Today, July 17th, is a somber anniversary of the demise of TWA Flight 800 which 25 years ago today burst into flames and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Long Island, New York. Mystery continues to shroud that tragic event primarily because our own government agencies charged with the investigation have for decades shamelessly stonewalled and lied to the very people they ostensibly serve. Just coincidentally, on that same July 17, 1996 our navy was conducting secret submarine exercises in the same vicinity. Dozens of eyewitnesses on shore as well as at least one pilot flying by all reported seeing an rapid orange streak rising from the water which then intercepted Flight 800 followed immediately by a huge fireball. Was this a sub-launched missile that somehow went awry?

Immediately after that mid air explosion at +13,000 feet altitude, land based radar detected some unknown object racing away from the scene at 30 plus knots. The 747 jetliner with 230 passengers and crew broke apart and plummeted into the Atlantic. No one survived. A months long salvage operation along the sea floor yielded countless pieces of wreckage along with all 230 bodies. Initial testing by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) charged with the investigation discovered nitrates and various explosive residues on many of the recovered shards. The most damning evidence was a spray pattern of these residues across the outer surface of the center wing fuel tank. Even though the tank itself had split open the spray pattern on either side of the rupture was neatly aligned, meaning that the residue was already in place before the tank had actually ruptured.

Keep this vital fact in mind as the official NTSB report on the crash was finally released some years later. Their conclusion was that the plane had exploded when a fuel pump inside the center wing tank had caused a spark which ignited the fuel. According to friends of mine who are veteran retired airline pilots this explanation made absolutely no sense. Aside from the fact that the NTSB never adequately explained such an improbable event nor found any irregularity with the suspect fuel pump, an explosion originating inside the fuel tank could not possibly leave a residue pattern on the outside of the same tank. It’s physically impossible. Nor would it leave traces of nitrates and other explosives!