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Twa800 controversy again { July 17 1996 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ct/20011024/cr/since_september_11_twa_flight_800_controversy_rages_again_1.htmlhttp://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ct/20011024/cr/since_september_11_twa_flight_800_controversy_rages_again_1.html
Wednesday October 24 03:37 PM EDT
Since September 11, TWA Flight 800 controversy rages again
By John Springer, Court TV
A brain tumor ended the life of William Donaldson on August 22, but the 56-year-old retired Navy commander's mission to prove that a missile brought down TWA Flight 800 five years ago lives on through his Web site.
Robert Donaldson vowed to continue his brother's work and dedicated www.TWA800.com to his memory. The resolve to prove the missile theory was hardened on September 11 with the hijacking of four American jetliners and the deaths of more than 5,000 people.
"I think there is a renewed interest. Our traffic is going up," Robert Donaldson said. "It spiked dramatically the day after the World Trade Center crashes and it peaks every year during the anniversary [of the TWA crash] or when there is something in the news about terrorism or the airline industry."
The National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) spent $40 million on an investigation before concluding that TWA 800 exploded in midair because of an unexplained power surge that ignited fuel vapors in the Boeing 747's center fuel tank. All 230 people aboard the Paris-bound jet perished off Long Island on July 17, 1996.
Although the FBI (news - web sites) said there was no evidence to support the belief of Donaldson and many eyewitnesses that a missile fired from a boat downed the jetliner, questions remain. Donaldson's Web site explores those questions, offers missile-related theories and evidence, and tracks news developments.
Even within the movement to reopen the investigation, there is disagreement over whether the plane was brought down by a missile fired from a terrorist's shoulder or from a U.S. warship, either by accident or during training. TWA800.com explores most of the theories in an effort to counter government investigators' insistence that an electrical problem liked ignited fumes in the fuel tank.
"People have never bought the government's explanation — especially in the airline industry," said Robert Donaldson, who serves as TWA800.com Webmaster. "There were over 100 eyewitnesses who saw a streak of light rising from the horizon ... and intersect with the airplane. They described it in detail."
One of them, Paul Angelides, was standing on the deck of his seaside summer rental when he saw what he initially thought was a distress flare rise up rapidly from the horizon.
"I quickly realized that the object was too large and then began moving too fast to be a distress flare. I followed the object as it moved out over the ocean in the direction of the horizon," Angelides wrote in an "eyewitness account" appearing on Donaldson's Web site. "I lost sight of the object, as it was about 10 degrees above the horizon. In the same area of the sky out over the ocean, I then saw a series of flashes ... The flashes were then followed by a huge fireball, which dropped very quickly into the sea.
Angelides told Court TV that with the exception of a few investigative authors and Web sites, few people still seem interested in what really happened to TWA Flight 800. An engineer, Angelides said he probably would have accepted the National Transportation Safety Board's official finding of a center fuel tank explosion if he had not seen what he saw that summer night five years ago.
"I will tell my story to anyone who wants to listen. The fact that there are forums out there addressing these more or less silenced views, I think that is a good thing," he said.
An NTSB (news - web sites) spokesman once lumped William Donaldson in with other conspiracy theorists, but a long list of retired military leaders associated with Donaldson sets him and TWA800.com apart from the others, supporters say.
"I think that particular Web site has done a very good job of just keeping the issue alive and moving forward. If you can find fault with them at all, it is because they went for the shoulder-fired missile [theory]," said James Sanders, an investigative author and retired police officer.
Sanders is currently on probation after being convicted in federal court of conspiring to steal TWA 800 debris from an airport hangar, a criminal prosecution covered widely on TWA800.com and related sites like whatreallyhap pened.com.
Sanders plans to offer a new theory, which he declined to outline, in an upcoming documentary that is in production. He claims that residue from passenger seat fabric given to him by a source — a TWA pilot who testified against Sanders to avoid prison himself — indicated the presence of rocket fuel exhaust in a lab test. The government said the residue was probably glue.
Sanders' still-evolving theory and journalist Pierre Salinger's largely ridiculed 1996 claim that the Navy accidentally shot down TWA 800 during a training exercise turned the mainstream media off somewhat, Robert Donaldson said.
"That's unfortunate. There's a lot of wackos out there," Donaldson said. "I don't think I'm one of them."
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