TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic shortly after takeoff from JFK airport on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 passengers on board. Although initial reports suggested a terrorist attack, FBI and NTSB investigators blamed a fuel tank explosion. But skeptics have long questioned the official story, and new evidence has surfaced that suggests a widespread conspiracy...

In TWA 800, historian Jack Cashill introduces new documents and testimonies that reveal the shocking true chain of events: from the disastrous crash to the high-level decision to create a cover story and the attempts to silence anyone who dared speak the truth.

 

"Throughout the TWA 800 investigation, authorities held the grief of family members in ready reserve to ward off tough questions. Within months of the July 1996 crash, FBI honcho Jim Kallstrom was citing the "consternation and pain" of the families to silence critics. True to form, the media interviewed only those family members that affirmed the government position. Many parents, like Lisa Michelson, did not." -- Jack Cashill

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 Like the other grieving family members, I went to the Ramada Plaza at JFK Airport. They called it "Heartbreak Hotel," and that week it deserved its name. We gathered every day for news and got almost nothing. We heard about a missile spotted on radar, but that conversation ended as though it never happened. 

 

We gathered in a big ballroom with tables set up for all the families. I remember going up to Jim Kallstrom, head of the FBI investigation, and saying it was an act of terrorism. He said, "I know."   I followed the investigation intently. I called the NTSB, speaking to Peter Goelz, daily. I was desperate for answers, desperate for the truth. About two months into the investigation, Jim Kallstrom did a 180. It was almost like he had whiplash. For the first two months, all I heard from him was bomb or missile. And now he was talking about a mechanical failure. That news hit me like a slap in the face. 

 

There were just too many things that did not add up. Planes just don't explode. You can smoke a cigarette in a 747 fuel tank and douse the cigarette in the fuel without worry. As I would learn, there had never been a spontaneous midair explosion in the Jet A fuel era before July 1996, and there has not been one since.

 

I saw Kallstrom at the tenth anniversary ceremony on Long Island. By this time I knew a lot more about the witness statements, the radar data, and the CIA involvement. I walked up to Kallstrom, and he let me talk to him. "I can't believe you're still sticking to this story," I said. "How can you lie to people's faces?" He told me he wasn't lying and dropped his head.

 

I didn't believe him then and don't believe him now. As the twentieth anniversary approaches this July, I grow more anxious every day. All I ask for at this stage, from the government and the Clintons, is the truth. The truth is so easy, so simple. To lie is what's difficult. - Lisa Michelson