September 02, 2007
New evidence
TWA Flight 800 was shot down?
"On Tuesday, July 23, 1996, a representative from the Defense Intelligence Agency advised [the FBI] that after a visual analysis of both the videotape as well as a number of still photographs taken from various portions of the tape, the phenomenon captured by [name redacted] appeared to be consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD [Man-portable air-defense] missile."
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The earlier, unedited FBI document reports that a fellow and his friend on Long Island were attempting to videotape the sunrise when they saw and recorded "a grey trail of smoke ascending from the horizon at an angle of approximately 75 [degrees]." (my emphasis) Flight 800 exploded at 20:31; were they going to stay there all night? More generally, what's the point in blowing up a plane and not taking credit for it? Unless it's a very blunt murder plot, I guess.
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The NTSB Final Report on Flight 800 says that they specifically considered the possibility of a missile but "none of the damage characteristics typically associated witha high-energy explosion of a bomb or misslie warhead(such as severe pitting, cratering, petalling, or hot gas washing) were found on any portion of the recovered airplane structure." (p.257-8)