which grounded every single one of them for a long time. In other words very publicized and with a lot of grounded planes.
Agreed Chance & LCD.
The official story is “wiring” routed THROUGH the fuel tank had it’s insulation rubbed off and shorted out, causing the explosion.
How can wiring be run through a fuel tank outside of conduit???
Even if that is true, I would believe the air/fuel mixture should have been too rich to cause the explosion.
We were starting up a number of TVRO satellite Earth stations in 1996 and had access to all the cable news feeds. We saw a video tape of a wedding on the beach with something going straight up (as in a missile) off in the distance when watching CNN. Remember this was when CNN was still relatively good news (not known for their propaganda)… but we only saw it once! The Clinton regime hopped on that one real quick!
I had a big satellite dish then and got stations from New York. Local reporter was on the beach that night asking people what they saw. All of them said “red streak coming up from the water” and pointing to the ocean. Saw that live but never again.
…I read where flight data and radar, in agreement with eyewitness accounts, showed that the plane actually climbed and flew on a bit after the entire front including the cockpit was torn off, before plunging into the ocean.
I can think of few things more hideous for the poor souls, somr of which were likely still alive, with front-row seats at the edge of the now-decapitated aircraft…
^^^ Can’t imagine the shear horror. ^^^
Pierre Salinger said it was a missile. His fellow media people claimed he was mentally ill.
Too bad he isn’t around to see this story.
By the way, has anyone ever gone through the passenger list to see who they had connections with?
Imagine being a bottom feeder in the area.
OH CRAP (Pun intended)! I thought I was under the Chinese ocean dukes article.
As much as I detest and distrust the government, This guy is full of it. Find me a witness from the Navy ship that fired a missile off the coast of the US. This has all the weight of Joy Behar and Rosie O Stool claiming Bush blew up the World Trade Center. There absolutely would be someone around who was on the ship and no longer under orders. We really need to screen our conspiracies carefully. Watch the Discovery Channel Air Disaster episode on this event It was most likely vapors in the center section fuel tank. My creds: Airline Pilot, Aerospace Engineer.
Z Man, I watched that episode a while back.
Like I said above, how can wiring pass through a fuel tank outside of conduit?
Wouldn’t insulation break down?
I agree that more evidence or whistle-blowers need to come forward.
However, we all know how Rapid-Onset-Arkancide can occur in these matters.
Let’s face it, our national security institutions have brought distrust and shame upon themselves and the entire country.
Can’t trust a fucking thing these days.
While watching what has been exposed over the last five years NOTHING would surprise me about the evils of the deep state.
I wouldn’t put anything past our rat-bastard government.
I worked in the past with the lead independent FAA accident investigator whose report was dismissed. He said it was a fuel tank explosion as it was obvious from the collected debris. Boeing did change its fuel pump design. About 20% of its 747s had the fuel pumps shorting out problem. The cause was the previous flight from Athens put in aviation 100 octane gas instead of diesel jet fuel since Athens airport ran out of jet fuel. Jet engines can burn any fuel. Jet fuel is not explosive. That is why diesel is used on military vehicles. Gasoline is different. The explosion occurred after takeoff when pilots trim the center of gravity by pumping fuel between tanks. The residual gas on the tanks were explosive. The cover-up was to protect Greek tourism, the mainstay of their economy.
So Foton, are you saying that the Greeks loaded Avgas instead of Jet A?
I’ve never heard that explanation.
LBS, yes! it never happened on other 747s with faulty pumps since they were fueled properly. the guy who worked on this accident investigation and i have served together on gov think tank review boards.
Foton, now there is a new wrinkle to the story. Here’s what I hope, when it comes time for me to punch my ticket through the Pearly Gates (assuming that’s my destiny) that all these mysteries are cleared up and the answers are laid out for me. I think that’s the only way I’ll ever know.