The Mistral Missile, Major Meyer and the Middle East
They drew all manner
of things --- everything that begins with an M ---
such as mousetraps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness
---
you know you say things are "much of a muchness".
Lewis Carroll
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Back in October 1994 the Maryland State bomb squad dealt with an interesting French object...
October 11, 1994 Associated Press report datelined 09/28
23:55 EDT V0009 (1994)
A State bomb squad destroyed a French-made surface to air rocket launcher
armed with a live missile and explosives ....along a rural roadside in
Westminster, Maryland.
Though the object apparently was a Mistral anti-tank weapon it was no doubt recalled by the FBI shortly after the TWA 800 downing ....
August 23, 1996 NY Times
Mr. Kallstrom ordered his agents to research the
Mistral, a French-made missile that could
be launched from a tripod and that would have had the range capability.
Given the damage to some of the seats in the TWA 800 aircraft and the numerous eyewitness reports of a projectile rising towards the plane .......
August 30, 1996 NY Times
Federal investigators have created a ...computer simulation of the final
moments of TWA 800 showing that almost everything ...first... blown... from
the airplane came from... the right side of the jet, above and ahead of the
wing. ... The... traces of ..PETN ... were also discovered in this general
area. ..... An aviation expert and a law enforcement official who is an
explosives specialist both said they saw several fist-size holes that
had been punched through the backs of two seats on the far right side
of row 23. The holes in the sheet metal on the seat back are pushed through
from the rear .... and row 24, the seats just behind them is missing
..... traces of ...PETN ... were also found in this general area.
the FBI may have been thinking about "tungsten balls". But first to Major Meyer....
March 10, 1997 Aviation Week and Space
Technology
Two NY Air National Guard pilots with the best view of the crash of TWA 800
....... One believes the airliner was struck by a fast-moving object coming
from the east, while the other saw a fiery trail from the west....
Meyer's attention was first called to
the area ...."by a streak of light moving from my right (west) to my left
(east)," the same direction as the TWA flight, he said.....Baur, on the left
side of the cockpit, saw a streak moving from left to right toward the
approaching TWA aircraft before the initial explosion. The streak of light
that Meyer saw .....was red-orange in color .....there was what Meyer describes
as a hard, very sudden, yellowish-white explosion that looked identical
to the detonation of an antiaircraft shell
....."It left a cloud of smoke just like a flak
explosion does," Meyer said. "One to two seconds later, there
was a second, hard explosion almost pure white in color ... almost immediately
there was a third explosion and fireball....Baur also saw three explosions
...
And the Mistral raised its head over at the House Subcommittee hearings where there was a worry about the Middle East specifically, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Islamic fundamentalist movements .....
July 10, 1997 The Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing -
"Status of the Investigation of the Crash of TWA 800 and the Proposal Concerning
the Death on the High Seas Act"
While many experts believe Flight 800 was out of the range of the American-made
Stinger missile, there are some foreign surface-to air missiles that reportedly
have the capability of shooting a plane at 13,800 feet. One of these missiles
that has been mentioned is the French-made
Mistral. The
Mistral has been sold to Egypt and
Saudi Arabia, countries with growing Islamic fundamentalist movements.
Meyer provided some more details about his observations of the TWA 800 downing ....
July 29, 1997 Riverside Press
An Air National Guard helicopter pilot who witnessed the explosion of TWA
Flight 800 believes the jetliner was downed by an explosive projectile,
The Press-Enterprise newspaper reported today. Frederick C. Meyer, one of
two helicopter pilots who saw the plane explode, said he did not know what
the projectile was or where it came from, but is convinced he saw
an"ordnance explosion'' near the plane.
Meyer, a lawyer and former Vietnam War helicopter pilot, has already been
interviewed by investigators but is speaking out again after FBI and National
Transportation Safety Board officials made public statements giving mechanical
causes as the most likely reason for the disaster. Investigators say an explosion
in the center fuel tank brought down the Boeing 747, but they don't know
what caused it and have never ruled out a bomb or missile.
"I know what I saw. I saw an ordnance
explosion," Meyer told the Riverside newspaper.
"And whatever I saw, the explosion of the fuel was
not the initiator of the event. It was one of the results.
Something happened before that which was the initiator of the
disaster.'' Meyer, 57, said he saw a streak from west of
the spot where the jetliner exploded. His co-pilot that night, Capt. Chris
Baur, told investigators he saw a streak coming from the east. Baur has
previously said he believed a missile struck the plane. Meyer said he believes
there were two projectiles but could only
testify about the one he saw. He refused to discuss Baur's statements, saying
it would be inappropriate and would detract from the substance of each account.
Meyer also said he could not say whether the object that struck Flight 800
was a missile. "I don't know" he
said. "It could have been. But there is a big difference
between could have been and `I saw a missile.'" NTSB officials
said Meyer's statements were new to them and that he had not previously shared
his conclusions with investigators. Meyer said he sought out and spoke with
two FBI agents the second day after the crash, but they did not ask any
questions. A week later, Meyer said he met with FBI agents and told his story
again. He also had two briefings with NTSB officials. One was in January,
when officials spoke with him for five minutes, Meyer said.
One might wonder why modern analytical and metallurgical techniques would make no headway in over a year towards the identification of some orange metal pieces found amongst the TWA wreckage .....
October 8, 1996 The New York Times
For several weeks, some investigators pursuing the theory that a missile
brought down the plane were intrigued by a persistent pile of unidentified
metal shards, and thought they might be missile parts. But experts who
began examining these pieces ...said they had not found any that appeared
to come from a missile.
July 24, 1997 Southampton Press.
Official documents faxed mistakenly to a Riverhead resident recently show
that the Federal Bureau of Investigation two months ago was investigating
whether pieces of debris found among the wreckage of TWA Fight 800 were
the remnants of an aerial target drone used by the U.S. Navy and other
armed services in training exercises. The FBI apparently has since determined
that the wreckage was not from the aerial target... the FBI had contacted
Teledyen Ryan because FBI investigators suspected that
orange pieces of debris found among the
TWA Flight 800 wreckage might be parts of a Firebee. The Firebee is "95 percent"
international orange in color, he said.
Mr. Hittinger said Mr. Hamilton flew to the Calverton FBI facility and examined
the debris..... "He (Mr. Hamilton) said it wasn't from our Firebee,"
said Mr. Hittinger.
September 22, 1997 Aviation Week & Space
Technology
FBI agents in recent weeks have been working with government and industry
safety investigators and aerospace manufacturers to identify a number
of pieces of metal recovered from Flight 800's debris fields on the floor
of the Atlantic.
Obviously the problem is more complicated than if the pieces had come from an old rusty anchor. Maybe they came from a "Mistral" or one of its military cousins?
The Mistral missile uses a two stage rocket propellant. The first stage ejects the missile from the launcher and spins the missile to provide stability in flight. The sustainer motor accelerates the missile to supersonic speed towards the target. The missile is equipped with an infra-red homing head supplied by SAT and based on an indium arsenide detector array operating in the 3 to 5 micron band of the infra-red spectrum. The missile has a 3kg high explosive warhead loaded with tungsten balls. The warhead is fitted with contact and proximity fuses.
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