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Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

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Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#91
A tragedy. But why the cover-up? The amount of money to settle honestly was finite. Sure a fair amount, but worth going as far as they did? Is there more to this? Or just group-think gone wildly bad?

Edit / adding

The arc of my concern is, if these organizations / companies would do this for this (relatively small) amount of money, what happens - to us - when the stakes are 10x or more higher?

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really not convinced, the linchpin of the missile argument is that the CIA and FBI were put in charge to cover up a missile shootdown, but it's pretty well documented that they were put in charge because it was a suspected terrorist attack. Everything else is circumstantial evidence at best. I'm certainly interested in what shakes out of this court case, but as of right now it just seems like a typical conspiracy…

From the paperwork: 45. Two other eyewitnesses, Air National Guard pilots, Captain Christian Baur and Major Frederick “Fritz” Meyer, similarly stated that they witnessed events that indicated a missile struck TWA 800. 46. On the day TWA 800 went down, Captain Baur and Major Meyer were flying in a Black Hawk helicopter near the area of the TWA 800 incident. Captain Baur recalled seeing an object with a “rocket type mo…

None of that is new. They said that at the time. Dozens/hundreds of witnesses said same. Exactly zero of whom have ever seen a missile before and would know what one looks like.

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TWA 800 violently exploded in mid air. That would not be caused by an inert missile impact. The high speed impact of an inert body into an aircraft the size of a 747 is not a reasonable explanation for a violent in-flight breakup on top of the fact that there is literally zero evidence for it. The most likely explanation is exactly what is written in the official report.

Yeah, it could. A 747 is designed to withstand all sorts of failures, but impact by a missile is not one of them. Loss of structural integrity could easily cause violent breakup by aerodynamic forces. A 747 is not going to stay together if the pointy end isn't into the wind. Then there's all that fuel suddenly released and atomized, and fuel absolutely loves to burn. Remember that fireball when the airliners hit the…

My dad flew F-80s in the Korean War. The F-80 had a nasty characteristic. If you flew it too fast, it would pitch up, and the sudden aerodynamic forces would rip the wings off. Unfortunately, the engine was more than powerful enough to do this in level flight, so the pilot had to be keenly aware of this at all times.

(The solution was swept wings, exemplified by its successor, the F-86.)

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#94

I was always curious about how so many witnesses saw a streak of light shoot up to the plane which then exploded. I was never convinced by the video the CIA released that explained what those witnesses actually saw was a trail of burning jet fuel going away from the plane.

Yeah the fact that it was the CIA releasing the video always seemed like a red flag to me. Why were they even involved in the investigation? Why didn’t those statements come from the FAA?

- Missile system being tested in the area

- Dozens of witnesses who report seeing missiles in the weeks before and after the crash

- Multiple witnesses including Blackhawk pilots flying nearby who saw a missile hit the plane

- FBI and CIA take over and freeze out the NTSB

Yeah I'd say there were a few red flags lol

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#95
post #18

Interesting claims from the lawsuit linked: "However, instead of allowing the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”), the agency tasked with investigating all domestic aviation incidents, to lead the investigation of the TWA 800 incident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”)took charge. The FBI also enlisted the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency(“CIA”). Indeed, the FBI essentially froze the…

I remember a local evening news interview with the Air National Guard crew on the same or next night after the incident. I remember at least one of them saying something about the possibility seeing a missile. At the time I thought it was a pretty big deal for a helicopter crew member to say that on the news. I always found it odd that I didn't hear more about that specific account over the coming days/weeks. That stuck with me for some reason.

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#96
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you source that quote? The closest I can find that made it to actual commanders is: "If hostilities cannot repeat not be avoided the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act. This policy should not repeat not be construed as restricting you to a course of action that might jeopardize your defense." Which is very different from the conspiratorial intent you're implying.

Yep, I believe that's the exact quote. The US started putting impossible demands on Japan to suffocate them economically and militarily and when it was obvious that Japan was pushed to the breaking point the attack on Pearl Harbor was "allowed" to justify the ensuing war back home. Interestingly I see a lot of parallels in the war in Ukraine right now. The US and EU started arming bordering countries and applying ext…

Lets indulge this - if that was the plan, youd hope they would be better prepared for Russia shutting off the gas pipelines. If they didnt switch to renewables and nuclear, at least they would have full gas storage and LNG terminals and contracts in place?

Instead, they were caight with their pants down

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I believe that's the exact quote. The US started putting impossible demands on Japan to suffocate them economically and militarily and when it was obvious that Japan was pushed to the breaking point the attack on Pearl Harbor was "allowed" to justify the ensuing war back home. Interestingly I see a lot of parallels in the war in Ukraine right now. The US and EU started arming bordering countries and applying ext…

Or maybe neighbors were armed because Russia has a long history of invading them.

In Europe, everybody has a long history of being invaded by everybody else, so trying to spin that as "Russia bad" requires a very myopic outlook.

Russia also has a long history of being invaded from the West. That's why Russia is super nervious about NATO expansion.

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#98
post #23

The lawsuit[0] is worth a read and goes into quite a bit of detail about the claimed timeline. Roughly: * Upgraded missile defense systems were deemed a national security priority around this time * Navy ships compatible with these systems were 5 years out, so… * Live missile testing happens at a compatible land base in New Jersey, under congested airspace * Multiple civilians report seeing missile tests in & around…

I distinctly remember how very soon after the crash, the TV announced that the DOD put out a statement that there were no ships nearby and the plane wasn't hit by a missile. Before anyone accused anyone of anything. It seemed a bit too suspicious for that to be among the first things on the news.

Eh, you're aware there's always knowledgeable people tracking activities and just because there's no immediate discussion in public doesn't mean those watchers arnt questioning.

Ergo, this is a useless factoid.

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#99
post #63
post #23

The lawsuit[0] is worth a read and goes into quite a bit of detail about the claimed timeline. Roughly: * Upgraded missile defense systems were deemed a national security priority around this time * Navy ships compatible with these systems were 5 years out, so… * Live missile testing happens at a compatible land base in New Jersey, under congested airspace * Multiple civilians report seeing missile tests in & around…

I don't understand the New Jersey connection; the plane went down quite far from the NY/NJ border: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800#/media/File:TWA...

There’s a naval weapons station right to the southwest of that track, about 50 miles away maybe. A navy SM-2 missile has an unclassified range of 90 nautical miles. It’s likely that they would have been testing some variant of this missile for vertical launch, perhaps with some new phased array radar experiments and such. Up to the 90s, the navy was still using rail launched missiles and traditional radar emitters and the article talks about ships several years out that can’t be used for these tests, which I assume are thee first of current AEGIS ships.

Re: Citing new evidence, families sue feds, Raytheon, Lockheed over 1996 TWA crash

#100

If this were true, why aren’t they suing for the extraordinary coverup actions? Surely a whole lot of people up to the president should have been aware of this.

The coverup may be a crime, but it’s not a claim a civil plaintiff can recover damages for. If the defendant destroyed or hid evidence, however, the judge could order a negative inference against the defendant.

The other problem is the statute of limitations. But that should toll if the defendants hid their liability and the suit really couldn’t be brought until now.

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