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Why the ‘TWA Flight 800’ Documentary Is Wrong

Screenshot from the documentary "TWA Flight 800"
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Key Takeaways:

  • The article critically reviews the "TWA Flight 800" documentary, which claims "new" evidence, including radar data and eyewitness accounts, proves that one to three missiles brought down the plane.
  • The author refutes the documentary's claims, arguing there is "nothing new," the "Mach 4 debris" radar data is insufficiently supported, and explanations for the absence of missile fragments (e.g., FBI removal, proximity fuses) are unconvincing.
  • The NTSB labels the documentary's radar analysis as "flawed," and the author concludes that accepting the film's premise requires believing in a vast government cover-up, contradicting the official NTSB accident report.
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I’ve watched “TWA Flight 800” — the much-hyped Epix original documentary that purports to present “new” evidence proving that a missile attack brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747 over the Atlantic 17 years ago this month. Yesterday I interviewed Hank Hughes, a former NTSB investigator who was involved in the TWA 800 investigation. Here is why the film and Hughes are wrong.

I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but suffice it to say there’s really nothing new in the film — although the filmmakers go to great lengths to make it seem that way. The biggest surprise in the documentary is the claim that not one but as many as three missiles may have downed TWA Flight 800. According to the theory, two missiles rose from the ocean while a third object was seen over Long Island’s Patchogue Bay.

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