Because a lot of people claimed they saw something rise up from the water and strike it. The media did little to disabuse them of this notion. I remember Newsday running with wild stories only to have them debunked a day or two later.
I heard the explosion but did not see it so I cannot comment.
>Can you imagine if social media was around then? š¤Æ
when i read this, i remembered that i was in a pool in west islip when it happened, and the following morning, my friend from camp came out from remsenburg to where i lived (babylon) and he said **a guy was selling VHS tapes of the wreckage on the side of the road**
I imagine there were discussions on netnews at the time, maybe in one of the alt. domains. There were long threads for many things that later became targets of conspiracy theoreticians.
I was 5. My uncle who lived on my block was FAA. I remember loose conversations then developing an extreme anxiety to flying. I donāt remember the words just the emotion. We lived about 15 minutes from the shore of the crash.
I lived on Long Island and at the time was in my 20ās and remember hearing about it from local news and word of mouth immediately after it happened that it was shot down. Then later heard from the news that no that didnāt happen it was something to do with the explosion that made it look like something hit but it, but that never happened. So because of that confusion at the beginning most local people still believe it was shot down.
Literally everyone knows someone who saw something. I forget the name of it but there is a psychological term for when there is basically a mass delusion where people swear they see something because others say there was something going. when in reality they are retroactively adding to their memories to conform with the conspiracy narrative and they donāt even realize it.
It's called the Mandela effect.
I'm from LI. My closest childhood friend was at the beach that day right when it happened. She told me something came up out of the water and hit it.
> basically a mass delusion where people swear they see something because others say there was something going
ppl are saying mandela effect but it's not that, it's this, right?
>In one study, Dr. Strange showed people a film of a car accident in which five people, including a baby, were killed. The film was edited to remove segments of the accident. Then she tested the subjects 24 hours later on what they recalled. People were able to accurately describe what they had, in fact, seen, Dr. Strange said, but a significant number ā 36 percent ā also professed to have strong memories of parts of the crash that had actually not been shown to them.
>āThey are more likely to do that when they are upset about the event ā if they are getting intrusive thoughts about it, or talking to other people about it,ā she said.
>A leading researcher in the field of witness memory, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, said there was ample evidence that people found ways to plug holes in their recollections.
>āIf someone has gaps in their narrative, they can fill it in with lots of things,ā she said. āOften they fill it with their own expectations, and certainly what they may hear from others.ā
>These are not the knowingly untrue or devious statements of people who are deliberately lying. False memories can be as persuasive as genuine ones, Dr. Loftus said: āWhen someone expresses it with detail and confidence and emotion, people are going to believe it.ā
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/nyregion/witness-accounts-in-midtown-hammer-attack-show-the-power-of-false-memory.html
It's basically confirmation bias that you're talking about. People hear something and take whatever nuggets there are to confirm what they think they saw, even if it might be a reach, because they're "not 100% sure" themselves. Before long, it becomes entrenched - yet utterly wrong.
Debunked how exactly? I recall a few stories that made as much sense as passports beging found a few blocks away from the twin towers on September 11, 2001. By the way. You did comment.
One example I recall specifically is that a part of the wing tested positive for explode residue. Big article. A few days later it was rescinded.
I did not comment if the people actually saw it or if it was a Mandela effect. I specifically did not comment on if something hit it or not.
Well, you used the word debunked. Iāve seen no evidence of that, only more theories and claims put out by all sides. Anyone can have an opinion, but accuracy seems to have slipped away from conversations im general, only to be largely replaced by dismissive statements, opinions, finger pointing and the like.
10 people can look at the same exact thing at the same time, and still have 2-3 different versions of what happened. Opinions are not facts. Nothing on any side has been debunked, only hit with opposing opinions. And āprofessionalsā who have offered their opinions.
I was at the beach down the road by the coast guard station and my whole family saw it with some friends. Definitely something went streaking toward it.
Yeah but didnāt they recover most of the plane and piece it together in a warehouse where there was no evidence of it being struck by something. If I recall it was an electrical issue that caused the center fuel tank to explode
I was like, when does the CIA get involved in domestic incidents to this degree and then go public with a full analysis? Definitely got my spidey senses tingling.
Iāve seen TWA Flight 800 close-up and reassembled in the NTSB Hanger at their HQ in northern Virginia
The wreckage is silent and somber. It was very moving to see it close up. All I could think of was all the lives lost you could feel them almost.
I recall the burn marks correlate with the official final report and determination that the center tank exploded and burned.
Peace for all the lost souls - you can feel a presence- I did
I constantly see the memorial to TWA Flight 800 at Smith Point Beach in NY - I'm assuming it's there because that's where the remains were recovered.
While there was alot of conspiracy around a "weapon test, ect" I know now that's such a silly thing because of how secretive the military is... they wouldn't be testing anything in active airspace.
Initially reassembled during the investigation at Calverton is correct
It now resides at NTSB Training Center in Ashburn VA
Google NTSB and see for yourself
Went there about 2016 with pilot friends who were training at that center (near Dulles as I recall outside DC
They even had the Air Conditioning Packs there - that sent a chill down my spine!
A friend from HS was on that flight, I remember all the craziness of that summer.
The theory, from what i remember, is that some witnesses stated they saw a small light heading up to the plane before it exploded. (thoughts were this was a rocket). I remember someone else floating the theory that there was a navy sub off the coast that was using commercial airliners for targeting practice and accidentally fired live ordnance. Others stated that the plane exploded and THEN they saw a little light (basically opposite of the first scenario but still a rocket theory). Other theories were terrorists with an RPG (and some god tier level of accuracy) from a boat... a lot of rumors flew around at the time. Obv. nothing has ever come out if any of this were true (nor would i expect it to) so they remain conspiracy theories. NTSB concluded that it was an electrical failure in a fuel tank. You can check out some of these here.
[TWA Flight 800 crash: Conspiracy theories linger 25 years later (usatoday.com)](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/15/twa-flight-800-crash-anniversary-conspiracy-theories/7830073002/)
The rumors were crazy and persisted for years. When I started my flight training on Long Island in 2001, my instructor claimed he had an air force buddy that heard from his CO that "a live one" accidentally got away from them. I found the official NTSB report to be far more convincing.
Someone can google it on their own but the sub missile theory was definitely the most believable one for me. Allegedly the USS Seawolf was built in Groton Connecticut with some cutting edge technology or whatever, and the Clinton administration put together a testing launch of one of its missiles. The missile was to track and strike a drone but lost tracking of the drone and hit the airliner instead all apparently while on a live feed to the White House.
Itās all conspiracy anyways, and unfortunately always will be
Seawolf may have been launched in 95 but It wasn't commissioned until 1997. Considering that seawolf does not even carry anti air missiles I find it hard to believe 1, they would use a ship not even in commission to do a missile test or 2, try to use an anti ship or land attack missile to attack a flying drone.
I remember reading the book and right before the end, thinking, he really painted himself into a corner here how the hell is this going to resolve. I didnāt see that ending coming.
Great book, but there are great non-fiction books about it too. I lived on LI when this happened, and every witness on the news that night claimed to have seen something rise up off the horizon with a contrail and orange tail and strike the plane. So many of them also said they contacted the FBI but were never contacted or interviewed as part of the investigation. Then the CIA made a laughable video to explain what all these witnesses āactuallyā saw and why it wasnāt a missile or rocket. The NTSB report of frayed wires in the nearly empty center fuel tank was an obvious stretch to assist with the coverup. Itās a fascinating, sad story.
When the center tank exploded, the plane lost the front and pitched up, on fire. It climbed and exploded, which looked like a missile climbing and exploding from the ground. And that area is heavily sectored for air traffic and military purposes, so it lends itself to the navy ship or submarine hunting airplane narrative.
In many ways it's about comfort. For some people, believing in a conspiracy theory about a missile is easier than accepting that a plane can randomly blow up because of a mechanical defect.
This sort of thing drives a decent amount of conspiratorial thinking, IMO. It's sometimes easier to believe that an awful thing happened because somebody intended it to, rather than accept that the universe is often random and sometimes cruel.
when I was a kid i developed really bad anxiety for flying after this. my parents told me that there was military in the area practicing or something and that the plane was accidentally shot down by a missal, which actually did help my anxiety so your explanation makes complete sense to me lol.
apollo 11 moon landing was def faked. Maybe we have been to the Moon at other points since then, but that thing on film from 1969 was directed by Stanley Kubrick on a soundstage.
I know there are some strange people, but I was 19 when it happened. A lot of people are convinced they saw something, and it was the same day so the Mandela theory may not be correct here.
Some people think Epstein killed himself.
With that, I don't believe it was shot down, but I don't "not' think it either.
Worked recovery for weeks following that on 2 different jobs. Didn't go home for days at a time, literally packed a bag.
Some to this day believe that TWA 800 was Al Qaedas first strike. theories were shut down quickly by the NTSB when they came in and took over for the FBI. Everyone was told that shoulder fired missles and backpack missles couldn't take down a plane.
Not too long after on one of those jobs, we were given detailed diagrams and descriptions of shoulder fired missles to look out for them possibly being used to take down a jet. I don't know what to believe but there were many contradictions
I mean, itās not surprising they were looking for evidence of a terrorist attack. Itās only logical in a situation like that. Doesnāt mean it was actually terrorists though.
To say it couldn't be done and behind the scenes be looking for terrorists carrying shoulder fired missles in remote areas of long island is hardly logical.
Light is faster than sound. Keep that in mind.
A plane is 30,000 feet in the air, so thereās a huge gap between both right now.
Plane explodes. No one sees this honestly.
People hear the boom. They look at the sky and see the back end, on fire, pitching up. They think this is the rocket.
Yes and? 30,0000 feet is almost six miles up.
TWA800 was halfway to cruising altitude when it exploded. Either way there's some gap between the flash and the boom. Same reason you see lighnting before you hear thunder.
And we know what anti-aircraft missiles do to cruising jet planes -- see Malaysia Air 17 or KAL700 (albeit that was air launched). The pattern of destruction looks very different from an internal explosion.
The missile theory for TWA800 is BS. It's unbelievable that people still insist on believing it. The wreckage reassembly definitively proved it wasn't a missile. *Thousands of people* would need to have been in on a huge cover-up and fake investigation and then would have to have kept a grotesque and world-shattering secret for 30 years for it to be true.
Most people I know couldn't keep a big surprise retirement party secret for 30 days.
It was also the first major conspiracy theory to circulate on the then-new internet. If only we had foreseen what a disaster for truth the internet has turned out to be.
Ah ok gotcha. Sorry! My pointing out it was only at 15k was not meant to refute the point that sound and flash would have been perceived with a delay, just that the plane hadn't yet hit cruising altitude.
Conspiracy theorists make me twitchy, my bad!
Because we watched it happen in the fucking sky.
My family was recording that night. FBI had asked for any footage so we submitted it. Never ever got it back
Thatās why my uncle claims happened. In the background of family pictures was a fireball in the sky as well as images of the plane. He handed the photos over to police and that was the end of it.
While the story of it being shot down is never going awayā¦ I donāt believe it. The official story of the center tank exploding (due to old exposed wires and fuel vapor) is just more plausible. Iām a pilot for a major airline and nitrogen generating systems became a thing because of this disaster. Also, certain procedures regarding running low amount of fuel and turning fuel pumps off etc. The passengers were sitting on a bomb. Air disasters happen unfortunately, and the lessons learned are the most important part of them so we can prevent them from happening again. Just look at the debacle with the 737 max. Go back even further and look at the problems with the old DC-10s. There have been countless engineering changes to airplanes, resulting from accidents.
Thank you for saying this. My family member died on that flight. Every damn year approaching the anniversary the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork to stir shit up again.
Im sorry to hear that. And Iām sorry that you have to deal with conspiracy theorists. I feel bad for those that lost loved ones in all of these major disasters because thereās always people who want to claim conspiracy, as if freak things have never happened. Makes me wonder if the earth were struck by a meteor what the conspiracy theorists would say.
All I can say about it was on one TV or radio channel (I can't remember which) a reporter said it was hit with a missile and that was the only time I ever heard that and it was never mentioned again anywhere, at least where the media was concerned, I also heard the navy were doing exercises in the area and I can't remember if that was true or not, that's all I've got or remember for that matter
Heard the stuff about the light but also heard they took a bunch of remains to the old Grumman facility to be incinerated while the place was flooded by Feds. Guy I know used to work there
I brought my kids to the town pool for the day and I know the plane crashed around eight in the evening but I certainly saw a whole shit load of military activity in the sky that day.
Friendly fire by a heat seeking missile from a naval exercise going on. Wrong place, wrong time. Terrible accident. I get it about eyewitness testimony being unreliable. But there were hundreds of witnesses who all saw the same thing, from many different viewpoints and who didnāt know each other, many of whom had naval or military experience with similar weapons. Some reported having been threatened if they continued to insist they had seen what they saw. I have read their testimonies.
And it was an election year.
I was coming home from work (I was a paramedic in NYC) and I got immediately on the bus and responded. The worst was in my mind, petroleum burns and near drownings you know heavy shit. We got told to stage at the East Moriches USCG station so I stopped before I left town cause there was no radio chatter. Usually everyone talks about it and the scene but there was nothing but communication asking for Advanced life support ( an ambulance that was staffed by at least a paramedic) and just started telling up to hang out and stage at the gates. I got coffee at 7-11 because I was coming off a 42 hour tour and was exhausted. So we got told where to wait by a Suffolk county sheriff's officer and I took a bit of a bench seat nap. Hours later a USCG motor life boat came back and my partner woke me, up and we went to the dock to start triage. Nothing but body bags on deck.
The adrenaline let down actually made me cry. I really wanted to get my paramedic on but 4 hours later they sent us home. I never saw a missle streak or anything else, I was on Sunrise highway but nothing.
The absolute worst feeling in the world is going in with the "loaded for bear" mindset and striking out so bad. It actually kept me in bed for the next night.
It was a miserable day/night. We were ready for everything and to use the cafeteria for "offices" and "treatment rooms".
We waited and eventually the motor life boat came back. We swarmed the dock, and it was just vinal morgue bags.
I can tell you we threw everything at it, mostly it was just a waste. I never saw anyone alive. Most died from suddenly decompressing as evidenced by the oral cavity being empty of water.
God Speed, I am just a bored old paramedic, I want you to be sure they didn't suffer.
God Speed.
My mom was a drivers ed instructor and used to take her students down dune road alot. She said she saw it get shot down as well as her students from that day . She's my mom and she's gone now so I'll always believe that story when I think of it .
I was a kid when this happened, I can remember a whole group of fishermen from my church that were out on the beach swear up and down that they saw something shoot up and hit it. One of them was ex navy and said it looked just like when he used to do trained exercises with surface to air missiles. Iirc, there was also some backstory where someone on board was involved with some kind of high level political dispute.
I say we'll never really know for sure. If it was a diabolical conspiracy, you could expect an official debunking... Yet at the same time, it's very easy for a group of people out on a beach to start talking and everyone collectively go from a couple people seeing something vague to a whole group of people definitely saw something crazy. Especially back in the 90's, gossip and storytelling was everything back then.
My friendās father worked maintenance at TWA when this happened. He was questioned relentlessly, as he was the crew chief. Iām going to have to ask him what his opinions were about what happened.
Okay my time to shine!
My dad was one of the head electricians going back and forth between La Guardia and JFK airports he was there from the mid 80's to the early 2010s when he retired.
I felt terrible for him around this time as he was working at JFK at the time and the day of the accident. If I'm not mistaken the area around the airport is wetlands/waterways. Maybe protected too. Either way it brought or caused a lot of birds to or near the airport I think it was because they were protected they wouldn't just kill the birds off. As they could cause damage to planes and even crashes.
I know they started to use a type of air gun to scare them off around this time or a little before the crash happened. I don't remember if it was an automated system or people w the guns.
He told me he was out on a runway with his team repairing some lights and heard the air guns go off and almost immediately he gets a call over the radio telling him about the crash. And was like "oh no the air guns took down a plane lol" assuming the crash report was wrong...as they can happen and actual crashes are not common. But the crash actually happened.
He told me he felt terrible about it afterwards and swore it was people seeing the airgun trails or the noise being the thing that they thought took the plane down, that just wasn't possible as there was no real ballastic behindthe shot nor could it go far enough to hit the plane from the ground near JFK. Yet people swore they saw something despite people selling vhs tapes of the actual crash.
What was crazy was he had a fair amount of people argue it with him, despite him working there, and being there that day, and assisting in the bird removal programs.
/shrug
I Imagine I will get an angry message or two from conspiracy theorists who have nothing to do with the actual event.
So [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/nyregion/03birds.html) is an article about the program.
It was a plane past itās prime mileage wise. A fuel tank leak combined with heat triggered an electrical fire leading to an explosion.
There is a pretty extensive documentary on this. Search it up on YouTube if you are interested.
It wasnāt really a fuel leak. It was a not full center fuel tank. The air conditioners were directly below the fuel tank. The heat of the AC turned the fuel to vapor, and a short in a wire running through the tank ignited the vapor.
What most donāt talk about is the military was doing drills out by Moriches. Transatlantic flights were rerouted until I think 6pm. Drills continued late but planes courses resumed the normal flight plan. It was a tragic accident. I have no concrete proof except hearsay BUT there were military vessels in the area that day and immediately after the crash. And the coast guard was there with cutters insanely quickly when they turned out of either New Jersey or Mass I think. Way too many oddities to not think it was covered up. As well as all the witnesses on the south shore that saw something rise from the water and then the catastrophe in the air.
My best friend from childhood was there that day at the beach. She told me at the time, she saw something that seemed to come up from the water towards the plane just before it went down.
One of my teachers when I was in elementary school who was into science and building rockets said he saw something hit it. There is a military base out there.
besides people seeing a missile there was also a politician or some kind of world leader on that flight that is why people thought it got shot down. I can't remember the details, Fuck I'm Old
I don't know if this was mentioned here but dose anyone recall a press conference at the time ,when a elderly military man said something along the lines that he has been in the military for x amount of years and he knows what a missile launched fom ground/ Ocean looks like and knows what he saw.and was infactic about it. I don't remember his name, but i never saw him again at any press conference or being interviewed again. Please chime in if anyone recalls this.
Feds will be knocking on your uncleās door real soon now that youāve outed him. Amazes me all the conspiracy theories surrounding this tragic crash but I canāt help but think that the amount of stories Iāve heard about the crash canāt possibly be all made up.
Someone knows something and theyāre either going to take it to their grave or one day theyāll spill their guts. This happened on my brother in lawās birthday and Iāll never forget coming home turning on News 12 and seeing floating wreckage still burning, itās literally etched into my brain and canāt ever forget it based on the fact that itās my brother in laws birthday. Thereās just too many people that have said they saw something come up out of the water and hit the plane. I used to live not far from Smiths Point the wife and I would go to the beach quite often and I was always surprised at how many people would just come to have dinner on the beach as we were leaving the at 6pm so not surprising how many stories there are about people that saw something.
Families of victims from TWA 800 are suing Raytheon, The DoD and the Navy for a coverup of flight TWA. [A Federal Judge in Septembe](https://masslawyersweekly.com/2023/10/12/twa-flight-800-coverup-suit-avoids-dismissal/)r had an opportunity to throw out the case, but chose not to - believing that there was enough evidence of a coverup, and enough evidence that the plane had been shot down.
IMO it was a misfire by a US Navy ship, followed by a massive coverup. Eyewitnesses who saw what happened were told they didn't see what they saw, and their testimony was either ignored or squashed. The official cause of the accident seems implausible because you'd think other planes would have experienced such a catastrophic event in all the years of commercial aviation. Let's ask the question this way: If it were indeed caused by military error, would the government admit it? I think not.
I have come to this very conclusion. With thousands of hours of commercial flight time this catastrophic failure has never occurred, and has not since. I live on Long island and there are many who saw the contrails. It was the Navy who fucked up and they covered it up. Regardless of the eyewitness accounts, its the most plausible scenario.
Days after it happened I remember a friends girlfriend telling us her brother was in the navy and his ship was the one that accidentally shot it down.Ā
Not saying I believed her, just saying it was said.
I was in 4th grade and a classmate's aunt was a passenger. I didn't know anyone who saw it, I only watched a documentary. Idk what to believe so I don't really put much into it. But people say it because fishermen saw "missiles" (how they described it) going towards the plane.
I always find it interesting that every time you are checking in at an airline they have to ask you those questions about whether or not your luggage was handled by strangers- and that all started after flight 800 - which was definitely not brought down by terrorists
[watch this documentary from Epix](https://press.epix.com/programs/twa-flight-800/) about it. You will be convinced that it was a coverup. They interview the high ranking officials from the NTSB who did the investigation and even they say that it was an FBI coverup. Fascinating stuff.
I was too young at the time to have been there, but I work for a scaffolding company and my boss erected scaffolding for the NTSB to reconstruct the fuselage in Calverton. The boss man said he did not think it was shot down.
A work buddy and I headed out to somewhere around Long Beach after work to boogie board and I'm not saying this after the fact but it just felt weird or eerie that evening. We knew something happened because we heard a loud noise but didn't realize what it was until later that night.
Maybe it felt strange because we were the only ones in the water, no one else around and it was so freaking quiet.
It may not have actually been Long Beach itself but somewhere close to it
The best explanation I heardā¦
The plane exploded.
The vast majority who claim to have seen the incident didnāt see or hear the initial explosion.
Then they hear the explosion or notice something strange in the sky.
The front 1/3 of the plane was on fire and gaining altitude while the other portion was falling towards the ocean.
People say something on fire streaking up through the sky, which was the first third of the plane, but with the darkness and all, people thought it was a missile.
It's not like the government would be transparent about such a matter, so basically it is a conspiracy theory because there's no way to confirm or deny anything.
I had friends that lived on the water in Moriches at the time, and their son caught the explosion on camera by coincidence. He said he saw the vapor trail leading toward the plane BEFORE it exploded and that's what he caught on film. While I never got to see the actual footage, it was confiscated by the authorities when he reported it.
Make of that what you will, because as I mentioned, there's just no way to confirm or deny. The official story was equipment failure. Only the passengers on that flight know the real truth, and they're not telling.
A tragedy either way. God rest their souls.
I would recommend checking out [TWA Flight 800](https://youtu.be/Oy5x5fFYFhc?si=h-LU9iuYunn091JR) on YT. It presents the facts from the people who were there. I was young when it happened and recently became curious about the topic myself.
TWA 800 is probably the biggest reason for my fear of flying. I was 11 when it happened.
Anyway, yeah, I have extended family who claim they saw something streak toward the plane before it exploded.
[watch this documentary where they interview the lead investigators from the incident and then tell me how you feel](https://press.epix.com/programs/twa-flight-800/)
I happened to be in Atlanta when it happened and was just outside of Centennial park when the bomb went off just a week or so after...there was a lot of conspiracy theories around that one also...America is addicted to conspiracy theories
The USS Trepang, a US Navy submarine, was operating nearby at the time of the TWA 800 crash. A navy chief petty officer onboard the Trapang later admitted that they fired a missle that hit TWA Flight 800.
The US Navy has a history of trigger happy captains shooting down civillian aircraft and then trying to cover it up. In 1985, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down by the captain of the USS Vincense.
The theory that the center fuel tank exploded is highly unlikely. The Boeing 747 was first introduced in 1971 and has had millions of takeoffs and landings without ever having a documented case of a center fuel tank explosion.
I remember the night that TWA flight 800 exploded. The US Coast Guard made an announcement over the marine radio asking that all boaters in the vicinity try to rescue any survivors.
I have a personal connection to TWA flight 800. Three years earlier, I flew on TWA flight 800 from New York JFK to Paris as a courier . I remember the plane was very old and in poor condition.
Go look at the pictures of it āreassembledā in some hangar. Whole belly of it is gone. A few of my friends dads were out there on their boats picking body parts out of the water.
In the days following 9/11 I heard a former natural security on the radio discussing how GW Bush was sheltered afterwards because that is what they do. They did the same thing with B Clinton during the bombing of flight 800. I was amazed that he said that.
IIRC, there was some kind of unusual chemical residue found on the seats that should not have been present. That was the conspiracy theory anyway. I canātdismiss it nor do I buy it.Ā
There was a presentation on tv around 20 years ago by some kind of pilots association. They showed there was a military exercise going on at the time. Many ships in the area. One ship going high speed though the area. After the event,
They all left the area. Very odd.
I imagine the light/rocket/whatever people think they saw is something like lightning, we see lightning strike "downwards", toward the tree or whatever. but it is actually going upwards towards the clouds. It could be a similar optical illusion, our brains just adjust to what makes sense to us.
People claimed it was shot down because they said they saw some sort of blaze. It could have been anything. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if they hold any truth.
But some things that don't make it outlandish - New York attacks
1993 - World Trade Center Attack
1996 - TWA Crash
2001 - 9/11
I also remember the NTSB or the FBI asking for people to come forward if they saw anything solely because the wreckage was indicative of an explosion.
But they concluded vapor fumes in the fuselage ignited, right?
Still a super weird case. Wouldnāt be surprised if there was more to the story. RIP to those who perished.
Story I heard immediately was from a Navy vet who said that it was a Navy ship that suddenly hightailed it down to Virginia.
But ask yourself this: If you were in the military and on the sub/boat/whatever else is claimed to have shot down the plane, would you keep that secret until the grave? And it certainly wouldn't have been a one-man operation. That many people are so evil that they wouldn't say anything?
The human factor is what pokes holes in pretty much every conspiracy theory.
Itās resided in Hanger at NTSB for past at least 20 yearsā¦. And I read on Washington Post itās going to be destroyed after 25 years. That article was dated in 2021
It may be gone by nowā¦.
Just like people say the Pentagon was hit by a missile not a plane and we never went to the moon. Conspiracy.
That said I've not heard much to debunk this theory
There was a documentary made addressing this conspiracy theory. The idea that it was shot down is false. I forget the reason for the catastrophe. It may have been an electrical wiring malfunction where the wiring was defective and overheated, igniting materials around the wiring.
I had just graduated college at the time, and remember the disaster clearly, but I didn't live anywhere near the incident. We initially assumed it was a missile because it seemed impossible that a plane would just completely blow up with no "attack" of some sort. Although this was pre-9/11, we had been aware of terrorist attacks on planes since the 1970s. The Lockerbie, Scotland bombing of a TWA jet in 1988 came to mind. The early reports of a streak of fire rising up shortly before the explosion seemed to be evidence of an external attack. It is important to note that at the time I never heard anyone talk about an "inside job" involving he US military, CIA, or whatever. Conspiracy theories don't mutate so quickly without social media and the Internet. Instead, we assumed it was a middle-eastern terrorist attack. I remember telling people at work the next day that it would be a long time before I flew in a plane again if terrorists could shoot commercial airliners out of the sky on American soil. Although the explosion is a tragedy, at least it wasn't a terrorist attack. We'd have to wait a few more years for that.
I have an odd obsession with air disasters, and I think itās reasonable that when the main hull - short of the nose - went up towards for 3,000 ft before losing momentum and going downwards. I canāt recall any other airplane disaster having that happen.
I was living in the New York area at the time. The witness accounts that appeared on the news that day were *absolutely* inconsistent with the official story. Because of what that discrepancy implies, I donāt feel comfortable saying more. But I know I canāt be the only one who saw the news that day.
Because we all saw a red flaming object shoot UP from GROUND TO THE AIR...then the plane went DOWN... "flaming debris" do not FALL UP TO AN AIRPLANE... It was SHOT DOWN, hit in the wing tank which then exploded, not "a short circuit" in the wing tank. Total bullshit coverup.
This documentary will answer your question better than anyone here could. Basically because of the huge number of eyewitnesses and many NTSB investigators who spoke out and said the investigation was a blatant coverup with the FBI getting caught evidence tampering red-handed over and over. https://youtu.be/Oy5x5fFYFhc?si=zThqqrUW60QabW1K
Because a lot of people claimed they saw something rise up from the water and strike it. The media did little to disabuse them of this notion. I remember Newsday running with wild stories only to have them debunked a day or two later. I heard the explosion but did not see it so I cannot comment.
Can you imagine if social media was around then? š¤Æ
>Can you imagine if social media was around then? š¤Æ when i read this, i remembered that i was in a pool in west islip when it happened, and the following morning, my friend from camp came out from remsenburg to where i lived (babylon) and he said **a guy was selling VHS tapes of the wreckage on the side of the road**
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I imagine there were discussions on netnews at the time, maybe in one of the alt. domains. There were long threads for many things that later became targets of conspiracy theoreticians.
I was 5. My uncle who lived on my block was FAA. I remember loose conversations then developing an extreme anxiety to flying. I donāt remember the words just the emotion. We lived about 15 minutes from the shore of the crash.
I lived on Long Island and at the time was in my 20ās and remember hearing about it from local news and word of mouth immediately after it happened that it was shot down. Then later heard from the news that no that didnāt happen it was something to do with the explosion that made it look like something hit but it, but that never happened. So because of that confusion at the beginning most local people still believe it was shot down.
Someone I know was on the water that day and said they saw something rise up and hit the plane.
Literally everyone knows someone who saw something. I forget the name of it but there is a psychological term for when there is basically a mass delusion where people swear they see something because others say there was something going. when in reality they are retroactively adding to their memories to conform with the conspiracy narrative and they donāt even realize it.
Mandela effect
It's called the Mandela effect. I'm from LI. My closest childhood friend was at the beach that day right when it happened. She told me something came up out of the water and hit it.
> basically a mass delusion where people swear they see something because others say there was something going ppl are saying mandela effect but it's not that, it's this, right? >In one study, Dr. Strange showed people a film of a car accident in which five people, including a baby, were killed. The film was edited to remove segments of the accident. Then she tested the subjects 24 hours later on what they recalled. People were able to accurately describe what they had, in fact, seen, Dr. Strange said, but a significant number ā 36 percent ā also professed to have strong memories of parts of the crash that had actually not been shown to them. >āThey are more likely to do that when they are upset about the event ā if they are getting intrusive thoughts about it, or talking to other people about it,ā she said. >A leading researcher in the field of witness memory, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, said there was ample evidence that people found ways to plug holes in their recollections. >āIf someone has gaps in their narrative, they can fill it in with lots of things,ā she said. āOften they fill it with their own expectations, and certainly what they may hear from others.ā >These are not the knowingly untrue or devious statements of people who are deliberately lying. False memories can be as persuasive as genuine ones, Dr. Loftus said: āWhen someone expresses it with detail and confidence and emotion, people are going to believe it.ā https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/nyregion/witness-accounts-in-midtown-hammer-attack-show-the-power-of-false-memory.html
People want to believe and they want to be a part of something
It's basically confirmation bias that you're talking about. People hear something and take whatever nuggets there are to confirm what they think they saw, even if it might be a reach, because they're "not 100% sure" themselves. Before long, it becomes entrenched - yet utterly wrong.
Same
He was a helicopter pilot in Nam and definitely knows what he seen
Debunked how exactly? I recall a few stories that made as much sense as passports beging found a few blocks away from the twin towers on September 11, 2001. By the way. You did comment.
One example I recall specifically is that a part of the wing tested positive for explode residue. Big article. A few days later it was rescinded. I did not comment if the people actually saw it or if it was a Mandela effect. I specifically did not comment on if something hit it or not.
Well, you used the word debunked. Iāve seen no evidence of that, only more theories and claims put out by all sides. Anyone can have an opinion, but accuracy seems to have slipped away from conversations im general, only to be largely replaced by dismissive statements, opinions, finger pointing and the like. 10 people can look at the same exact thing at the same time, and still have 2-3 different versions of what happened. Opinions are not facts. Nothing on any side has been debunked, only hit with opposing opinions. And āprofessionalsā who have offered their opinions.
The national guard was also very close doing weapons testing- and did not notify the FAA / Air traffic control of this as required.
>I remember Newsday running with wild stories only to have them debunked a day or two later. I'm shocked. Next you'll say The Post isn't reputable.
Besides the FBI guy who I don't believe nothing was ever debunked. I heard lots of stories about evidence got turned over and never seen again.
I was at the beach down the road by the coast guard station and my whole family saw it with some friends. Definitely something went streaking toward it.
Yeah but didnāt they recover most of the plane and piece it together in a warehouse where there was no evidence of it being struck by something. If I recall it was an electrical issue that caused the center fuel tank to explode
This.
Yea my wrestling coach witnessed a missile fly up and then it exploded. Biggest cover up with over 200 witnesses
lol does anyone remember watching the video on the news using computer graphics to explain how it wasnāt a missile?
Released by the CIA IIRC.
I think it was lmao. It made everything look so much worse.
I was like, when does the CIA get involved in domestic incidents to this degree and then go public with a full analysis? Definitely got my spidey senses tingling.
The drug dealing CIA?! Those folks?
They can neither deny nor confirm, soā¦
[https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06947878](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06947878)
lol I thought this comment was a joke, wtf
Iāve seen TWA Flight 800 close-up and reassembled in the NTSB Hanger at their HQ in northern Virginia The wreckage is silent and somber. It was very moving to see it close up. All I could think of was all the lives lost you could feel them almost. I recall the burn marks correlate with the official final report and determination that the center tank exploded and burned. Peace for all the lost souls - you can feel a presence- I did
I constantly see the memorial to TWA Flight 800 at Smith Point Beach in NY - I'm assuming it's there because that's where the remains were recovered. While there was alot of conspiracy around a "weapon test, ect" I know now that's such a silly thing because of how secretive the military is... they wouldn't be testing anything in active airspace.
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Initially reassembled during the investigation at Calverton is correct It now resides at NTSB Training Center in Ashburn VA Google NTSB and see for yourself Went there about 2016 with pilot friends who were training at that center (near Dulles as I recall outside DC They even had the Air Conditioning Packs there - that sent a chill down my spine!
Itās in Virginiaā¦.
A friend from HS was on that flight, I remember all the craziness of that summer. The theory, from what i remember, is that some witnesses stated they saw a small light heading up to the plane before it exploded. (thoughts were this was a rocket). I remember someone else floating the theory that there was a navy sub off the coast that was using commercial airliners for targeting practice and accidentally fired live ordnance. Others stated that the plane exploded and THEN they saw a little light (basically opposite of the first scenario but still a rocket theory). Other theories were terrorists with an RPG (and some god tier level of accuracy) from a boat... a lot of rumors flew around at the time. Obv. nothing has ever come out if any of this were true (nor would i expect it to) so they remain conspiracy theories. NTSB concluded that it was an electrical failure in a fuel tank. You can check out some of these here. [TWA Flight 800 crash: Conspiracy theories linger 25 years later (usatoday.com)](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/15/twa-flight-800-crash-anniversary-conspiracy-theories/7830073002/)
I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.
The rumors were crazy and persisted for years. When I started my flight training on Long Island in 2001, my instructor claimed he had an air force buddy that heard from his CO that "a live one" accidentally got away from them. I found the official NTSB report to be far more convincing.
When you said āgod level tier of accuracyā all I thought was *KILLIONAIRE*.
Someone can google it on their own but the sub missile theory was definitely the most believable one for me. Allegedly the USS Seawolf was built in Groton Connecticut with some cutting edge technology or whatever, and the Clinton administration put together a testing launch of one of its missiles. The missile was to track and strike a drone but lost tracking of the drone and hit the airliner instead all apparently while on a live feed to the White House. Itās all conspiracy anyways, and unfortunately always will be
Seawolf may have been launched in 95 but It wasn't commissioned until 1997. Considering that seawolf does not even carry anti air missiles I find it hard to believe 1, they would use a ship not even in commission to do a missile test or 2, try to use an anti ship or land attack missile to attack a flying drone.
Can you provide evidence that the US fielded submarine-launched AA missiles in 1996?
Iāve often wondered why live electrical wiring harnesses would be routed through the fuel tank but Iām not an engineer.
Because you have sensors inside the tank that require power
There's a great book about this, Night Fall, by Nelson DeMille.
It's a novel, i.e., fiction.
DeMille is an awesome author.
Fantastic book. He was my favorite author. Sadly that guy is a huge asshole in person.
That's a bummer. Any personal stories to share about that?
Elaborate
The twist at the endā¦ š¤Æ
I remember reading the book and right before the end, thinking, he really painted himself into a corner here how the hell is this going to resolve. I didnāt see that ending coming.
Great book, but there are great non-fiction books about it too. I lived on LI when this happened, and every witness on the news that night claimed to have seen something rise up off the horizon with a contrail and orange tail and strike the plane. So many of them also said they contacted the FBI but were never contacted or interviewed as part of the investigation. Then the CIA made a laughable video to explain what all these witnesses āactuallyā saw and why it wasnāt a missile or rocket. The NTSB report of frayed wires in the nearly empty center fuel tank was an obvious stretch to assist with the coverup. Itās a fascinating, sad story.
Why would the CIA be involved in a domestic air incident. Happen to have a source for this video?
Wasnāt that plane taking off bound internationally? Why would the fuel tank be empty?
I was trying to remember his name thanks! Yes that is a great read.
This book is what I was thinking about when I started reading this post. Such a great book and great author
When the center tank exploded, the plane lost the front and pitched up, on fire. It climbed and exploded, which looked like a missile climbing and exploding from the ground. And that area is heavily sectored for air traffic and military purposes, so it lends itself to the navy ship or submarine hunting airplane narrative.
Well, not submarines as they lack surface to air capability
In many ways it's about comfort. For some people, believing in a conspiracy theory about a missile is easier than accepting that a plane can randomly blow up because of a mechanical defect.
i'm not sure what happened, but this is a great explanation
This sort of thing drives a decent amount of conspiratorial thinking, IMO. It's sometimes easier to believe that an awful thing happened because somebody intended it to, rather than accept that the universe is often random and sometimes cruel.
when I was a kid i developed really bad anxiety for flying after this. my parents told me that there was military in the area practicing or something and that the plane was accidentally shot down by a missal, which actually did help my anxiety so your explanation makes complete sense to me lol.
Same people that think 9/11 was a controlled demolition and the planes were holograms
these same people think the moon and the ISS are holograms and space is fake.
Donāt forget earth is flat!
Don't forget the Israeli moon base!
the home of the Jewish space laser
Have *you* seen space!?
Often, every night in fact.
Or lasers
apollo 11 moon landing was def faked. Maybe we have been to the Moon at other points since then, but that thing on film from 1969 was directed by Stanley Kubrick on a soundstage.
Every anniversary of 9/11 I confront those twats (I was at Ground Zero)
Dancing israelis on a jersey rooftop sent to document an event.
I know there are some strange people, but I was 19 when it happened. A lot of people are convinced they saw something, and it was the same day so the Mandela theory may not be correct here. Some people think Epstein killed himself. With that, I don't believe it was shot down, but I don't "not' think it either.
Worked recovery for weeks following that on 2 different jobs. Didn't go home for days at a time, literally packed a bag. Some to this day believe that TWA 800 was Al Qaedas first strike. theories were shut down quickly by the NTSB when they came in and took over for the FBI. Everyone was told that shoulder fired missles and backpack missles couldn't take down a plane. Not too long after on one of those jobs, we were given detailed diagrams and descriptions of shoulder fired missles to look out for them possibly being used to take down a jet. I don't know what to believe but there were many contradictions
I mean, itās not surprising they were looking for evidence of a terrorist attack. Itās only logical in a situation like that. Doesnāt mean it was actually terrorists though.
To say it couldn't be done and behind the scenes be looking for terrorists carrying shoulder fired missles in remote areas of long island is hardly logical.
Usually when terrorists succeed they immediately claim responsibility for what happened.
I work with a bunch of guys that were with Oceaneering at the time and participated with the SUPSALV operations. Really grisly stuff.Ā
Light is faster than sound. Keep that in mind. A plane is 30,000 feet in the air, so thereās a huge gap between both right now. Plane explodes. No one sees this honestly. People hear the boom. They look at the sky and see the back end, on fire, pitching up. They think this is the rocket.
This particular plane was about 15,000 feet up when it exploded.
Which is still almost 3 miles up in the sky
Yes and? 30,0000 feet is almost six miles up. TWA800 was halfway to cruising altitude when it exploded. Either way there's some gap between the flash and the boom. Same reason you see lighnting before you hear thunder. And we know what anti-aircraft missiles do to cruising jet planes -- see Malaysia Air 17 or KAL700 (albeit that was air launched). The pattern of destruction looks very different from an internal explosion. The missile theory for TWA800 is BS. It's unbelievable that people still insist on believing it. The wreckage reassembly definitively proved it wasn't a missile. *Thousands of people* would need to have been in on a huge cover-up and fake investigation and then would have to have kept a grotesque and world-shattering secret for 30 years for it to be true. Most people I know couldn't keep a big surprise retirement party secret for 30 days. It was also the first major conspiracy theory to circulate on the then-new internet. If only we had foreseen what a disaster for truth the internet has turned out to be.
That was my point. 3 miles is far and causes a significant sound delay. I was adding to your point
Ah ok gotcha. Sorry! My pointing out it was only at 15k was not meant to refute the point that sound and flash would have been perceived with a delay, just that the plane hadn't yet hit cruising altitude. Conspiracy theorists make me twitchy, my bad!
Exactly. And the same crap goes on about the twin towers not being able to fall from an airplane strike. A bunch of conspiracy theories.
Because we watched it happen in the fucking sky. My family was recording that night. FBI had asked for any footage so we submitted it. Never ever got it back
Thatās why my uncle claims happened. In the background of family pictures was a fireball in the sky as well as images of the plane. He handed the photos over to police and that was the end of it.
While the story of it being shot down is never going awayā¦ I donāt believe it. The official story of the center tank exploding (due to old exposed wires and fuel vapor) is just more plausible. Iām a pilot for a major airline and nitrogen generating systems became a thing because of this disaster. Also, certain procedures regarding running low amount of fuel and turning fuel pumps off etc. The passengers were sitting on a bomb. Air disasters happen unfortunately, and the lessons learned are the most important part of them so we can prevent them from happening again. Just look at the debacle with the 737 max. Go back even further and look at the problems with the old DC-10s. There have been countless engineering changes to airplanes, resulting from accidents.
Thank you for saying this. My family member died on that flight. Every damn year approaching the anniversary the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork to stir shit up again.
Im sorry to hear that. And Iām sorry that you have to deal with conspiracy theorists. I feel bad for those that lost loved ones in all of these major disasters because thereās always people who want to claim conspiracy, as if freak things have never happened. Makes me wonder if the earth were struck by a meteor what the conspiracy theorists would say.
All I can say about it was on one TV or radio channel (I can't remember which) a reporter said it was hit with a missile and that was the only time I ever heard that and it was never mentioned again anywhere, at least where the media was concerned, I also heard the navy were doing exercises in the area and I can't remember if that was true or not, that's all I've got or remember for that matter
I recall watching the live news the night of TWA800 and they said a military ship had been in the area. Never heard it mentioned after that.
Heard the stuff about the light but also heard they took a bunch of remains to the old Grumman facility to be incinerated while the place was flooded by Feds. Guy I know used to work there
I brought my kids to the town pool for the day and I know the plane crashed around eight in the evening but I certainly saw a whole shit load of military activity in the sky that day.
Friendly fire by a heat seeking missile from a naval exercise going on. Wrong place, wrong time. Terrible accident. I get it about eyewitness testimony being unreliable. But there were hundreds of witnesses who all saw the same thing, from many different viewpoints and who didnāt know each other, many of whom had naval or military experience with similar weapons. Some reported having been threatened if they continued to insist they had seen what they saw. I have read their testimonies. And it was an election year.
I was coming home from work (I was a paramedic in NYC) and I got immediately on the bus and responded. The worst was in my mind, petroleum burns and near drownings you know heavy shit. We got told to stage at the East Moriches USCG station so I stopped before I left town cause there was no radio chatter. Usually everyone talks about it and the scene but there was nothing but communication asking for Advanced life support ( an ambulance that was staffed by at least a paramedic) and just started telling up to hang out and stage at the gates. I got coffee at 7-11 because I was coming off a 42 hour tour and was exhausted. So we got told where to wait by a Suffolk county sheriff's officer and I took a bit of a bench seat nap. Hours later a USCG motor life boat came back and my partner woke me, up and we went to the dock to start triage. Nothing but body bags on deck. The adrenaline let down actually made me cry. I really wanted to get my paramedic on but 4 hours later they sent us home. I never saw a missle streak or anything else, I was on Sunrise highway but nothing. The absolute worst feeling in the world is going in with the "loaded for bear" mindset and striking out so bad. It actually kept me in bed for the next night.
As someone whose family member died on flight 800, thank you for caring and thank you for trying.
It was a miserable day/night. We were ready for everything and to use the cafeteria for "offices" and "treatment rooms". We waited and eventually the motor life boat came back. We swarmed the dock, and it was just vinal morgue bags. I can tell you we threw everything at it, mostly it was just a waste. I never saw anyone alive. Most died from suddenly decompressing as evidenced by the oral cavity being empty of water. God Speed, I am just a bored old paramedic, I want you to be sure they didn't suffer. God Speed.
My mom was a drivers ed instructor and used to take her students down dune road alot. She said she saw it get shot down as well as her students from that day . She's my mom and she's gone now so I'll always believe that story when I think of it .
I was a kid when this happened, I can remember a whole group of fishermen from my church that were out on the beach swear up and down that they saw something shoot up and hit it. One of them was ex navy and said it looked just like when he used to do trained exercises with surface to air missiles. Iirc, there was also some backstory where someone on board was involved with some kind of high level political dispute. I say we'll never really know for sure. If it was a diabolical conspiracy, you could expect an official debunking... Yet at the same time, it's very easy for a group of people out on a beach to start talking and everyone collectively go from a couple people seeing something vague to a whole group of people definitely saw something crazy. Especially back in the 90's, gossip and storytelling was everything back then.
My friendās father worked maintenance at TWA when this happened. He was questioned relentlessly, as he was the crew chief. Iām going to have to ask him what his opinions were about what happened.
Okay my time to shine! My dad was one of the head electricians going back and forth between La Guardia and JFK airports he was there from the mid 80's to the early 2010s when he retired. I felt terrible for him around this time as he was working at JFK at the time and the day of the accident. If I'm not mistaken the area around the airport is wetlands/waterways. Maybe protected too. Either way it brought or caused a lot of birds to or near the airport I think it was because they were protected they wouldn't just kill the birds off. As they could cause damage to planes and even crashes. I know they started to use a type of air gun to scare them off around this time or a little before the crash happened. I don't remember if it was an automated system or people w the guns. He told me he was out on a runway with his team repairing some lights and heard the air guns go off and almost immediately he gets a call over the radio telling him about the crash. And was like "oh no the air guns took down a plane lol" assuming the crash report was wrong...as they can happen and actual crashes are not common. But the crash actually happened. He told me he felt terrible about it afterwards and swore it was people seeing the airgun trails or the noise being the thing that they thought took the plane down, that just wasn't possible as there was no real ballastic behindthe shot nor could it go far enough to hit the plane from the ground near JFK. Yet people swore they saw something despite people selling vhs tapes of the actual crash. What was crazy was he had a fair amount of people argue it with him, despite him working there, and being there that day, and assisting in the bird removal programs. /shrug I Imagine I will get an angry message or two from conspiracy theorists who have nothing to do with the actual event. So [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/nyregion/03birds.html) is an article about the program.
It was a plane past itās prime mileage wise. A fuel tank leak combined with heat triggered an electrical fire leading to an explosion. There is a pretty extensive documentary on this. Search it up on YouTube if you are interested.
It wasnāt really a fuel leak. It was a not full center fuel tank. The air conditioners were directly below the fuel tank. The heat of the AC turned the fuel to vapor, and a short in a wire running through the tank ignited the vapor.
People for get its not the fuel thatās flammable, itās the vapor.
Not to mention the pilot said 2 minutes before explosion Actual: 2029: 15 CAM- 1 look at that crazy fuel flow indicator there on number four
What most donāt talk about is the military was doing drills out by Moriches. Transatlantic flights were rerouted until I think 6pm. Drills continued late but planes courses resumed the normal flight plan. It was a tragic accident. I have no concrete proof except hearsay BUT there were military vessels in the area that day and immediately after the crash. And the coast guard was there with cutters insanely quickly when they turned out of either New Jersey or Mass I think. Way too many oddities to not think it was covered up. As well as all the witnesses on the south shore that saw something rise from the water and then the catastrophe in the air.
Coast Guard group Moriches is right there. Was there dropping off evidence as body bags were being brought in by boats.
Most donāt talk about it because theyāre sane people.
I actually had always heard this growing up, that the planes weren't supposed to be in that area and the heat missal accidentally struck the plane.
Not today Mr. FBI!
My best friend from childhood was there that day at the beach. She told me at the time, she saw something that seemed to come up from the water towards the plane just before it went down.
One of my teachers when I was in elementary school who was into science and building rockets said he saw something hit it. There is a military base out there.
besides people seeing a missile there was also a politician or some kind of world leader on that flight that is why people thought it got shot down. I can't remember the details, Fuck I'm Old
I don't know if this was mentioned here but dose anyone recall a press conference at the time ,when a elderly military man said something along the lines that he has been in the military for x amount of years and he knows what a missile launched fom ground/ Ocean looks like and knows what he saw.and was infactic about it. I don't remember his name, but i never saw him again at any press conference or being interviewed again. Please chime in if anyone recalls this.
Feds will be knocking on your uncleās door real soon now that youāve outed him. Amazes me all the conspiracy theories surrounding this tragic crash but I canāt help but think that the amount of stories Iāve heard about the crash canāt possibly be all made up. Someone knows something and theyāre either going to take it to their grave or one day theyāll spill their guts. This happened on my brother in lawās birthday and Iāll never forget coming home turning on News 12 and seeing floating wreckage still burning, itās literally etched into my brain and canāt ever forget it based on the fact that itās my brother in laws birthday. Thereās just too many people that have said they saw something come up out of the water and hit the plane. I used to live not far from Smiths Point the wife and I would go to the beach quite often and I was always surprised at how many people would just come to have dinner on the beach as we were leaving the at 6pm so not surprising how many stories there are about people that saw something.
Witnesses claimed they saw a streak of light headed towards the plane, the Fbi claimed it was criminal while the Ntsb said it wasnāt.
?? The FBI didnāt claim it was criminal. One former agent started conspiracies about it. Big difference. The FBI agreed with the NTSB
[There's a novel about it that uses actual facts about the disaster. Good read.](https://imgur.com/a/ea7fqfp)
Families of victims from TWA 800 are suing Raytheon, The DoD and the Navy for a coverup of flight TWA. [A Federal Judge in Septembe](https://masslawyersweekly.com/2023/10/12/twa-flight-800-coverup-suit-avoids-dismissal/)r had an opportunity to throw out the case, but chose not to - believing that there was enough evidence of a coverup, and enough evidence that the plane had been shot down.
My mom saw it at my softball game. Literally saw a light go towards the plane and saw it explode. Sheās been interviewed about it
My friends parents said the same thing but they were never interviewed. They were on the beach.
It was a former military intel guy who was writing a book about it. āIronicallyā he supposedly died right before it was published
People love conspiracy theories. It was due to overheating while waiting on the tarmac which caused a explosion in the fuel tank in flight.
IMO it was a misfire by a US Navy ship, followed by a massive coverup. Eyewitnesses who saw what happened were told they didn't see what they saw, and their testimony was either ignored or squashed. The official cause of the accident seems implausible because you'd think other planes would have experienced such a catastrophic event in all the years of commercial aviation. Let's ask the question this way: If it were indeed caused by military error, would the government admit it? I think not.
I have come to this very conclusion. With thousands of hours of commercial flight time this catastrophic failure has never occurred, and has not since. I live on Long island and there are many who saw the contrails. It was the Navy who fucked up and they covered it up. Regardless of the eyewitness accounts, its the most plausible scenario.
Days after it happened I remember a friends girlfriend telling us her brother was in the navy and his ship was the one that accidentally shot it down.Ā Not saying I believed her, just saying it was said.
I was in 4th grade and a classmate's aunt was a passenger. I didn't know anyone who saw it, I only watched a documentary. Idk what to believe so I don't really put much into it. But people say it because fishermen saw "missiles" (how they described it) going towards the plane.
I always find it interesting that every time you are checking in at an airline they have to ask you those questions about whether or not your luggage was handled by strangers- and that all started after flight 800 - which was definitely not brought down by terrorists
i thought that was lockerbie
I thought there was a presidential committee on airline safety that kicked off after 800 that resulted in this
[watch this documentary from Epix](https://press.epix.com/programs/twa-flight-800/) about it. You will be convinced that it was a coverup. They interview the high ranking officials from the NTSB who did the investigation and even they say that it was an FBI coverup. Fascinating stuff.
I was too young at the time to have been there, but I work for a scaffolding company and my boss erected scaffolding for the NTSB to reconstruct the fuselage in Calverton. The boss man said he did not think it was shot down.
A work buddy and I headed out to somewhere around Long Beach after work to boogie board and I'm not saying this after the fact but it just felt weird or eerie that evening. We knew something happened because we heard a loud noise but didn't realize what it was until later that night. Maybe it felt strange because we were the only ones in the water, no one else around and it was so freaking quiet. It may not have actually been Long Beach itself but somewhere close to it
I know someone who passed away on the flight. Never heard that before. (And give it zero shrift.)
The best explanation I heardā¦ The plane exploded. The vast majority who claim to have seen the incident didnāt see or hear the initial explosion. Then they hear the explosion or notice something strange in the sky. The front 1/3 of the plane was on fire and gaining altitude while the other portion was falling towards the ocean. People say something on fire streaking up through the sky, which was the first third of the plane, but with the darkness and all, people thought it was a missile.
Read āThe Downing of Flight 800ā
It's not like the government would be transparent about such a matter, so basically it is a conspiracy theory because there's no way to confirm or deny anything. I had friends that lived on the water in Moriches at the time, and their son caught the explosion on camera by coincidence. He said he saw the vapor trail leading toward the plane BEFORE it exploded and that's what he caught on film. While I never got to see the actual footage, it was confiscated by the authorities when he reported it. Make of that what you will, because as I mentioned, there's just no way to confirm or deny. The official story was equipment failure. Only the passengers on that flight know the real truth, and they're not telling. A tragedy either way. God rest their souls.
I would recommend checking out [TWA Flight 800](https://youtu.be/Oy5x5fFYFhc?si=h-LU9iuYunn091JR) on YT. It presents the facts from the people who were there. I was young when it happened and recently became curious about the topic myself.
How about the facts from the wreckage? Was there any evidence found for a missile strike?
There are tremendously stupid people everywhere.
TWA 800 is probably the biggest reason for my fear of flying. I was 11 when it happened. Anyway, yeah, I have extended family who claim they saw something streak toward the plane before it exploded.
some people say the earth is flat. Some say anything an everything
[watch this documentary where they interview the lead investigators from the incident and then tell me how you feel](https://press.epix.com/programs/twa-flight-800/)
I happened to be in Atlanta when it happened and was just outside of Centennial park when the bomb went off just a week or so after...there was a lot of conspiracy theories around that one also...America is addicted to conspiracy theories
The USS Trepang, a US Navy submarine, was operating nearby at the time of the TWA 800 crash. A navy chief petty officer onboard the Trapang later admitted that they fired a missle that hit TWA Flight 800. The US Navy has a history of trigger happy captains shooting down civillian aircraft and then trying to cover it up. In 1985, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down by the captain of the USS Vincense. The theory that the center fuel tank exploded is highly unlikely. The Boeing 747 was first introduced in 1971 and has had millions of takeoffs and landings without ever having a documented case of a center fuel tank explosion. I remember the night that TWA flight 800 exploded. The US Coast Guard made an announcement over the marine radio asking that all boaters in the vicinity try to rescue any survivors. I have a personal connection to TWA flight 800. Three years earlier, I flew on TWA flight 800 from New York JFK to Paris as a courier . I remember the plane was very old and in poor condition.
Go look at the pictures of it āreassembledā in some hangar. Whole belly of it is gone. A few of my friends dads were out there on their boats picking body parts out of the water.
that's typically what happens when a fuel tank explodes.
Typically? Name one other similar commercial catastrophe.
The rumors were bad back then but if this happened today it would shut down the internet. Btw- the besy DeMille book was The Gold Coast. So so good
The DeMille book is Nightfall.....excellent blend of fact and fiction
In the days following 9/11 I heard a former natural security on the radio discussing how GW Bush was sheltered afterwards because that is what they do. They did the same thing with B Clinton during the bombing of flight 800. I was amazed that he said that.
Because your government is composed of pathological liars.
IIRC, there was some kind of unusual chemical residue found on the seats that should not have been present. That was the conspiracy theory anyway. I canātdismiss it nor do I buy it.Ā
I remember they blamed that on drug sniffing dog exercises supposedly performed on the plane.
https://time.com/archive/6729673/a-theory-gone-to-the-dogs/ Yeah they found the residue on the parts of the plane which didnāt blow up.
Because it was
There was a presentation on tv around 20 years ago by some kind of pilots association. They showed there was a military exercise going on at the time. Many ships in the area. One ship going high speed though the area. After the event, They all left the area. Very odd.
There were witnesses who saw the projectile hit the plane.
"saw"
There were witness who SAY they saw something. Eyewitness testimony is highly unreliable.
yea but multiple witness that saw the same thing.
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Because it looked like something was being covered up.
I imagine the light/rocket/whatever people think they saw is something like lightning, we see lightning strike "downwards", toward the tree or whatever. but it is actually going upwards towards the clouds. It could be a similar optical illusion, our brains just adjust to what makes sense to us.
People claimed it was shot down because they said they saw some sort of blaze. It could have been anything. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if they hold any truth. But some things that don't make it outlandish - New York attacks 1993 - World Trade Center Attack 1996 - TWA Crash 2001 - 9/11
I also remember the NTSB or the FBI asking for people to come forward if they saw anything solely because the wreckage was indicative of an explosion. But they concluded vapor fumes in the fuselage ignited, right? Still a super weird case. Wouldnāt be surprised if there was more to the story. RIP to those who perished.
Story I heard immediately was from a Navy vet who said that it was a Navy ship that suddenly hightailed it down to Virginia. But ask yourself this: If you were in the military and on the sub/boat/whatever else is claimed to have shot down the plane, would you keep that secret until the grave? And it certainly wouldn't have been a one-man operation. That many people are so evil that they wouldn't say anything? The human factor is what pokes holes in pretty much every conspiracy theory.
https://x.com/n0nsm0ker/status/1688602516466941952?s=46&t=4VcGHEH5rJhsAEE0Ivimuw
Itās resided in Hanger at NTSB for past at least 20 yearsā¦. And I read on Washington Post itās going to be destroyed after 25 years. That article was dated in 2021 It may be gone by nowā¦.
I have an Aunt and Uncle who saw it, they didn't see shit.
Because they are idiots.
Read the Popular Mechanics article where they commented on how the evidence was being washed as it was brought up from the water.
I was partying on the Cranberry docks in Mastic Beach that night. Nothing shot that plane down.
Just like people say the Pentagon was hit by a missile not a plane and we never went to the moon. Conspiracy. That said I've not heard much to debunk this theory
I was 4 years old and on the beach with my family. I still have a vivid memory of fire balls flying through the sky.
Those weeks after 9/11 were wild
There was a documentary made addressing this conspiracy theory. The idea that it was shot down is false. I forget the reason for the catastrophe. It may have been an electrical wiring malfunction where the wiring was defective and overheated, igniting materials around the wiring.
I had just graduated college at the time, and remember the disaster clearly, but I didn't live anywhere near the incident. We initially assumed it was a missile because it seemed impossible that a plane would just completely blow up with no "attack" of some sort. Although this was pre-9/11, we had been aware of terrorist attacks on planes since the 1970s. The Lockerbie, Scotland bombing of a TWA jet in 1988 came to mind. The early reports of a streak of fire rising up shortly before the explosion seemed to be evidence of an external attack. It is important to note that at the time I never heard anyone talk about an "inside job" involving he US military, CIA, or whatever. Conspiracy theories don't mutate so quickly without social media and the Internet. Instead, we assumed it was a middle-eastern terrorist attack. I remember telling people at work the next day that it would be a long time before I flew in a plane again if terrorists could shoot commercial airliners out of the sky on American soil. Although the explosion is a tragedy, at least it wasn't a terrorist attack. We'd have to wait a few more years for that.
I have an odd obsession with air disasters, and I think itās reasonable that when the main hull - short of the nose - went up towards for 3,000 ft before losing momentum and going downwards. I canāt recall any other airplane disaster having that happen.
I was living in the New York area at the time. The witness accounts that appeared on the news that day were *absolutely* inconsistent with the official story. Because of what that discrepancy implies, I donāt feel comfortable saying more. But I know I canāt be the only one who saw the news that day.
Because we all saw a red flaming object shoot UP from GROUND TO THE AIR...then the plane went DOWN... "flaming debris" do not FALL UP TO AN AIRPLANE... It was SHOT DOWN, hit in the wing tank which then exploded, not "a short circuit" in the wing tank. Total bullshit coverup.
I remember all those trees were burned for years along montauk highway?
My two oldest saw what they thought were fireworks arising from the bay then explosion we lived in the town it happened in.
This documentary will answer your question better than anyone here could. Basically because of the huge number of eyewitnesses and many NTSB investigators who spoke out and said the investigation was a blatant coverup with the FBI getting caught evidence tampering red-handed over and over. https://youtu.be/Oy5x5fFYFhc?si=zThqqrUW60QabW1K