NTSB Rejects TWA Flight 800 Missile Claim

Stephen Pope

Wednesday, July 03, 2013 at 08:17 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The NTSB is strongly refuting renewed claims by documentary filmmakers and former investigators that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a missile attack, not a fuel tank explosion.
At a media briefing, NTSB investigators reaffirmed their original conclusion that a short circuit ignited fuel vapors, causing the 1996 crash that killed 230 people.
Skeptics, including former NTSB investigator Hank Hughes, are petitioning the agency to reopen the investigation, citing new evidence in an upcoming documentary suggesting missile involvement.
The NTSB refused to address the petition or allow dissenting investigators to attend their briefing, emphasizing the thoroughness and correctness of their original findings.

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The NTSB is pushing back — hard — to refute claims by a group of documentary filmmakers and former crash investigators who say a missile attack and not a fuel tank explosion brought down TWA Flight 800 in July 1996.

At a rare media briefing in Virginia yesterday in front of the reconstructed Boeing 747, investigators who worked on the case insisted that the NTSB and FBI investigation into the disaster was thorough. Ultimately, they said, it arrived at the correct conclusion.