All language subtitles for HistorysGreatest.Mysteries.S04E21.TWA.Flight.800.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

(intense music)

- Tonight, one of the
worst aviation disasters

in American history.
(explosion)

- Planes don't just
disappear from the air.

- 230 people killed when
their jetliner explodes off

the Coast of Long Island.

- Virtually, anything on the
water in the vicinity is moving

into the rescue area and
they're there so quickly

that there's actually
falling wreckage

still coming out of the sky.

- We'll uncover the top theories
for why the plane blew up.

- Maybe a bomb was
placed on this airplane.

- Aircraft fuel tanks are

considered explosive
environments

and they have to be isolated
from ignition sources.

- Is the US Government engaged

in an actual government coverup?

- And explore new clues that
might offer the answers?

- Two missiles fired
to hit another target,

but they went awry.

- What really happened
to TWA Flight 800?

(intense music)

July 17th, 1996, JFK
International Airport.

It's a hot humid summer
night in New York City.

TWA Flight 800 sits at the
gate awaiting departure.

- TWA 800 had a flight plan
to go from New York to Rome

with a layover in Paris.

Onboard the flight that day,

there was a total of 230 people.

There were 192 passengers,
18 crew members,

and 20 off-duty employees.

Most of them, they were there
because they were working

the second leg of the flight.
(intense music)

- The crew, they are by
the book Professional.

Chief Pilot Ralph
Kevorkian is experienced

on other aircraft, but he's
moved into the biggest airplane

in TWA's fleet the Boeing 747.

- [Laurence] Flight
engineer Richard Campbell is

also well-trained.

- Because Richard had
reached the age of 60,

which at the time, that was
the pilot retirement age,

he decided to stay on with the
airline as a flight engineer.

- [Laurence] The first
leg of the flight from JFK

to Paris is projected to
last just over seven hours,

but the flight is
delayed for 62 minutes.

- There was a baggage issue.
(intense music)

Apparently, the flight
attendants had found a bag

and they were not sure, who
the baggage belonged to,

so it took quite a while to
match that piece of baggage

to the appropriate passenger.

As you can imagine, the
passengers are getting restless.

They're all sitting in the
airplane ready to take off.

- [Laurence] At 8:07 PM the
crew fires up the engines,

the plane taxis out to the
runway, and at 8:19 PM,

TWA Flight 800 takes off
into mostly clear skies.

- The air traffic controller
is communicating directly

with these airplanes.

Each one has a call sign.

Each one has a transponder,
which tells the plane position

to air traffic controllers.

- [Laurence] At 8:30 PM,

air traffic controllers
give TWA 800 clearance

to go from 13,000
to 15,000 feet.

This is their last
communication with the plane.

- So, Flight Engineer
Campbell goes ahead

and adds climb thrust,

and they start climbing
up to 15,000 feet.

- [Laurence] At
8:31 and 12 seconds,

there's a transponder ping

with a Pennsylvania Air
Traffic Control Station.

- Then, something
strange happens.

- [Laurence] Just 12
minutes after takeoff,

Flight 800 disappears
from radar.

(brooding music)

- A disappearing blip
is pretty alarming

for an air traffic controller.

So, they tried to contact them
but there was no response,

and then, they were asking
for nearby airplanes

to tell us what
was going on home.

- This pilot flying over
Long Island calls in

and says he's seen an
explosion in the air.

The pilot reports that
this explosion occurred

at about 16,000 feet
over Long Island Sound.

- And suddenly,

reports start coming in from
pilots all over the area.

- Something has
exploded and the debris

just rained down into the water.

- And then, there's an
outpouring of reports

from people on the ground.

They report seeing
a big fireball,

and also debris just
raining out of the sky.

(intense music)

- [Laurence] Emergency
radios sound the alert.

There's a major plane
crash into the ocean

and the search is
on for survivors.

- Virtually, anything on the
water in the vicinity is moving

into the rescue area and
they're there so quickly

that there's actually
falling wreckage

still coming out of the sky.

There's burning debris,
it's mass chaos.

- And from all of this wreckage,

they can actually
see that this was

the 747 from Flight 800.
(brooding music)

- It begins one of the longest

and most expensive aviation
accident investigations

in history.
(brooding music)

- Within 20 minutes of
the initial reports,

people in Washington, DC
begin to take action.

- Our government is doing
everything we can to continue

the search for survivors
and to find out

the causes of this accident.

- For the next two days,
Navy divers comb the area,

searching for survivors,
but they don't find any.

(brooding music)
(water trickles)

- When the families first learn
that something has happened

to the airplane,
they gather at JFK

to try and find
out what happened.

And all the news photographers
and cameramen are out there

and it puts the
families on edge.

It's a terribly traumatic
moment for them,

so they make the
decision to move them

into the airport hotel,
which is about a mile away,

and that comes to be
known as Heartbreak Hotel.

- [Laurence] Along with the
grief, there are also questions.

What happened to TWA Flight 800?

- This is a very tense time.

The bombing in Oklahoma City
had just occurred in 1995.

Terrorism was in everybody's
mind, so people had this idea

that terrorists were
targeting aircrafts.

(intense music)

- [Officer] Go, go, get
in back, get in back!

- We were a heightened alert
because we had all these things

that happened prior, just
before this happened,

we had the World
Trade Center bombing

and also the Khobar
bombing in Saudi Arabia.

- In the 1990s, the idea
of a major terror attack

on or above American
soil is a huge story.

- So, it was the first thought

that this was a
terrorist attack.

- [Laurence]
Investigators look into

how terrorists could have
brought down the plane,

focusing their attention on
what happened before takeoff.

- There was the big
62-minute delay for a bag,

so people wondered, was
there a bomb in that bag?

It happened earlier
with Pan Am Flight 103

over Lockerbie Scotland.

That bomb, which was in a
bag, killed 259 passengers

and 11 people on the ground.

So, new high-tech
scanners were put in place

to find even thin layers
of plastic explosives.

But, unfortunately,
JFK did not yet have

such a system
installed and working.

(intense music)

- [Laurence] The National
Transportation Safety Board

begins the long process of
reassembling the aircraft

to determine a possible
cause for the crash.

- They were able to recover
close to 95% of this aircraft

from the bottom of the ocean.

And once that process was done,

the FBI was able to send
samples of the aircraft

into the lap to check
for any sort of residue,

and there was a very small
trace of an explosive residue

that was on a floor panel.

- Because trace amounts
of explosives were found,

the FBI focused
on the possibility

that maybe a bomb was
placed on this airplane.

- [Laurence] But there's
another possibility

based on eyewitness accounts.
(intense music)

- Many of the eyewitnesses
reported seeing an actual streak

of light, so that
made the FBI think

that maybe it's not
just a bomb on board.

Perhaps it was instead
a missile attack.

The question is where was
the missile launched from?

The leading idea was that
it was launched from a boat.

(intense music)

Once the residue is reported,

and then the idea of
a missile is reported,

oh, that leads to
widespread tension.

People are on edge,
airport, and other security

around the world
is now tightened.

- It's just a matter
of trigonometry.

I mean, any high school
kid can figure it out.

- It's a missile.
- It's gotta be a missile.

- People really
believe that this was

some sort of terrorist attack.

- [Laurence] But
some raised doubts.

- There's one huge problem here.

No terrorist organization is
taking credit for this attack.

Isn't that what terrorist
organizations do?

Because if they want
to create terror,

you need to know who they
are and why they did it

and we're not seeing that here.

- It's not the first time
that the NTSB has investigated

an aircraft that might have
been brought down by a bomb,

but the NTSB is a lot more
hesitant than the FBI to leap

to conclusions about the
causes of a specific incident.

They have institutionally
a long history

of carrying out
accident investigations

and they understand that by
following their procedures,

they're likely to
be able to draw

the most accurate conclusions.

The FBI's purpose is to
enforce laws and as a result,

these two are going
to come into conflict.

- So, the NTSB's
explanation to this is

that this aircraft was used
before to transport troops

from the Gulf and those
troops could have had

some sort of explosive
residue on them.

- [Laurence] While
explosive residue

might have been left
over from the Gulf War,

investigators also
consider something else.

- So, they look at the
history of the aircraft

where was the plane before that,

and maybe a month and a
half before the accident

The NTSB found that the
airplane has been used

for training canine-explosive
deduction dogs,

and when they checked
with the dog handlers,

one of the pouches that carry
RDX explosive was punctured

and traces of it may have wound
up on the back of the seat

or on the floor
in the front side.

- With regards to the people
who were on the ground

who saw this all unfold, the
NTSB said they didn't see any

sort of missile-like
impact on the aircraft

and those people were mistaken

based on their
perspective on the ground.

Seeing this all happen.

- The Safety Board has found
no evidence that the crash

of Flight 800 could have been
caused by a bomb or missile.l

- The families that are
grieving are really looking

for closure that they
can't get from the NTSB.

They want to know what happened,

but sometimes there's no way
to really rush the process.

- [Laurence] The Transportation
Board has no firm estimate

of when its findings
will be ready,

but cautions that
it could take years.

- Our work will continue,
and we will spare no effort

to determine the cause
of the crash of TWA 800.

- That makes a lot of
Americans very nervous.

They want answers.

The NTSB is slow
delivering answers,

so independent researchers
are doing their thing.

They're looking at the data
and they come to the conclusion

that maybe we're not
looking broadly enough.

Maybe there are other ideas

that have not yet
been considered.

- [Laurence] September
1996, it's just two months

since Flight 800 crashed,

but the two federal agencies
investigating the disaster,

are at odds.

The FBI says it's likely
a terrorist attack.

The Transportation
Board doesn't agree

but insists it's too
early to speculate.

Then, researchers from outside

the government propose
their own theory.

- An NTSB official makes an
offhanded comment in the media

about the remoteness of
a missile strike being

about the same as
a meteorite strike.

And so, that comment actually
does send people off looking

at the possibility that
it was a meteorite.

(dramatic music)

- News corporations are
reporting on TWA 800.

This is a sensational
story and as a result,

a lot of different theories
are really starting

to circulate, in particular,
there are astronomers

that contact the NTSB to raise
the possibility that this was

in fact, a meteorite strike
based on eyewitness accounts.

(dramatic music)

- The eyewitnesses report
seeing a streak of light

and a fireball, well,
guess what does both?

Meteors across Earth.

People report seeing
fireballs all the time.

There's over two tons of
meteoritic material falling

to Earth every day.

- [Laurence] And sometimes,
those meteors make impact.

- In America specifically,
we know of three cases

where cars were hit with
meteors in the last century.

That could cause real damage.

Take for example,
a recent fireball

over Chelyabinsk, Russia.
(people faintly speaking)

It broke windows and injured
people on the ground.

So, yeah, you could bring down
an airplane from a meteor.

- [Laurence] Statisticians
collect the data,

and crunch the numbers
about meteorites

to calculate the odds,
one could strike a plane.

- About 3,000 meteorites make it

through the Earth's
atmosphere every year.

About 125 a day, and
on any given day,

there might be 5,000 aircraft
flying over the United States,

which sounds like a lot,

but the odds of a
small meteorite hitting

an aircraft are still
extremely small.

- [Laurence] In a 100-year span,

the chance of a meteor bringing
down a plane is just 1%.

- A meteor, not large enough
to be detected by NASA,

but yet not too small that
it would completely burn

as it's going through
the atmosphere.

The possibility of that
small-enough meteor

to impact a plane that's
traveling about half

the speed of sound is minute.

That said, it's
still worth a pause.

- [Laurence] Searching for proof

that a meteor strike
took down the plane,

theorists consider the
wreckage of Flight 800.l

- Based on what we understand
about meteorites entering

the atmosphere, the size of
meteor needed to take down

an airplane is only about
the size of a baseball

and if the meteor hits
the fuel tank in the wing,

it could definitely
trigger a big explosion

like the eyewitnesses saw.

- [Laurence] Some suggest
the plane may have been hit

by fragments from a meteor.

- Some scientists' analysis
of the wreckage did lend

to the theory of a bolide,
which is a meteorite

that explodes in the air

and some of the wreckage
did reveal puncture points.

If a meteorite happened to
explode near the aircraft,

perhaps some of the meteorite
shrapnel could have punctured

the 747.
(intense music)

- [Laurence] But many
witnesses say they saw a streak

of light coming up toward
the plane not coming down

on it from above.

- Taken together, it's
all a quirk of perspective

and how it enters
the atmosphere.

Remember, the Earth's
surface is curved,

so that adds another dimension
to perceiving exactly

where things occurred
in the night sky.

- [Laurence] Scientists
raising the meteorite theory,

urged the NTSB to do further
research, but they resist.

(intense music)

- They just found
it highly unlikely.

And because these experts are

essentially inserting themselves

into a well-established
investigation,

this is another case of
non-experts

trying to dictate
how an aviation

accident investigation
will be carried out.

- Not only is there a very
low-expected frequency

for this kind of occurrence,
but also even if it did occur

that it would have caused
the damage that we saw.

(intense music)

- If it wasn't a terrorist
attack or a meteorite,

then what could have
caused the explosion?

A few months into
the investigation,

the Safety Board is
convinced of one thing.

(intense music)

- So, they put forward a theory

that the airplane
actually broke in half.

- When the explosion happens,

the front of the
aircraft is severed

from the back of the airplane.

So, imagine the front
of this Boeing 747

like a bullet shearing
off and collapsing.

The back end of the aircraft
starts heading upwards

because the engines
are still spinning.

Inside, it's a nightmare.

They're looking at the sky
and there is no front end.

- So, they come to the
conclusion that maybe the streak

of light that eyewitnesses
saw going upwards was

this second half of
the airplane on fire

still moving upwards in the sky

and that's why the pilots
did not have time to call in

to say there was a problem
because this was a sudden event.

February 1997, while the FBI118

still believes terrorists
brought down Flight 800,

Transportation Board
investigators say no.

Could the answer lie hidden
in the recovered wreckage

of the doomed 747?

- This reassembled airplane
in that hangar in Calverton,

I've heard the term
Frankenstein aircraft,

which looked like literally
tiny pieces, big pieces,

whatever they could find,
they put together just trying

to find answers about
what happened that day.

- [Laurence] Two important
factors may be the age

and condition of the airplane.

- The Boeing 747, that
is TWA Flight 800,

it's a relatively old
aircraft, it's 25 years old.

It's flown for
over 93,000 hours,

which is the equivalent
of flying continuously

for 10 and a half years.

- It's one of the earlier
versions of the famous 747.

And if properly maintained,
the plane could last

many, many, many years
before it reaches an age

where you can no
longer repair the parts

and you decommission it.
(whoosh)

- Around the 1980s, airline
mechanics started to notice

that there were cracks on
old Boeing 747 airplanes

and this was really on the
structural part of the aircraft

in the upper deck,
the lower deck,

as well as the nose
of the aircraft.

- On TWA 800, the NTSB find
cracks that are an inch

to one-and-a-half inch.

Now, an old airplane
like this 747

that was almost 25 years
old, you get cracks,

but every airplane that has
worked that long has cracks.

- It comes from the
routine pressurization

and pressurizing of
the airplane cabin.

So, if you shake up a soda,
you do the same thing,

you pressurize the
container, and what happens

if that container is punctured?

Boom.
(intense music)

- Cracks are
extremely dangerous.

Any sort of crack to the
fuselage of the aircraft

when the airplane is
experiencing any sort of stress,

that crack can just
tear the airplane apart.

So, if they're not addressed,

cracks could really lead
to catastrophic results.

- In 1986, the FAA
required investigations

of older aircraft
including TWA Flight 800.

- So, when you look
at the NTSB report,

they went through the
maintenance log books

for this aircraft and there
were no major mechanical issues.

- This was an aircraft that
had flown tens of thousands

of hours, and components
do break down over time.

- [Laurence] In
the Spring of 1997,

investigators
learned of problems

with the doomed
plane's maintenance.

- The inspectors who
evaluated the wreckage,

found that the people
who regularly inspected

the airplane actually
missed some cracks.

It had gone through the
normal safety checks,

but still, the plane
wasn't fully sound.

- The NTSB found
evidence of metal fatigue

of some stress cracks
caused by pressurization

of the aircraft.

- They found some hairline
cracks in what we call

shear ties that keep the skin
attached to the airplane,

and they also found
several hairline cracks

in the wing spar.

Spars are connected
to the keel beam

that basically keeps the wings
attached to the airplane.

- [Laurence] But were these
cracks big enough and in areas

that could cause a
plane to break apart?

(intense music)

- Part of the investigation
led them to take a deep dive

of the fuselage and they
found that there were cracks

in the shear ties
that were on the wing,

but it wasn't anything
that would've caused

an explosion of any kind.

- The investigators reported

that none of these cracks
were serious enough

to have contributed
to this tragedy.

Just like you can have a rock
hit your windshield, at first,

it's just a little tiny
star, looks like an asterisk,

but what makes it dangerous
is when it travels.

Well, the same thing is true

with the cracks in the airplane.

They had not combined with each
other to create a long crack

in the structure and therefore,
could have not contributed

to the catastrophic breakup of
the airplane while in flight.

- [Laurence] Analysis of the
wreckage confirms for the NTSB

that structural defects
didn't take down Flight 800.

So, they looked to the flight
data recorder for clues.

- Along with all the
wreckage that they found,

they found the
airplane's black box

and the black box keeps
a record of the data

that the airplane is
producing as well as

all the conversations
between the pilot,

co-piloting, and crew.
(intense music)

- Initially, there
was concern that

because the casing was cracked,
they would never be able

to recover any of
the conversations

that was going on
in the cockpit.

But as soon as they got it
back to DC and they put it

in a tape, they were able to
play the full communication.

- I'm sure it was a
very emotional moment,

but it was in their final words

that the crew was able to
communicate what was going on

and that really helped
investigators get closer

to what they believed caused
the aircraft to explode.

- The 1996 Flight 800 disaster
remains under investigation

for four long years as
government officials clash

and families of victims grow
increasingly frustrated.

Then, in August of 2000,

the National Transportation
Safety Board announces it

finally has what it
says are the answers

so many are waiting for.

Answers gleaned from the
airplane's black box.

- There's a lot of
routine chatter.

It's the type of things that
you would expect to hear

on any civilian airline flight.

- Everything seemed
routine with the exception

of just before they were
ready to close the doors.

There was this hour delay
because of this mismatch

of the bag and the passenger,

but the passenger was
on board all the time.

- On the black box,

we can hear Captain Ralph
Kevorkian joke like,

"All right, we won't tell 'em
that," talking about telling

the passengers that
they made an oops.

Flight Engineer Campbell
responds, "If we do that,

we'd have a mutiny back there."

(intense music)

- At around 8:19 PM, they
take off uneventfully,

and from the point of view
of air traffic control,

everything is going
fine with Flight 800.

- At some point, Captain
Kevorkian made a comment,

"Boy, look at her, she's
climbing like a homesick angel."

That's a term we use when the
aircraft climbs very rapidly.

In other words, she's really
climbing high towards the sky.

- After this was said, the
second pilot in the flight deck,

Captain Snyder had said that
the airspeed was bleeding off,

which means the aircraft
is flying faster than usual

and it really wasn't
anything to be worried about.

Cross-checking the transcript
with the flight data,

it just confirms that nothing

out of the ordinary is
really happening here.

So, at around 8:30, Boston Air
Traffic Control advises TWA

to climb from one
3,000 to one 5,000.

And at this point,
Captain Kevorkian says,

"Climb thrust."
(aircraft humming)

Flight Engineer
Campbell responds,

"The power's set."

"Power's set," were the
last words that were heard

in the flight deck, and
then 37 seconds later,

the airplane explodes.
(intense music)

- [Laurence] But while most
of this is all normal chatter

on a flight deck, there's
one earlier exchange

that intrigues
crash investigators.

- Just a few moments before
the CVRS stops recording,

Captain Kevorkian comments,

"Check out that crazy
indication on number four."

- What he's saying is sort
of equivalent to driving

in your car and having
your gas gauge malfunction.

(intense music)

- Because this is
an old airplane,

and the 747 has so many fuel
tanks that are interconnected

in each wing, those gauges
were not that reliable.

So, you occasionally get
some weird indications.

- [Laurence] But this time,

the Safety Board believes it's
a sign of trouble inside one

of the fuel tanks.
(aircraft whooshing)

- Just a few days
after the accident,

one of the investigators sees

that the center-wing
tank bowed out.

So, something happened to
make the center tank explode

from the inside out.
(intense music)

(plane wing booms)

Aircraft fuel tanks are
considered explosive

environments and they have to be
isolated from ignition sources

because you don't
wanna have any chance

that something will
ignite in those areas

because there's fuel there.

- [Laurence] Captain
Kevorkian's statement

about the strange readings

from the fuel tank gives
investigators a clue

as to the source of this
fuel tank explosion.

- You have electrical
components inside

the central fuel tank to tell
you if they're running short

on fuel, but if a short circuit

somewhere causes a
high amount of voltage

to arc between two pieces of
metal inside an area filled

with fuel vapor, a
catastrophic explosion is

likely to occur.

- [Laurence] The NTSB believes
that's exactly what happened.

- So, the NTSB theory is that
there was a electrical spark

that exploded that tank outward
and blew the aircraft apart.

- The inescapable
conclusion that the cause

of the in-flight breakup

of TWA Flight 800 was
a fuel-air explosion

in the center-wing tank.

- [Laurence] Investigators hone
in on the electrical system,

which connects the fuel
gauges to the tank,

looking for what could
have caused the explosion,

they find evidence
of frayed wiring

and damaged installation
in the maintenance reports.

- They see that
there are anomalies

in the electrical system.

The wire, which has gone
in 25 years earlier,

has been subjected to vibration
and salt and chemicals

and pressurization and abrasion.

- The wires were the ones
installed back in 1976 or so,

and hasn't been replaced.

Some of those wires would fray.

Some of the installations
start to break,

and if they're short, now you
have your ignition source.

- [Laurence] Not
everybody is satisfied

with these conclusions.

- This explanation faces
a couple of problems.

Number one, it's coming so late.

People have gotten
used to the idea

that perhaps there was
a terrorist involvement,

but secondly, it's
only their best guess.

Like a multiple-choice
test where you don't know

the right answer, but you can
rule out most of the rest.

They think this is
the right answer,

but they cannot point to
absolutely conclusive evidence.

- We know that the
center-fuel tank exploded,

we've known that
for a long time.

We don't know what
initiated that explosion.

- [Laurence] While
evidence strongly points

to degraded wiring, the NTSB
is never able to pinpoint

the exact cause
of the explosion.

- It becomes very
difficult in the aftermath

of TWA Flight 800's
destruction to determine

how such a spark might have
reached the fuel vapors inside

the central-wing fuel tank.

- By the time the investigation
results are announced,

many people are dissatisfied
and they wanted answers

and the Federal Government
just wasn't able

to give them answers
quickly enough.

- [Laurence] In its August
2000 official report

on the crash of Flight
800, investigators

at the National Transportation
Safety Board said

a fuel tank inside
the wing caught fire,

which triggered the
plane's explosion.

Some believe it was a spark
created by defective wiring,

but others seek clues
in a different flight

that ended tragically.

- Two years after the
tragedy of Flight 800,

there was a Swissair 111
that tragically crashed off

the East Coast of Canada,
killing all 229 people on board.

Examining these two flights,
Flight 800 and Swissair 111,

there are a lot of similarities
that are a bit uncanny.

Both flights took off
from the same airport, JFK,

at the same time, 8:19
PM, and the same day

of the week Wednesday.

And tragically, both
planes went down very early

in their flights.

- [Laurence] Like TWA 800,

the Swissair plane
ignites mid-flight

without a definitive cause.

- The entertainment electronics,

which were stored next
to the cockpit is where

the fire started and then
it spread to blankets,

and before you know it,

the entire plane is
engulfed in flames.

Like Flight 800, the
Canadian officials are unable

to figure out exactly
what triggered

the fire in the first place.

- [Laurence] Investigators
in both crashes,

speculate that defective
wiring is to blame

but aren't able to
pinpoint the exact source.

Given all the similarities
between these two flights,

is there something else
that could cause both planes

to go down?
(intense music)

- As they were figuring
out the factors that led

to both of these crashes and
what they might have in common,

researchers noted
that both pilots

on the planes briefly
lost radio contact shortly

before things went haywire.

So, given these similarities,
the question becomes

what could cause
communications to go out?

And it's the same thing

that could create
navigational problems

and other electronic
problems on a flight.

(dramatic music)

- Electromagnetic interference,
it's a real problem.

There's a reason that you
have to put your cell phones

into airplane mode and we
try to minimize other forms

of electromagnetic interference.

When it comes to aircraft,
they're very sensitive.

They have a lot of
instrumentation,

they have a lot of electrical
components that are subject

to the possibility
of interference.

- [Laurence] Some argue that
there's only one source capable

of generating enough
electromagnetic interference

to bring down a plane.

The US military.
(whoosh)

- What these researchers
found was that when we look

at Swissair 111, which, again,
took off at the same time,

the same day of the week
from the same airport,

they did find
something interesting.

(intense music)
- The fleet area control

and surveillance facility
is a Navy organization

that monitors the air and
sea space off the coast

of the United States.

Documents provided the
first couple of weeks

of September 1998 did show
military operations off

the Eastern Seaboard.
(intense music)

- Specifically, the document
reports that during that week,

there was a small-scale
ECM notification

that stands for Electronic
Countermeasure notification,

and that's a training exercise
for electronic war games.

So, instead of using
bombs and bullets,

what they used was
electronic warfare.

They're sending out signals
that could interfere

with the electronics
of civilian flights.

And the records further
showed that Navy jets were

actually, in very similar
area to the Swiss 111 flight

at the time of this incident.

So, these independent
researchers put forth the idea

that the electronic warfare
jamming signals sent out

by these military jets
somehow interfered

with the electronics
of Swissair 111 leading

to the fire that ultimately
brought down the plane.

- [Laurence] But even
with the presence

of the military exercises
in the area, debate remains

whether there was enough
electromagnetic interference

to bring down these flights.

- The EMS spectrum
can cause problems,

but we really haven't
had a lot of incidents

where we pointed towards
electromagnetic interference

as potentially
downing an aircraft.

Even though the surface of the
Earth is constantly bombarded

in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Times that it would
be most at risk

of causing a problem
would be in the descent

of the aircraft
and not in midair.

- An NTSB report cited
about 11 sources

of electromagnetic
energy in the area.

The largest of them
emitting about 800 Watts

with a peak of
about 1,000 Watts.

This energy decays with
distance and when you tally

all the sources at an
altitude of 13,000 feet

at one airplane, I don't
think you have enough energy

to trigger an explosion
in the center wing tank.

- [Laurence] Even so,
speculation about

the military's role in
the crash continues.

- It is unfortunate
that a small number

of people pursuing their
own agendas have persisted

in making unfounded charges
of a government coverup

in this investigation.

(whoosh)

- A lot of people will
point to government coverups

and government conspiracies

because the government
isn't always good

at dispelling the rumors.

Sometimes, the government
doesn't come out

and dispel these
conspiracy theories

because to do so would
require revealing evidence

that shouldn't be in
the public domain.

- [Laurence] It's been more
than 20 years since the

National Transportation
Safety Board released

its August 2000
report on Flight 800.

Some relatives of
the victims continued

to dispute its findings.

With the help of researchers,

these families have discovered
evidence allegedly withheld

from the NTSB of nearby
live-fire military exercises,

showing an object
headed toward the plane

just before it exploded.

- Some of the family of the
victims of Flight 800 now think

that maybe there is
a coverup going on,

and maybe this was a
direct military attack.

- [Laurence] The idea
that the US Military could

accidentally shoot
down a passenger plane,

isn't wild speculation.

It actually happened
just eight years prior

to the explosion of Flight 800.

- In 1988, the USS Vincennes
had actually shot down

an Iranian airliner
originating out of Tehran.

They thought that
it was actually

an Iranian Air Force
Fighter aircraft

and fired two surface-to-air
missiles downing

the civilian airliner.
That occurred in 1988.

It was still fairly fresh
in the public's mind.

- Some of the family now say

that if the military is
responsible for this,

then they too should
be held accountable

for the tragedy of Flight 800.

- Families of the victims
never gave up and they want

to bring their own investigators
do their investigation.

- [Laurence] In June of 2022,

the families filed a
lawsuit against the US Navy

and two government contractors
to pursue this theory and,

hopefully, discover the truth.

- The lawsuit alleges that
the government knows full well

what happened, but covered
up that information

because, they allege, the
Government caused the crash.

(intense music)
(missile whooshing)

- [Laurence] According
to this theory,

the Navy shot down the
plane during war games,

then covered it up.

- The lawsuit says that
this was a friendly fire.

There were two missiles
fired from a Navy vessel,

but they went awry.

It was supposed to
hit another target

but hit the bigger plane
with more heat signature

that was TWA 800.

- According to their lawsuit,
the Navy's radar caught

the actual debris from
the airplane exploding

and measured the
velocities of the particles

and say that they were moving
at 4,000 miles per hour,

which is four times faster
than the speed of sound.

- [Laurence] Their
allegation states,

only a US military-grade
missile could cause the debris

to move at that rate.

- They alleged
that the radar data

from those tests was withheld
from the NTSB but given

to the FBI within
minutes of the crash.

- And so, with without
analyzing the radar images,

the NTSB concluded there was
no evidence of a missile.

- None of the participating
bomb technicians,

nor myself, have
seen any indication

of high-explosive effects on
any of the wreckage recovered

from Flight 800.

(missile booms)

- [Laurence] This theory
has its detractors.

(missile booms)

- They claim that only
a missile could create

such high-velocity debris.

I'm not convinced of that. A
meteor is gonna be moving faster

than a missile but the
devil's in the details.

- The idea that
fast-moving debris could

only have been caused by a
missile strike is contradicted

by the facts of physics.

Fast-moving debris
from the aircraft was

almost certainly created by
the explosion of that aircraft

and not by an intersection
with some form of missile.

- [Laurence] But what
about the allegations

that the Navy war games
shut down the plane?

- That scenario
also has no merit

because a destroyer was
alleged to have shot a missile,

but that destroyer was actually,

maybe a hundred miles plus
south and none of the missiles

on it had the range to
bring down the plane.

- No fragments from any
surface-to-air missile have

ever been found in the wreckage

or near the wreckage
of Flight 800.

Also, the missile
theory does not explain

why the aircraft lost
communication with the ground.

- [Laurence] The Transportation
Board still insists

that the investigation
is and should be closed.

- The recovered wreckage
of TWA Flight 800 was kept

in a hangar outside Ashburn,
Virginia for 25 years

and was used as a training aid
for other NTSB investigators.

- Families had nothing.

Many of them did not have the
remains of their loved ones.

Allowing them that opportunity
to go into the hangar, seeing

the wreckage had to be a
tremendous relief to them.

- You know, losing
somebody is extremely hard,

especially if you don't
get to say goodbye to them.

But this is also
such a big moment

because the lease is
done with this building

and they're gonna destroy
all of the pieces.

So, it's kind of forcing
a lot of these families

to really say goodbye.

You know, like the book is
closed, the chapter's closed.

- [Laurence] Perhaps their
lawsuit will at last bring

the families of the victims,
the closure they seek.

But we may never definitively
know why TWA 800 crashed.

- I think it continues to
capture public imagination

because it was one of the
first real sensational events

that happened at the
dawn of the internet.

And so, people got online
to share ideas and theories

and they wanted answers.

So, in that narrative
void, people came up

with their own conjecture
and their own answers.

- History is full
of tragedies and in many cases,

we don't actually, ever
find a conclusive answer.

- Just went down.
- And when you have people

that are involved

because their family
members died tragically,

people will still
wonder about it.

What happened to Flight 800?

(dramatic music)

- While the latest theory
gets tested in a court of law,

the cause of the crash
of Flight 800 continues

to ignite debate.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
History's Greatest Mysteries.

(dramatic music)