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


I remember seeing the videos and following this disaster. Pretty clear that the Aegis firecontrollers locked onto the wrong target. Easy to get the military personnel to stay quiet, and the government agencies to co-operate with a cover-up. They have tools of intimidation you wouldn't believe. Military guys can have their records messed with in big ways, phony charges and lock up time. Government employees pretty much the same thing. On the ship, there are only a handful of sailors in CIC who would have access to the truth, maybe 10 enlisted men and 5 officers. Those on deck would have been too far away to be able to see enough to be sure even if visibility permitted.
Major embarassment to have the premier state of the art naval weapon system showing an achiles heel.
Not to mention another Clinton admin scandal. That one got buried deep. One day, when some of the military guys are on their death bed, and have nothing left to loose, they will open up and tell the truth. People who had real goods on Clinton had a bad habit of dying back then.
The hardest thing for me to swallow was how the jet fuel and air mixture got to the perfect explosion ratio.
C. Smith



I spent 20 years in the Navy as an Officer and I'm telling you there is no way something like this would or could be covered up.  Officers swore an Oath and we take that oath very seriously. Covering up the slaughter of American Citizens for whatever reason would violate that oath.  There isn't enough pressure in the world a government agency could bring (short of killing) that would suppress such a mistake.  Within Min of something like that happening the ENTIRE ship would know. These conspiracy theory's are fun to talk about but when you guys start questioning the honor of my brothers and there ability to do the right thing it is disturbing.  We serve the people NOT the government.

Mike C.

Unfortunately the president is commander in chief. Neither Clinton or Obama
were ever in the military.

Paul Lamar