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Petition Formally Filed to Reopen NTSB Probe of TWA 800 Crash (+video)

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Photo Credit: Newsday

Photo Credit: Newsday

The petition to reopen the probe comes before the July release of a documentary — “TWA Flight 800” — that features testimony from former investigators who raise doubts about the National Transportation Safety Board’s conclusion that the crash was caused by a center fuel tank explosion, probably caused by a spark from a short-circuit in the wiring. The documentary is scheduled to air in July on the 17th anniversary of the crash.

“We don’t know who fired the missile,” said Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, one of those seeking a new review of the probe. “But we have a lot more confidence that it was a missile.”

In a statement, the NTSB called the 4-year-long Flight 800 investigation among the “most detailed” in the agency’s history. The accident report covered 400 pages and had 17,000 pages of supporting material.

The NTSB said that the probable-cause findings only could be reconsidered based on “the discovery of new evidence or on a showing that the board’s findings are erroneous.”

Those calling for a review of the investigation include former NTSB accident investigator Hank Hughes and Bob Young, a former senior accident investigator for the now-defunct TWA. Tom Stalcup, a physicist and co-founder of a group called Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, also questions the NTSB’s original findings and is featured prominently in the documentary.

Read more from this story HERE.

TWA 800 Investigators Claim NTSB Conclusion “Falsified,” Explosions Outside Plane Brought it Down

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Skeptics who have long theorized that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by sinister forces will get a fresh surge of energy when a new documentary attempts to disprove that the 1996 crash was accidental…

It includes six members of the accident investigation team who, publicists say, will “break their silence” on the cause of the explosion.

They will petition the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen its investigation some 17 years after the B-747 fell in pieces into the waters off of Long Island, New York.

They include Hank Hughes, who served as a senior accident investigator with the NTSB and helped reconstruct the aircraft following its destruction. Also included, Bob Young, a top TWA investigator who participated in the investigation, and Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association.

“These investigators were not allowed to speak to the public or refute any comments made by their superiors and/or NTSB and FBI officials about their work at the time of the official investigation,” a news release announcing the documentary said.

“They waited until after retirement to reveal how the official conclusion by the (NTSB) was falsified and lay out their case.”

Read more from this story HERE.

TSA Drops Plan to Allow Small Knives on Planes

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Photo Credit: Mobile Edge Laptop Cases

The Transportation Security Administration has abandoned a plan to let passengers carry small knives on planes, following a steady outcry from lawmakers and industry advocates.

The TSA announced on Wednesday that it would stick with its current policy on carry-on baggage. The agency said it “appreciates the varying points of view shared throughout the review process.”

Those points of view were largely negative.

Skeptical lawmakers, airlines, labor unions and some law enforcement groups complained that the knives and other items in the hands of the wrong passengers could be used to injure or even kill passengers and crew.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the decision to back off the policy change.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mystery Plane Flying Over Metropolitan Boston; Is it Sampling for WMD’s?

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Photo Credit: nickstone333A mystery in Quincy continues to deepen: Who is flying around the city from dusk to dawn, for the past ten days or so?

“It’s frightening, not just weird, but frightening,” said one resident of the Wollaston section.

Every night for nearly the last two weeks, residents have spotted a low-flying aircraft doing loops over the city. WBZ has learned the FAA knows what’s going on, but the agency isn’t telling.

“I mean it is strange. I don’t know if they’re looking for somebody, I have no idea,” one resident told WBZ.

It’s not the state or local police doing the flying, and the FAA is giving out little information, even to city officials.

Read more from this story HERE.

Man Who Pointed Laser At Aircraft Lands 30-Month Prison Sentence

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Photo Credit: Adnan Yahya

A judge in California has sent a strong message to anyone who thinks that pointing lasers at aircraft is just harmless fun ‘n’ games.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced a 19-year-old man on Monday to 30 months in federal prison for shining a laser pointer at a plane and police helicopter, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case.

Adam Gardenhire deliberately pointed the commercial grade green laser at a private Cessna Citation that was landing at the Burbank Bob Hope Airport in California on March 29, 2012.

Gardenhire, of North Hollywood, California, was arrested and pleaded guilty in the incident as part of an agreement with prosecutors in October.

The pilot of the corporate jet was hit in the eye multiple times and had vision problems through the next day, court documents say.

Read more from this story HERE.

Drunk Passenger Taped to Seat, Gagged by Flight Crew

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A boozed-up traveler on a Kennedy Airport-bound flight was turned into a tape mummy yesterday by fellow passengers who gagged him and bound him to his seat when they got fed up with his drunken shenanigans.

The passenger, who was on a trip from Iceland, “drank all of his duty-free liquor on the flight,” tried to “choke the woman next to him” and was “screaming the plane was going to crash,” according to passenger Andy Ellwood, who snapped the man’s photo and posted it to his blog.

The meltdown — in which the man also spat on several passengers — began when there were about two hours left on the flight, according to Icelandic news outlet Mbl.is.

He was arrested at JFK after spending the flight’s last two hours with his mouth covered, hands tied behind his back and torso bound to his chair with tape. The man’s name has not been released.

Bizarrely, federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the menace because passengers wouldn’t come forward to detail the man’s threatening behavior to authorities, a source told The Post.

Read more from this story HERE.

TSA will confiscate your sealed soda but not your 300 lb pot-bellied pig

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Pot-bellied pigs must be granted passage on airplanes if they are used for “emotional support” by their owners, states the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) draft manual on equity for the disabled in air travel.

The DOT published its “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Draft Technical Assistance Manual” in the Federal Register on July 5, providing guidance that allows swine on airplanes if they are determined to be service animals.

The manual is designed to “help carriers and indirect carriers and their employees/contractors that provide services or facilities to passengers with disabilities, assist those passengers in accordance with” the Air Carrier Access Act. The manual open for public comments until Oct. 3.

Under the “Service Animal” section, the department lays out a scenario for airline carriers entitled “Example 1.”

The manual states: “A passenger arrives at the gate accompanied by a pot-bellied pig. She claims that the pot-bellied pig is her service animal. What should you do?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: tracie7779