December 13, 2001
By Reed Irvine and Cliff KincaidAmerican Airlines flight 587 crashed in Queens, New York on November 12th, right after taking off from JFK bound for the Dominican Republic. All 260 passengers and crew were killed. Early reports of a mid-air explosion were dismissed by government officials, and investigators appeared determined to label the cause of the crash as mechanical or structural, not an on-board explosion. But coming just two months after the September 11th terrorist attacks, many Americans feared that this was another act of terrorism.
With the investigation focused on the tail’s vertical stabilizer and what might have caused it to shear off before the plane crashed, the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, decided to bring NASA in to help analyze the vertical stabilizer and rudder. And like in the case of TWA 800, investigators seem to want to ignore eyewitness testimony that contradicts the official investigation.
Some tabloids have reported their statements, but the major media refuse to do so. The New York Post’s Steve Dunleavy quoted retired firefighter, Tom Lynch, as saying that "No tail fell off, not before the explosion. I swear to that." Lynch was walking along near the site of the crash. "It made a bank turn and suddenly there was an explosion, orange and black, on the right-hand side of the fuselage," he said. "It was a small explosion, about half the size of a car. It was only then that the plane fell apart...the tail was there until the second explosion." Lynch says he has thirteen people who saw the plane on fire before the break-up.
He contacted the FBI, CIA, both New York Senators and a congressman, and got no response from anyone. Another eyewitness, Jim Conrad, who retired in November as a police lieutenant after 34 years on the force, confirmed Lynch’s story. "First, the small explosion," Conrad said. "The plane kept on going, tail intact, then the big explosion and the plane nose-dived."
But the NTSB says they have no evidence of an explosion. The Globe, a supermarket tabloid, provides other quotes that we haven’t seen in any mainstream papers. Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General with the Department of Transportation, told the Globe, "I am suspicious because the structural breakup of an aircraft in the air is so rare... Flight 587 would be virtually the first case in the United States."
The Globe quotes Vernon Grose, a former member of the NTSB board said, "They are trying to placate the public because they fear people won’t fly." He added, "The tail would not have come off that way unless the bolts were loosened. There is a possibility that someone loosened those bolts." We know Dr. Grose as someone who when confronted with evidence that TWA 800 was brought down by missiles, publicly changed his position. The result was that the media ignored him from that point on, after more than seventy TV appearances when he supported the government line. The mainstream media should show similar courage and integrity.
Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org
