The  launch and target intercept results of a radar-guided missile from a
USN ship off the coast of the US would be known to literally hundreds  of
people (those aboard the vessel,
those monitoring the  airspace, those monitoring the exercise, etc).  All
these  people would need to be  silent, despite media inquiries, etc,
in the wake of the well-publicized
loss of hundreds of lives.  Very unlikely.

It's hard for anyone who has worked in a large  organization and who has
seen how secrets are(n't) kept to believe a  plan/cover up of any kind
that involves more than 3-4 well  motivated  people would remain
unpublicized.

Mark  W.

The investigation was taken over in every detail by the FBI. Known for
their skills in air crash data collection. The FBI carted away tons of crash
debris from Calverton hanger during the reconstruction. No doubt for
scientific  examination. For weeks a US navy salvage ship sat on top of
the tail
section  supposedly looking for the black boxes. Every fisherman in the bay
could hear  the boxes pinging on their own equipment. They ping for
about 30 to
40 days. The  bay is shallow, what could have been the hold up?

Once published the tapes show a huge spike over pressure right at the end
of the recoverable data. (A warhead explosion?) A week later it was gone
from  the tape.

The FBI rented every commercial boat in the area and had them dragging nets
looking for a blackened pop can sizes device with wires  coming out of it.
A crew man on one boat told them he had found that thing days before the
FBI  came to look for it, but thought it to be junk and had thrown it back
in. (the  launch charge for a shoulder fired missile?).

The FBI collected the radar tapes from every known radar site in the bay
area. The only one they forgot was the Beth Page radar (Grumman). Screen
captures of that radar show the missile track clearly.

Many sites carried that AVI for months after the shoot down.

The CIA not the NTSB or the FAA produced a movie of the (Shoot down)  used
to explain the center tank explosion. The plane climbing smoothly with the
fuselage missing from the wings forward.
Never before and not since has the CIA been called upon for such support.
This was done to provide a show for the hundreds of folks on Long Island who
saw  the missile going upward from the water. The FBI said they all saw the
fuel from  the burning center fuel tank as the plane climbed 5,000 feet
after breaking  up?

Witnesses who were shown their FBI field interrogation cards all said that
is not what I said to the FBI guy who questioned me. The witnesses were not
silent. Investigators were not silent.

One investigator who was provided with passenger seat material smeared with
rocket fuel, went to prison. He cut it into two pieces and sent one piece
to a  private laboratory who returned a report, then sent the copy of the
report and  the other sample to the New York times who wrote nothing
about it,
and promptly  turned the report and sample over to the (guess who) FBI.

The FBI said the Nitrate rich staining on dozens of passenger seats was a
result of a bomb dog training exercise conducted some months earlier quickly
citing the wrong tail number for flight 800. When I was a cop we called
them the  "FB one " because it pissed them off so bad. They have screwed up
nearly  everything they have touched in the last 50 years. Last on the
scene,
first to  take credit is their motto, now.

It was changed a few years back from "an ounce of Image is worth a pound of
performance."

Bodies near the front center wing were riddled with iron fragments. Didn't
hear about that? The victims relatives wanted copies of autopsies to see if
their loved ones had died instantly (probable) but no dice. All sealed by
the FBI. Ask the doctors who did the work they would know. Nope. Not
talking.

Believe what you want. It will take one hell of an imagination to swallow
"the center fuel tank idea". There were dozens of books written about this.
Read  a few. Then read a few about Oklahoma City.

Lynn E. Hanover

I agree,  keeping a secret in a small organization is almost impossible
and impossible in a large one. There have been fuel tank issues on the
B737 and other B747 series aircraft and this is not limited to Boeing
but airbus, MacDonaild Douglas, Emb 120 etc.

Mike Ethridge



What sort of "fuel tank issues"?


Paul Lamar

Chaffed wiring issues with at least two other airplane catching fire on
the groud with SB's and AD's issued as a result.
Mike Ethridge

Catching fire is one thing but blowing up is another.

We all know that diesel fuel and gasoline are easy to catch fire.

Paul Lamar