ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607220061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 B EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
From the bottom of the continental shelf to the highest levels of Washington, Americans searched Friday for evidence that the nation's second-deadliest aviation disaster was also its deadliest terrorist attack.
The FBI stopped short of declaring the crash of TWA Flight 800 a crime, although the bureau announced a ``massive'' investigation to find out what caused the huge explosion that brought down the 747.
``We have a lot of things that look like accident, a lot of things that look like terrorism,'' said James Kallstrom, head of the FBI's New York office.
Assuming the disaster may have been deliberate, agents began contacting informants in the terrorist underworld, according to a federal investigator who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
``It would be foolish not to be out there seeking every bit of information we can, from any corner,'' the source said.
Unidentified sources quoted Friday by ABC News said a federal agency received a claim of responsibility for the TWA explosion from a group tied to Ramzi Yousef. Yousef is on federal trial in New York City, accused of plotting to blow up 12 West Coast-bound airliners in a single day in 1995.
The group said the TWA explosion was in retaliation for Yousef's capture, ABC said. An FBI spokesman would not comment on the report.
Yousef, 29, who says he is innocent and is representing himself at the trial, also is accused of bombing a Philippines Airlines flight in December 1994, killing a Japanese passenger. Authorities also believe Yousef was the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.
Kallstrom told reporters that the FBI would not take control of the TWA investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board until more evidence is found. He urged people to call a toll-free number with tips and gave the Internet address for the FBI home page.
Kallstrom said the bureau was pursuing many theories. One was the possibility that a surface-to-air missile - perhaps fired from a boat - brought the plane down. Radar detected a blip merging with the jet shortly before the explosion, something that could indicate a missile hit.
But Pentagon officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, said that given the plane's altitude and the range of hand-held missiles, the theory is highly unlikely. Also, they said government analysts have studied several radar reports of the area and found the blip to be false.
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said the government has been strengthening security at American airports since last summer and is prepared to upgrade it further if needed.
``The FAA's security program will be modified as needed to ensure the safety of the traveling public,'' David Hinson said Friday.
Rain, wind and fog hampered efforts to recover the wreckage that Kallstrom said might contain vital clues to what destroyed the plane, killing all 230 people aboard.
NTSB Vice Chairman Robert Francis said divers did not go into the water Friday. Seas were so choppy that some search vessel crew members were getting sick. ``It's tough stuff out there,'' he said.
Sonar detected a 15-foot spike on the ocean floor - possibly part of the plane, Francis said. But the search had to be suspended for fear the sonar equipment, which trail on cables behind the ship, would be lost in the storm.
There was no sign Friday of the plane's black boxes, which record pilots' conversations and the plane's operations.
At Kennedy Airport, relatives gathered at a hotel for the heartbreaking process of identifying their loved ones.
They seemed unconcerned for the moment with the question that occupied the rest of the nation.
``Whether it was an act or terrorism or mechanical failure, doesn't make any difference,'' said Joe Lychner, who lost his wife and two daughters. ``What's important is to put a face to the tragedy. ... It wasn't just a plane crash. There were people in there, good people.''
Rabbi Alvin Poplack, an airport chaplain who has worked with relatives of crash victims, appeared shaken as he took a break from counseling families.
``The families' reactions are very wide-ranging. They go from distraught to numbness,'' he said. ``Sometimes they look like they're fine, and a word or image can set them off again.''
Suffolk County Medical Examiner Charles Wetli said most of the victims suffered fatal injuries in the air and that while some may have been conscious when they hit the water, drowning was an unlikely cause of death.
``It looks like a great many of them died upon impact with the water,'' he said. ``That is not to say that serious injury or death did not occur in the sky itself.''
Most suffered blunt injuries ``like those in a super high-speed car crash,'' he said. One or two appeared to have inhaled water, but that was probably a reflex action, he said.
Many of the victims were wealthy, distinguished or accomplished. Among them: Rodolphe Merieux, son of Alain Merieux, president of the French pharmaceutical company Merieux Laboratories. He was to fly to France on Friday, but instead took Flight 800 to surprise his parents.
Other victims included fashion photographer Rico Puhlman, interior designer Jed Johnson, French guitarist Marcel Dadi, philanthropist Judith Connolly Delouvrier and Charles ``Hank'' Gray III, president of Midland Financial Group.
Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter lost his wife, Anna Maria, and jazz singer Jon Lucien lost his daughter, Dalila.
Flight 800's 230 deaths ranked behind the 273 killed in an American Airlines DC-10 crash at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 1979. The nation's worst terrorist attack was last year's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, where 168 died.
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. New York State Police divers transfer to a U.S.by CNBCoast Guard boat to sail to their dive site off Long Island, N.Y.,
Friday. color. Graphic: Chart by AP: Accident investigation.