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Morning News

Author Discusses 'Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again'

Aired July 17, 2000 - 9:37 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Today, a private ceremony is scheduled to mark the fourth anniversary of the crash of TWA Flight 800. On board, 230 people were killed when that plane went down. Yesterday, families and friends of the victims broke ground for a new memorial on Long Island, New York.

This morning from New York, joining us live, is Christine Negroni, the author of a new book, "Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again."

Christine Negroni is also a former CNN reporter and covered the crash of TWA Flight 800, a colleague back with us.

Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE NEGRONI, AUTHOR, "DEADLY DEPARTURE": Good morning, Bill. It's good to be back.

HEMMER: My pleasure to have you.

In the title in the last line, "how it could happen again," rather incendiary in the words itself. Is this what you truly believe, that at some point, the same thing we saw off Long Island could happen anywhere in the country now?

NEGRONI: Oh, and this is not, Bill, just my true belief, this is the true belief of anyone who knows anything about aircraft accidents and aircraft accident investigations. TWA Flight 800 was the 14th fuel tank explosion in the jet age and nothing has been done to prevent this kind of an accident from happening again. It's essentially a design flaw in all Boeing aircraft. And we're not talking just about 747s but all Boeing airliners from the 707 to the 777. And FAA just last week held a news conference in which they discussed what they're going to do about trying to prevent this kind of accident. But as of this date, nothing has been done.

HEMMER: And so you don't believe this is just frightening rhetoric, you think this is fair comment regarding the safety of air flight in America.

NEGRONI: It's frightening. It's frightening for the people who lost someone on TWA Flight 800 because they know that their families, their loved ones didn't have to die had authorities taken any action back in the 1960s when the first fuel tank explosion happened and authorities went to the FAA and said, let's do something about this. What's frightening is that these 230 people may -- will probably not be the last people to die in a fuel tank explosion unless somebody gets on this issue and does something about it.

HEMMER: Let's cut to the chase here: Why hasn't something been done or changed to prevent this?

NEGRONI: Well, "Deadly Departure" is 230 pages of why it didn't happen, so I'd like to cut to the chase. But suffice to say that Boeing and other airplane manufacturers were very active in the '60s and in the '70s trying to prevent the FAA from mandating that they do something, that they institute some design changes on fuel thanks. There were ways to prevent fuel tank explosions talked about when the 747 was still on the drawing board and Boeing lobbied very hard to the FAA not to make those -- not -- for the FAA not to order that those changes be put into the fuel tanks. They did it successfully on the 74, the 75, the 76 and the 777, which is why, today, they have a problem affecting their entire flight. It didn't have to be that way.

HEMMER: Where does this issue go, Christine?

NEGRONI: I'm sorry?

HEMMER: Where does this issue go? Where are we headed here?

NEGRONI: Well, I think the FAA has finally been shamed and Flight 800 was the real shaming act. The FAA's finally...

HEMMER: But you believe...

NEGRONI: ... been shamed into taking a look at this problem. And I think, at this point, they are cutting through some of the issues -- wiring, aging wiring, fuel tanks, explosive fuel tanks -- and saying, OK, now we've got to do something.

HEMMER: Christine Negroni, apologize for the interruption there. Thanks for your time.

NEGRONI: Thank you.

HEMMER: The new book is out. We'll have a look at it. Christine, thanks, again, live from New York.

And if you want to know more, she'll be available for an online chat at CNN.com. And that comes your way at 10:00 a.m. this morning, about 20 minutes from now. That is Eastern time, of course.

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