THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701300047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH LUNDQUIST, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 48 lines
MORE THAN six months have passed since the crash of TWA Flight 800, and it still has not been determined who or what caused this tragedy.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FBI keep waiting for a magic piece of evidence that will suddenly solve the mystery - bomb, missile or mechanical failure - while they ignore each of the 50-plus eyewitnesses of the crash who all said they saw an ascending streak of light.
James Kallstrom, FBI assistant director of the investigation, said ``conventional wisdom'' dictates that the light was a meteorite. Conventional wisdom? It seems more like a subjective assumption. If Kallstrom can assume the light was a meteorite, he can assume Flight 800 self-destructed or that terrorists caused the crash.
Why wasn't more attention paid to Pierre Salinger, the former aide to President John F. Kennedy who claimed he had a government document proving that the Navy had accidently shot down the flight during missile tests?
It all raises too many questions - questions that should have been answered long ago. Because of the way this investigation is dragging on, I think the truth, the cause of this disaster, is being covered up.
Judy Ocasio, TWA manager of reservation sales for the Norfolk Reservations Center, said that TWA has an outstanding safety record.
I watched a film produced by TWA that was made after the crash. According to the statistics in the film, TWA had not lost any passengers for 22 years. In addition, the Boeing 747 that was Flight 800, had flown 16,000 flights over a period of 25 years without any mechanical failures.
``The general feeling (among employees) is that is was not a malfunction,'' Ocasio said.
So if it wasn't a mechanical failure, what was it? Since the FBI is involved, doesn't that make it a criminal investigation? Who are the criminals? If terrorists bombed Flight 800, wouldn't they have taken credit for their actions by now?
Or was it a missile, which 50 eyewitnesses say they saw the night of July 17, and which was also the first theory to take flight?
It is doubtful that the truth will come out, even after the remaining wreckage has been brought up.
``The cause is always `yet to be determined,' '' Ocasio said. ``It's a real mystery.'' ILLUSTRATION: Elizabeth Lundquist is a senior at Stonebridge High in
Chesapeake.