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Source: FBI finds possible bomb residue on TWA wreckage

coast guard

July 20, 1996
Web posted at: 8:30 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The search for clues to the crash of TWA Flight 800 was hampered Saturday morning by gale force winds, but speculation continued to mount that the Boeing 747 was brought down from the sky by a criminal act.

A senior law enforcement source told CNN Friday night that FBI investigators have found residue on wreckage from airliner that could be from a bomb.

However, the evidence was not enough to say conclusively that the jetliner was destroyed by a bomb, the source said. Sources also speculated that the National Transportation Safety Board will soon turn the investigation over to the FBI, because of the possibility of a criminal act.

Francis

CNN received the information shortly after Robert Francis, NTSB vice chairman, said that less than 1 percent of the plane -- not 10 percent as he earlier announced -- had been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.

Because of that, he said it was too early to say that Wednesday's crash -- which killed all 230 people on board -- was caused by sabotage or a bomb. In fact, he said, at this point investigators have found "nothing out of the ordinary."



NTBS quote


Kallstrom

Francis told reporters at a briefing that the jumbo jet's flight and data recorders, the so-called black boxes, were still missing. Navy divers hoped to search for them Saturday.

Jim Kallstrom of the FBI's anti-terrorism team said the best experts are on the case, but he emphasized that it could be days, even weeks, before a crash cause is known. "We're not prepared to say something until we believe it's absolutely true," Kallstrom said. "We really haven't said that, because we just can't reach that level of information yet."

Hatch convinced of sabotage

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who was among members of Congress briefed Friday by FBI Director Louis Freeh, said it looked "pretty darn conclusive" that either a bomb or a missile caused the explosion.

"We're looking at a criminal act," Hatch said. "We're looking at somebody who either put a bomb on it or shot a missile, a surface-to-air missile."

Hatch, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN he came to his conclusions after "various conversations" with government officials.

"I won't go so far as to say it was terrorism, but there was sabotage here," Hatch said. "It looks like that."

"It's very -- almost 100 percent unlikely -- that this was a mechanical failure," he said. "It looks pretty darn conclusive that it was an explosion caused either internally or externally that was caused by a criminal act."

FBI denies reports of cover-up

Kallstrom said the FBI would not take control of the TWA investigation until more evidence was found. He also denied reports that his team already had concluded a bomb caused the crash, but was asked by the White House not to announce its findings because of the start of the Olympics.

"Absolute nonsense," Kallstrom said. "No such request has been made nor would it ever be made and, if it was made, we wouldn't comply with it."

Rain, wind and fog hampered efforts to recover wreckage Friday that Kallstrom said might contain vital clues. Divers did not go into the water, which was so choppy that some searchers became ill. "The weather is not cooperating," Francis 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 trails on cables behind the ship, would be lost in the water.

Officials said a larger navy ship was on its way to search for the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

No distress signal

Francis said a review of tapes and computerized air traffic control information revealed no distress or mayday calls from the plane. A coast guard official said a patrol boat heard an unidentified Mayday call on a marine frequency about the time of the crash.

Flight 800 was flying at about 13,700 feet when the disaster occurred, not at 8,000 feet as previously thought, Francis said. This is important because the higher the jet was flying, the less likely a missile might have been used to shoot it down.

First body identified

Suffolk County's chief medical examiner 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," Dr. Charles Wetli said. "That is not to say that serious injury or death did not occur in the sky itself."

Wetli said a Michigan teen was the first victim of the TWA flight to be positively identified. Courtney Johns, 18, of Clarksville, Michigan, was identified using fingerprint records made when she got her driver's license. She graduated from high school just a month ago and had planned to attend Villanova University.

Four other victims have been positively identified, but their names have not been made public because their families have not been notified, he said. About 100 bodies have been recovered.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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