TWA800 Revisited - But What About KE007?

[Guest fountainhall]

When Korean Airlines flight 007 from Anchorage to Seoul was shot down by the Russians short of Japanese air space in 1983, conspiracy theories were the order of the day. I remember having a drink in the Dickens Bar at the Excelsior Hotel in Hong Kong and sitting next to a pilot from South African Airways. That plane, he exclaimed, could only have been on a spying mission for the US. There was no other explanation for it to be so off course and to have flown the route it took.

Flight 007, you’ll recall, was a B747 en route from JFK to Seoul via Anchorage. Soon after leaving Anchorage, it began to veer off course, missing at least six navigation beacons designed to assist the automatic pilot. By the time it had veered more than 300 kms north of the assigned route, it flew through prohibited Soviet airspace on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Soviets monitored the flight but could not intercept as it then left their airspace. Only for a short while, though. It then re-entered and flew over the narrow Sakhalin Island. Three Russian jets caught up with it and signaled for it to follow them and land. The 747 responded by starting to climb to a higher altitude. One of the jets then shot it down.

Those are the basic details of a flight which encountered a veritable chapter of allegedly accidental problems. The first beacon after Anchorage was not operational because of maintenance. None of the air traffic controllers seems to have noticed such a huge course deviation (one is naturally tempted to ask: why not?). The crew may – or may not – have entered the wrong settings into their on board computer. The Soviets were also encountering significant command and control problems as jets they had first sent up to find the 747 had to return before they ran out of fuel. Pursuit was made more difficult because Arctic gales had knocked out the Soviets’ radar some 10 days earlier . . . and so on.

But all this was the height of the Cold War. US jets routinely buzzed Soviet borders to try and assess the detail of new Soviet Defenses. And there is at least some evidence that the US might have been using KE007 as a decoy, deliberately placing it in danger.

Conspiracy theorists surmise that the pilots must have been aware of their being way out of position. Their on-board weather radar should have twice told them they were flying over land and not water. A US reconnaissance plane with a similar radar configuration to the 747 was flying close behind the 747 in a zig-zag pattern – it was expected that the Soviets, if they assumed that it was this plane which had flown into their territory and then gone up to check, would not shoot down a civilian airliner. One theory even suggested the Korean pilots were perfectly well aware they were on a spying mission.

Another curious aspect about this case was the near total absence of body parts, body tissue or luggage floating at the crash site. Even on the sea-bed, only one partial torso and a few pieces of luggage were found. There was nothing to indicate that 269 passengers had crashed into the sea along with the wreckage of the plane. Yet, as one expert witness at the US Court of Appeals Tribunal stated unequivocally, the plane was not destroyed by the strike. All passengers were likely to have survived that strike and oxygen masks would have dropped automatically. At least 12 minutes passed before the aircraft crashed into the sea “and the passengers remained conscious throughout!”

A lot of new evidence has come forward with the defection of some Russians involved in the attack. More from documents obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union. But until Washington declassifies its documents, the full truth – and its possible implication in the downing – is unlikely to be known.

I mention all the above because of developments yesterday in the crash of another 747 which also had conspiracy theorists working overtime: TWA 800 which exploded 12 minutes after take-off from JFK en route to Paris in July 1996 with the loss of 230 lives. Much speculation centred on this either being a terrorist attack or a mistaken missile strike on the part of the US navy which was testing weapons relatively nearby. The various parts of the plane were virtually reassembled in a hangar, the official FBI report took 16 months, but no evidence was found of any criminal act. The NTSB Report took 4 years. Again it was ruled to be an accident in which faulty wiring or a short circuit had led to an explosion in the main central fuel tank. The files were closed.

And there the matter rested – until yesterday. Now, six senior investigators who were part of that initial investigation into the crash are calling for the NTSB to launch a new investigation based on new evidence. They claim the FBI covered up the real scenario. Their theory is that a missile did indeed hit the plane or exploded close by thereby destroying the air frame.

All this comes out in a new TV documentary to be aired soon titled just “TWA800”. Interestingly, the missile theory was given solid credence only 4 weeks after the crash, as in this quote from the New York Times –
 

Four weeks after the disaster, the Times would report, “Now that investigators say they think the center fuel tank did not explode, they say the only good explanations remaining are that a bomb or a missile brought down the plane.”

 

 

The NY Times had exclusive access to the FBI, yet it wrote that without interviewing even just one of the 200 or so eyewitnesses, At that time, the US was on a heightened state of alert. The Atlanta Olympics were about to open and terrorists were on trial for the plot to blow up 12 US bound aircraft across the Pacific. Domestically Bill Clinton was on the closing stretch of a difficult election campaign with the Detroit Democratic Convention just weeks away. The idea of terrorists firing missiles or placing a bomb on the plane was, shall we say, a heaven-sent media opportunity. Yet the missile theory was later pooh-poohed and brushed aside as being impossible.

Apparently, after laying out its evidence, this new documentary lists all those who refused to appear on the programme. Included in that list is Bill Clinton. Just, one should recall, as Reagan refused always to talk about KE007 – other then to pour scorn on the Soviets.

Will a conspiracy be uncovered? Probably not. But it should be a rollicking good story.

 

Sources include -
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0619/TWA-800-crash-Should-NTSB-look-at-missile-theory-again-video
http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/brand-new-twa-800-film-to-finally-spill-beans/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007

[kokopelli]

Actually I once read a thriller novel about Flight TWA 800 and the missle option; it was a good read but that is all.

[Rogie]

Actually I once read a thriller novel about Flight TWA 800 and the missle option; it was a good read but that is all.

 

Thrillers are almost always a good read by definition, at least those billed as 'best-sellers' or whatever. No harm in that, and good you enjoyed the book.

 

But, when 203 people have lost their lives through no fault of their own then surely it is owed to them to be respectful. Writing a novel based on that in which the author embellishes as he thinks fit to appeal to his perceived thriller readership is wrong IMO, especially when the full facts are blurred. Conspiracy theories are tempting to expand upon, but why risk further upset to the victim's families. Yes, it might take a while, but leave the speculation and the eventual credible explanation to the professionals.

 

I must add I haven't read this book and knew nothing about it until Koko mentioned it. I may have misunderstood the merits or intention of the book so apologies if so.

[kokopelli]

The book was Night Fall by Nelson DeMille.   Here is a review from the Washington Post.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18850-2004Nov28.html

[Guest fountainhall]

Ref Rogie's comment, I think the key part of that review is at the end -

 

Personally, I think he wrote this novel not just to make a buck, but rather because he's deeply troubled by the questions surrounding the fate of Flight 800. But there will certainly be those who will challenge his embrace of conspiracy theories. Given the government's vast power to create its own reality, the questions he raises and whatever controversy he creates strike me as all to the good.