by Steven Novella via Skepticblog
On July 17, 1996 TWA flight 800 took off from JFK airport on its way to Paris. Fifteen minutes into its flight, shortly after climbing to about 13,000 feet, the jet exploded in mid air. The nose of the jet fell off into the Atlantic while the rest continued to fly, erratically while on fire and spewing smoke, until 42 seconds later when there was a second explosion. The right wing and the rest of the fuselage separated and descended as two separate streams of burning debris until they hit the surface of the water 7 seconds later. All 230 people aboard lost their lives.
Sixteen years later there are still those who believe that TWA flight 800 was shot down by a missile. This is despite the fact that the largest and most expensive investigation in history into the crash of a commercial airliner came to a very different conclusion. I had the opportunity this past week to speak to six different eyewitnesses of this tragedy, some of whom firmly believe a missile took down the jet, while others are unsure. The incident remains a classic historical case demonstrating the fallibility of perception and eyewitness accounts.
Read More: Skepticblog » Looking Back at TWA Flight 800.
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- Remembering TWA Flight 800 & United Flight 232: Two Memorable Mid-July Plane Crashes (thestarryeye.typepad.com)
- TWA Flight 800: 16 Years Later (londone4.wordpress.com)
- TWA Flight 800: 16 Years and Still No Questions (americanthinker.com)
