The Hull Thread

Chronology of Events From January 2006 - December 2007

(Articles from news sources have been placed within for educational, research, and discussion purposes
only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.)

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September 3, 2007
Captain Ray Lahr has been dedicated to revealing the truth about the cause of Flight TWA 800’s destruction by making the government records of the zoom climb available for public review. After years of work in the courts Captain Lahr has now won his petition for release of the documents.  Captain Lahr’s work may be reviewed as http://raylahr.entryhost.com/ and the affidavit written by the author of this website may be viewed at http://twa800.com/lahr/affidavits/lahr-vs-ntsb.htm. A particularly interesting affidavit is that supplied by Fred Meyer in which his speech to the Granada Forum was reproduced in part.  On August 24, 2007 John Fiorentino published information obtained through Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by Capt. Ray Lahr. The documents sent to Lahr under separate cover dated July 10, 2007 by the FBI, were in response to Lahr's lawsuit against the National Transportation Safety Board, et al. The information, apparently sent in error, was previously provided to Lahr in a completely redacted form. Contained therein is a reference to a videotape shot at Long Island, N.Y. on July 12, 1996 of a possible missile launch. The videotape was sent to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) by the FBI for analysis. The video, analyzed by the DIA on July 23, 1996, "advised that after a visual analysis of both the videotape as well as a number of still photographs taken from various portions of the tape, the phenomenon captured by (redacted) appeared to be consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD missile." While the document indicates there were scanned images of the still photographs attached as an appendix, Capt. Lahr received no accompanying photographic images.  Other missile launches are recorded in this document.

August 30, 2007  WorldNetDaily http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57375
More than six years after retired United Airline captain Ray Lahr launched his Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, petition into the fate of TWA Flight 800, the FBI has shown him –likely by accident – one seriously smoking gun.  The Boeing 747 blew up off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996. One of the FBI documents received recently by Lahr and his attorney, John Clarke of Washington, D.C., details a communication that took place six days after the crash:

"On Tuesday, July 23, 1996, a representative from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) advised [the FBI] that after a visual analysis of both the videotape as well as a number of still photographs taken from various portions of the tape, the phenomenon captured by [name redacted] appeared to be consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD [Man-portable air-defense] missile."

"The FBI guy who looked at this must not have read it, or not have realized what it would reveal," says Lahr. "Otherwise he would have redacted most of it as before."

Adding a new level of intrigue to the investigation is the fact that the video in question appears to have been shot on July 12, 1996, five days before the crash. The earlier, unedited FBI document reports that a fellow and his friend on Long Island were attempting to videotape the sunrise when they saw and recorded "a grey trail of smoke ascending from the horizon at an angle of approximately 75 [degrees]."  So compelling was the visual that the fellow made a comment to his friend, heard on the tape, "They must be testing a rocket." The fellow calculated that object was heading towards the Atlantic Ocean.  On the document Lahr first received, the story of the video ends right there. The next two paragraphs had been fully redacted. This current unedited version shows that the FBI took the video seriously enough to bring in the DIA for further analysis. As mentioned above, the DIA found the video image to be "consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD."  What is shocking is that the authorities not only removed all reference to this video from the official record, but they also removed just about all reference to the DIA.  For the record, the DIA is a Department of Defense combat support agency and a serious player in the United States intelligence community. The agency has more than 11,000 military and civilian employees worldwide and describes itself as "a major producer and manager of foreign military intelligence." An important component of the DIA is the Missile and Space Intelligence Center, or MSIC, which is located in Huntsville, Ala., and is charged with gathering intelligence on enemy surface-to-air missiles and short-range ballistic missiles.

During a Senate inquiry in May 1999, the FBI's number two man on the investigation, Lewis Schiliro, conceded that MSIC analysts had arrived on the scene in Long Island just two days after the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800 and interviewed eyewitnesses.  "They reported to us," Schiliro told the senators of the MSIC analysts, "that many of the descriptions given by eyewitnesses were very consistent with the characteristics of the flight of [surface-to-air] missiles."  Despite Schiliro's testimony, by 1999 the MSIC information was effectively moot. When FBI officials shut down the criminal investigation in November 1997, they publicly discredited the eyewitnesses and fully ignored the work done by the MSIC analysts.  At the final press conference, the FBI's James Kallstrom discussed only two images of a possible missile captured in flight. Both were photographic stills, and he cavalierly dismissed these as well.  There was no reference at all to the video analyzed by the DIA. In fact, there was no public mention of the DIA. The MSIC analysis was relegated to a footnote.  Nor, of course, was there any mention of the video shot on the night of July 17. From the beginning, there has been ample evidence that an amateur video had been taken of TWA Flight 800's destruction.

Although I have not seen the July 17 video, I have heard from scores, if not hundreds, of credible people who swear they saw it on television in the first hours after the crash. Some have described it to me and other independent investigators in perfect detail. MSNBC, launched just two days prior to the disaster, seemed to have won the bidding war for the rights to the July 17 video. I say "seemed" because my source will not speak on record, nor will MSNBC follow up on queries. What I have been told, however, is that late on the night of the crash, editors at MSNBC had the tape on their monitors when "three men in suits" came to their editing suites, removed the tape, and threatened the editors with serious consequences if they ever revealed its contents. The threats worked all too well. Despite my repeated requests, my source, who was one of the MSNBC editors in question, will not go public, and this video too has disappeared from the official record.

The evidence of a suppressed video, or videos, correlates well with information that my investigative partner James Sanders had received in response to an earlier FOIA petition. As Sanders' documents reveal, on July 31, 1996, an FBI facility in Quantico, Va. sent back to the FBI office in New York "one original VHS-C Video Cassette Tape, 10 processed VHS video Cassette tape copies, 30 B & W video prints, 49 color video prints." Based on the notations on Sanders' documents, these copies seem to be of the July 17th videotape. The newly un-redacted document in question does not confirm this video's existence, but it does show the willingness of the authorities to suppress highly relevant video evidence. The question remains: Evidence of what? If there is full agreement among independent investigators that missiles were fired on the night of July 17, 1996, there is no consensus as to who fired them or why.

The apparent July 12 video can be interpreted in two ways. The MANPAD reference by the DIA would seem to strengthen the case for terrorist-fired missiles. But the earlier date argues more strongly for a missile test than for a terrorist misfire. What adds further intrigue to the plot is an eyewitness account on the same document page as the videotape reference. This witness on an excursion boat reported seeing, an hour before the TWA 800's destruction, a small boat draped with a thick plastic cover.  Protruding through the cover was a "cylindrical tube which appeared to be as big as the boat itself." At the helm of the boat was a man with dark hair and a mustache.

July 13, 2006  Newsday.com   Mass. group sues over Flight 800 debris
A Massachusetts group has filed a lawsuit to force federal officials to release information about a piece of debris from Flight 800 that it hopes will show that a missile downed the plane.  Federal investigators have dismissed that explanation as the cause of the 1996 explosion that killed all 230 people aboard. Instead they concluded that a spark ignited fuel tank vapors. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston, demands that the National Transportation Safety Board respond to numerous freedom of information act requests made since 2004. Tom Stalcup, who heads the East Falmouth, Mass.-based Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, which filed the suit, said he is "very certain" that federal investigators found the piece of debris and are now concealing evidence of its existence.  Radar data show the piece of debris falling at high speed from the plane and a Navy salvage map shows it was later recovered, said Stalcup, 36, a physicist and owner of a West Falmouth, Mass., company that makes wireless weather stations. Despite this evidence, federal officials won't explain what happened to the debris once it was recovered from the ocean off Long Island, he said.  "All of the data requested is of great importance to the public understanding of the crash of TWA Flight 800," Stalcup's lawsuit says. "One piece in particular landed closer to JFK Airport than any of the other thousands of recovered items ... after exiting the airframe at apparent supersonic speeds," the suit says. NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm said the agency does not comment on pending lawsuits, but said most federal agencies have limited resources to respond in a timely way to Freedom of Information Act requests. "We are aware that there's a FOIA backlog," Schlamm said.

July 15, 2006  The Beacon News Online  SurbabanChicagoNews.com
Aurora father still wants answers. Doomed TWA Flight 800 took his daughter, 2 granddaughters
Ten years after the rain came, Wayne Rogers is still waiting for answers. He does not question why 17 inches of water fell from the sky, flooding his home in Lakeside of Sans Souci and destroying most of his possessions. Act of God. Mother Nature. Inadequate drainage. End of discussion. But that Flood of 10,000 Years — the anniversary of which is coming up next week — is nothing more than a footnote to the tragedy that forever changed Rogers' life on that awful date. That's because July 17, 1996, is also the 10-year anniversary of the TWA Flight 800 explosion that disintegrated the Paris-bound 747 off the Long Island coastline, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board. While the rest of the Fox Valley was bailing water and trying to salvage furniture and photographs, Aurora firefighters had to boat Rogers out of his flooded subdivision to catch a flight to New York, where his worst fears were realized: His middle daughter, 37-year-old Pam Lychner of Houston, was on board that doomed flight — along with her daughters Shannon, 10, and Katie, 8. For the next two weeks — while his neighbors back home were drying out their flooded rooms and waiting for FEMA intervention, Rogers, along with his son-in-law Joe Lychner, waited for three precious bodies to be pulled from the Atlantic Ocean. Pam, a former flight attendant who had become a nationally recognized advocate for crime victims' rights, was found almost immediately; Katie soon after. Shannon was not recovered for 13 days. The memories of that gruesome wait off the coast of Long Island will be with this man forever. But each year Wayne Rogers returns to the site of the explosion, where a beautiful memorial has been erected in memory of those who died and those who risked their lives diving for their bodies.

Rogers will leave again on Friday to make the 17-hour trip by car — his mistrust of airlines is so great he can no longer board a plane — where he will be joined in New York by his two surviving daughters, including Lori Musselman of Oswego, their children and other relatives and friends. And all of them, in turn, will join other families who continue to challenge the government's take on why Flight 800 turned into a fireball 11 minutes after taking off from JFK airport. "We still do not believe we are being told everything," Rogers says simply. Initially, doubters believed the plane may have been downed by a surface-to-air missile or a wayward Navy warhead. The FBI investigated these claims, but a year later called off the investigation after ruling no criminal action was involved. Then, in 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded TWA 800 was destroyed by an explosion in the Boeing 747's center fuel tank, likely caused by a spark from a wiring short-circuit. But the actual cause of that spark has never been proven. Nor has the nose cone ever been recovered, says Rogers. And because so many witnesses claim they saw a bright light streaking toward the 747, conspiracy theories have flourished. Those unanswered questions will no doubt be explored when CNN airs a two-part documentary this weekend on the disaster that will feature Rogers and four other families. The television news station spent two days with the Aurora man at his home last month, where they compiled footage of him doing everything from fishing in the back yard to visiting his daughter's and granddaughters' graves at Riverside Cemetery. Rogers, a member of the National Air Disaster Association, welcomes this coast-to-coast media attention and hopes it will put renewed pressure on the government to answer questions that have long plagued him and others. Ten years later, just as there is no sign of water damage in his well-kept home, there is no longer the flood of emotion that washes over him as he talks about Pam and the girls. Tragedy has fallen frequently upon this house in the past decade — he lost wife Betty less than two years after the TWA explosion, and his former son-in-law was killed in a roadside accident a couple years ago. "We are not a complete family," Rogers says softly. But life offers few alternatives except to press on. To enjoy the two daughters and four grandchildren who survive. To keep alive the memories of those who did not. And, he says, to "never stop asking why."

Note from website author:   It's a wonder it took so long given the following 2 reports from 2002

February 21, 2002   'Rockets' reported fired at two jetliners Tom Ramstack THE WASHINGTON TIMES
An Alexandria woman said she saw a "flare or rocket" ascending toward a US Airways flight landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last month, similar to a report from a Southwest Airlines pilot landing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a report by the pilot of Southwest Flight 454 that he saw what looked like a model rocket pass on the left side of his aircraft Sunday evening.  The FAA says it has no reports of the rocket sighting by the Alexandria resident, Joyce Mucci. The trade association public relations coordinator said she observed the incident while driving home from work Jan. 20 at sunset near Reagan Airport. "It was like a rocket, kind of a reddish thing that came up from the river bank," Mrs. Mucci said. "It was aimed toward the back of the jet. Maybe the pilot didn't see it." Mrs. Mucci said she doubted it was a model rocket. "It did not look like any model rocket I've ever seen," she said. Her son used to play with model rockets when he was a child. "When he was a kid, we used to make model rockets, and they don't look like that. It was right toward the back of the jet, right behind the engine. It went at an angle like it was aimed at the jet."  She added, however, that the object did not get close enough that it could have brought down the airplane. "It may be nothing, but it's important for somebody to follow up on this," Mrs. Mucci said. She said the "flare or rocket" rose from a spot down the slope of the Potomac River beyond the jogging trail next to Reagan Airport, halfway between Memorial Bridge and the airport.  She said she called a Federal Aviation Administration telephone number the next day. She left a message on voice mail but received no reply. After news accounts of the incident at BWI Sunday, Mrs. Mucci called the FBI yesterday. "The FBI guy said, 'Hold on a minute,'" Mrs. Mucci said. "Then a woman in the background said, 'I don't want to talk to another psychic.' Then I was put through to somebody's voice mail and I didn't leave a message." FAA Eastern Region spokesman Jim Peters said he had no information on Mrs. Mucci's January report. "We have no record of receiving a call from Mrs. Mucci on or about that day," Mr. Peters said. He also said he had "no idea" of how often other people say they have seen rockets near airplanes. FBI spokesman Chris Murray said, "Our office is unaware of that incident."

Southwest Flight 454 was on approach 12 to 14 miles southeast of BWI at 3,000 feet at 7:10 p.m. Sunday when the pilot said he saw the rocket. The FAA acknowledged the incident at BWI publicly for the first time Tuesday. Mr. Peters said yesterday the agency was looking into it. Fraser Jones, spokesman for the national office of the FAA, said reports of rockets flying toward airplanes are rare. "We don't tally those that I'm aware of," Mr. Jones said. "I have not heard of reports of that kind before."  Local airport authorities also said they are unaware of a "flare or rocket" near Reagan Airport in January.  "I haven't heard anything about that," said Tom Sullivan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages Reagan and Washington Dulles International airports. "If it was reported by our tower, our police would have been alerted." Mrs. Mucci's report was the first time he heard of someone seeing a projectile apparently fired at a commercial airplane in the Washington area. Occasionally, passers-by mistakenly report "near misses but not rockets," Mr. Sullivan said. The only similar report of a rocket fired at a commercial airplane in the United States followed the explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York on July 17, 1996.The National Transportation Safety Board explained the witness' reports by saying that after the front part of the plane broke off during an electrical fire and fuel-tank explosion, the wings and rear part of the fuselage continued climbing at a sharp angle, creating an upward streak of light.

February 26, 2002   E-mail to author of this website from Joyce Mucci who provided the information to the Washington Times mentioned above
Dear Michael:
(Name Witheld) forwarded your email to me after my story was published in the Washington Times. I called the newspaper out of frustration with the FBI (in particular) and the FAA. Needless to say, I do not have to tell you that I "saw what I saw". However, I am convinced that unless you are a paid informant, pilot, law enforcement officer or lawyer, the FBI and the FAA have no use for your information. So much for the public relations outreach by the administration. The area that I witnessed the "rocket, flare or whatever" is inaccessible by car. Additionally, if someone was down there with a missile no one from the bike path or the road would see them. The rocket was on a trajectory out and up toward the aircraft (just aft of the right engine). It seems complete nonsense to believe that it was a kid's rocket. Someone fired something at the jet while on final approach to Reagan. It also interesting to note that the area from where the rocket came is between the Memorial Bridge and the 14th Street bridge. It would be difficult to fire a missile on planes approaching from the south because on the east side of the Potomac is Bolling Airforce Base and on the west is Old Town Alexandria. Keep up the good work. By the way, if my plane is shot down coming out of the Reagan, tell everyone it was not a center fuel tank explosion.
Regards,
Joyce Mucci

End of Note from website author

September 18, 2006 AVIATION LAW   TWA crash records to be viewed
LOS ANGELES-A retired United Airlines captain who sued the National Transportation Safety Board, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency has won a partial victory in the first ruling granting public access to records in the investigation of TWA Flight 800, which crashed a decade ago off the coast of New York's Long Island. The recent ruling, in a case brought by H. Ray Lahr, also establishes a guideline for aviation lawyers and others seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In the years following the crash, the families of the 230 victims of TWA Flight 800 settled lawsuits for undisclosed sums.  Meanwhile, dozens of FOIA requests were made and about a half-dozen lawsuits were filed seeking access to the records of the investigation, which concluded that the plane was destroyed by a fuel tank explosion. The suits allege that a missile, rather than mechanical failure, destroyed TWA Flight 800 minutes after takeoff.  The recent ruling grants Lahr, who lives in Malibu, Calif., access to seven of 12 records requested primarily from the CIA. H. Ray Lahr v. National Transportation Safety Board, No. 2:03-cv-08023 (C.D. Calif.).  U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz granted access to the identities of eyewitnesses and flight characteristics of the aircraft but denied access to portions of an e-mail and an National Security Agency computer simulation. The judge is expected to rule in the next 30 days on two other pending motions, which involve at least 23 more records, according to John Clarke, a solo practitioner in Washington who represents Lahr.  "We're hoping this ruling will start an avalanche of FOIA suits," said Clarke.  Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, declined to comment while government lawyers review the decision. The 55-page ruling sets the bar higher for the government, said Ronald L.M. Goldman, a partner and aviation attorney at Los Angeles-based Baum Hedlund. "This is a significant ruling because of the care with which the court approached the issues," said Goldman, whose firm represented the families of more than a dozen victims of TWA Flight 800.  "As a practical matter, it signals to those who would prefer to withhold documents they'll be held to a tougher standard," Goldman said.  TWA Flight 800, bound for Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. In 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) produced its accident report, but the cause of the crash was questioned years later. In March 2005, a federal judge in Massachusetts granted summary judgment to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a suit filed by Graeme Sephton, then head of an organization representing families of the crash victims, who sought a more complete search of records related to debris found in the bodies of some victims. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in a July 2006 decision. Sephton v. FBI, No. 3:00-cv-30121 (D. Mass.).  Lahr, a former Navy pilot who assisted in seven airplane crash investigations for the NTSB, said TWA Flight 800 could not have climbed thousands of feet after the explosion.  He sued in 2003 for more than 100 FOIA requests, many of which have been withdrawn. Among the records requested are formulas, e-mails, charts and computer simulations explaining how the government came to its conclusion. Lahr, who received some documents with redactions, sought full records. In his ruling, Matz recognized Lahr's numerous reasons for believing that the government participated in a massive cover-up, such as conflicting eyewitness testimony and the physically impossible "zoom-climb" theory on which the investigation is based.  The judge said that "taken together, this evidence is sufficient to permit Plaintiff to proceed based on his claim that the government acted improperly in its investigation of Flight 800, or at least performed in a grossly negligent fashion. Accordingly, the public interest in ferreting out the truth would be compelling indeed."