"They Didn't Believe Me"
Witness Comments After Viewing FBI Presentation of the CIA Video
“C.I.A. analysts have determined that the eyewitness sightings thought to be that of a missile actually took place after the first of several explosions on the aircraft ..... Our technical analysis concludes that what these eyewitnesses saw was in fact the burning [Boeing] 747 in various stages of crippled flight, not a missile.”
C.I.A. spokeswoman Carolyn Osborn - September 24, 1997
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“She [Ms. Osborn] said they were mistaken in what they saw. That’s not very professional, and it’s not the way to dispute eyewitness statements ... Those witness statements should be part of the public record. And they [the F.B.I.] have to come up with a credible scenario of why the eyewitnesses saw what they saw.”
Paul Marcone - Press Secretary to Rep. James Traficant - House Aviation Subcommittee
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Its (the C.I.A.) message to the eyewitnesses: Shut up, you didn’t see anything.
Philip Weiss - The New York Observer - November 24, 1997
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Here are three videos of the official version of the TWA 800 break up. The NTSB video, the CIA video, and the NTSB View From the Beach video. These files are very large and will require substantial time to download.
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A 45-year-old Center Moriches woman: “It was very white, we thought it was a flare .... It came up over the dunes from the east toward the west, it curved up and started to fall. It never flared up. What struck me was the whiteness of the trail; they’ve got to explain that to me before I’m happy. A second later, we saw the first fireball—like a waterfall of flame in the sky, six inches across .... In my opinion, we’re never going to find out what happened ....And I don’t know that I care.” November 24, 1997 The New York Observer Page 16
Michelle Dorney: “My brother noticed it first, he said it was fireworks .... I looked out the window, and it was a straight line going up from over the condos. It left a trail.” November 24, 1997 The New York Observer Page 16
Richard Goss: Discussion on Art Bell show (11/24/97): "I saw a flare coming up...toward the barrier beach area...it was definitely going up, definitely going up! As it reached its peak, it took a sharp veer left...it moved horizontal at that point". Bell asks Gaus about the FBI's conclusion that he was actually seeing "fuel trailing from the explosion of flight 800 and it was not going up, but coming down, and it was an optical illusion." Goss replies: "One hell of an optical illusion...I can't see that's possible at all." Goss reaction to CIA video: "Best described, I looked down at the ground and shook my head...it was a joke." Bell: "That isn't what happened?" Goss: "No."
Major Meyer: "I saw the news conference, I saw the (CIA video) scenario. It just isn't what happened. They've changed the sequence of events." (November 19, 1997 The Press- Enterprise, Riverside, CA)
Question on Art Bell show (11/24/97): "The CIA/FBI have suggested that...people like you...in fact...saw fuel trailing from flight 800 that appeared to be a streak of light." Meyer: "Well that's pure fabrication...What's going on in the FBI, I don't know."
Darell Miron: Darell and his wife were camping at Smith Point and would take a walk every evening. Two nights before the tragedy, Darell noticed a sail boat going out to sea in very rough weather. The next night he noticed a "large boat--dead in the water" 9 or so miles straight out, right under where flight 800 went down the next day. The night of the tragedy, they were on another walk. He said it was "dusk, but still pretty much daylight." He then saw a streak of light going nearly straight up, but slightly to the west, toward Kennedy airport". He said to his wife, "look at that!" She looked, then there was about a 1 second pause, then a "big white starburst" He said it was as bright as a Grucci firework at one mile. But since he learned what he saw was ten miles away, he estimated the starburst was nearly a "mile wide." Then two small puffs of smoke. Then another pause: "0.5 - 1.5 seconds." Then "two barrels of flames side by side." He said they looked "tubular" and were parallel to each other. I asked him about how high he thought the the streak of light was when he first noticed it. He didn't know. So I said if the starburst was at 13,000 feet, could he approximate. He then said with confidence (using that scale) that he first noticed the streak at ~8000ft. And he said that being a carpenter makes him a good judge of angles and distances. He does not believe the FBI's story and knows that what he saw did not come from the plane since it was travelling nearly straight up and in a slightly westerly course. Posted to Flight 800 discussion list <FLIGHT-800@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM> Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 21:07:48 -0500 From: Tom Stalcup <stalcup@MAGNET.FSU.EDU> Subject: Darell Miron interviewed.
Jim Naples: “We know what we saw. We weren’t drunk ..... “I looked up and my immediate response was, I never saw an alert flare like that. It was projecting upward with a stream of smoke behind ....I don’t think our accounts will be reflected in the final version .... I have a hard time believing that the F.B.I. believes its conclusions … I don’t believe that the truth is ever going to come out.” November 24, 1997 The New York Observer Page 16
Barbara Pacholk: "I know what I saw, I saw several fires go across the sky. One hit the plane at the tail and the second hit at the front, just before the wings. The fire came from both ends and met in the middle and exploded. Then the nose dropped, hung there for a minute. I understand that when a plane bursts into flames the flames fall, but this was a fire going up towards the plane,.....I wouldn't accuse anyone of wrongdoing, but I'm definitely still wondering what happened." November 19, 1997 New York Post
Randy Penney: “It was like an alert flare, someone’s in trouble .... It was bright white and seemed to be drifting down. Then later you saw the diesel fuel burning.” November 24, 1997 The New York Observer Page 16
Ronald [Roland] Penney: "I'm not satisfied at all, I don't think they're being honest with the people. They're telling us we saw something else than what we say. I think it was a missile and I don't believe them." (November 19, 1997 New York Post)
Paul Runyan: “What we saw was a vapor trail, it looked like fireworks going up .... They say, Was it like a missile? I don’t know, I’ve never seen a missile.” November 24, 1997 The New York Observer Page 16