ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Morning News

NTSB Begins Final Review of TWA 800 Crash Probe

Aired August 22, 2000 - 9:10 a.m. ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's been more than four years since the TWA Flight 800 exploded and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing everyone on board. And later this hour, federal investigators begin a two-day meeting to consider the final report on the crash.

CNN's Carl Rochelle joins us now from Washington with details.

Hi, Carl.

CARL ROCHELLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

Well, about 20 minutes from now, we expect the National Transportation Safety Board to begin laying out their information. This is a meeting not a hearing. The hearings have all been held, the information has all been gathered. Opening statement by Jim Hall and the lead investigator for the agency, the person who was in charge of that, Bernie Loeb, will also lay out what they have learned in this investigation that ran four years, one of the longest in the history of the National Transportation Safety Board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): The National Transportation Safety Board investigation into TWA 800 has been one of the longest and most intense in its history.

RON HINDERBERGER, BOEING: This investigation, I believe, was unprecedented in terms of the amount of wreckage recovery that was undertaken, the wreckage reconstruction, the amount of testing that was done as a result of the investigation.

ROCHELLE: Two-hundred thirty died when the 747 jetliner crashed off Long Island in July of 1996. Investigators concluded early on that the plane was brought down by an explosion in the center fuel tank, but no one has been able to pin down the exact cause of the explosion. An early belief that terrorists may have been responsible brought in the FBI and led to reports of tension between NTSB investigators and FBI agents. Not so, says the board member in charge.

BOB FRANCIS, FMR. VICE CHAIR, NTSB: It was enormously valuable to have hundreds of FBI people up there on Long Island. If the NTSB had been trying to do that by themselves, we would have been there for an awful lot longer. ROCHELLE: Investigators took a hard look at dozens of possible causes, both criminal and mechanical: blowing up the center fuel tank in a 747 to see the characteristics of an explosion; asking the military to fire Stinger missiles for comparison with eyewitness claims that missiles had been tracking the jetliner.

HINDERBERGER: We've looked at everything. We've suspected any possible mechanical device or any possible electrical system as a potential source of ignition in the tank.

ROCHELLE: The search for clues has made flying safer. The FAA has ordered 40 changes to fix potentially unsafe conditions in aircraft fuel tanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROCHELLE: Well, what will be happening here this morning in just a few minutes from now is the Chairman Hall, as we mentioned, will be doing -- giving an opening statement, and Bernie Loeb will be laying out his information. Beyond that, two days of hearings here, two days of meetings here where, among the things that we'll hear, not just the probable cause, which is pretty much considered to be an explosion in the center fuel tank of the aircraft, but also we will hear some of the scenarios that they think might have caused that. But so far, no one has listed, has explained a reason for the ignition of the explosion in that center fuel tank.

Might also point out there are places inside for about 75 family members. The room appears to be filling up very rapidly. We expect a capacity crowd here for this hearing, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Carl Rochelle, thank you.

And we will bring you live coverage as the NTSB meeting gets under way. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour, around 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.