TWA 800

by Jack Cashill

  Witness 649, Joseph Delgado, was one of many witnesses to provide the FBI with a detailed drawing. He saw the missile rise from behind a tree line and make “a dramatic correction” to strike TWA 800. The missile trajectory he saw closely resembled one captured on video five days earlier during an apparent missile test. Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Chapter: SIX

  INTELLIGENCE MEDAL OF MERIT

  Quietly, after the media lost interest in TWA 800, the CIA awarded Randolph Tauss its Intelligence Medal of Merit, an award given “for performance of especially meritorious service or for achievement conspicuously above normal duties.”1 In a perverse way, Tauss deserved it. More through chutzpah than hard evidence, he and his colleagues managed to convince all relevant parties that nearly three hundred good citizens—pilots, surfers, fishermen, boaters, National Guard officers—could not tell up from down.

  To communicate the depth of the CIA’s deception, I have condensed the 302s of the most observant of the witnesses. The FBI gathered this information in the first few weeks of the investigation and shared many of the best 302s with the CIA. The Suffolk County Police, the MSIC reps, and the FBI re-interviewed several of these people. The nearly seven hundred other witnesses did not see something different from what these people saw. They saw something less, usually just a final spectacular explosion and/or the descent of the wreckage into the sea. I beg the reader’s patience if this exercise seems a bit repetitive. It is important to understand just how much solid, consistent testimony the authorities chose to distort or ignore.

  Five days after TWA 800’s destruction, Witness 82 told two Suffolk County PD detectives that she was sitting at Smith’s Point Beach when she “saw a flare shoot from the water” and fly upwards in a “concave arc.”2 As the woman reported, the flare had a pink flame that turned orange as it ascended and was followed by a “thin black smoke trail.” She watched the object for about five seconds before “it turned into a large ball of orange fire.” She did not see the fireball fall to the surface or “hear any sound.”

  Witness 88 was fishing with friends in Moriches Inlet facing south out over the ocean.3 Before he saw anything, he heard an explosion. He then saw to the southeast what looked like a “firework ascending.” The object left “a wispy white smoke trail.” At the peak of its ascent, the object, now flaming red at its tip, arced from the east to the west. He then saw an airplane come into the field of view. The bright red object “ran into the airplane and upon doing so both exploded into a huge plume of flame.” He believed the object hit the plane near the cockpit area. The plume of flame separated into two and “spiraled to the ground.” He heard no further sounds. Witness 88 shared this information with the New York State Police ten days after the crash. No one else appears to have interviewed him, but the report was included in the FBI docket.

  Witness 129 was fishing with a friend off a jetty in the Moriches Inlet, when he saw to his southeast a “flare rising upwards.”4 He followed it for about five seconds as it lifted from his eye level and curved southeast and slightly downward. He then saw a small flash, followed by a large explosion. A huge fireball then fell to the oceans in two pieces. Five to ten seconds after the wreckage hit the water, he heard “a thunder or rumbling.” Two FBI agents interviewed Witness 129 on July 19, 1996. Later that day, they interviewed him again, this time accompanied by a MSIC analyst.

  Witness 144, Ann DeCaro by name, was walking around the track at Mastic Beach High School with a friend when she noticed a plane, traveling west to east, the direction TWA 800 was heading.5 She then “saw an object to the right with a bright orange glow with a white streak behind it.” She described the streak as “taking off like a rocket.” After losing sight of it for a moment, she saw a bright orange fireball, which broke into two pieces and “fell straight down.” She told the FBI she heard no sound nor felt any thunder and was one of the few witnesses to insist she saw a “missile.”

  At Bayshore, Long Island, Witness 145 was looking out the window of a friend’s house when she “saw a plane and noticed an object spiraling towards the plane.”6 She described the object as having “a glow at the end of it and a grey/white smoke trail.” She watched “the object hit the plane” but was not sure where. She did, however, “hear a loud noise” just as the object hit the plane. The plane then split in two and dropped to the water. A few seconds later, she told the FBI, “she heard another explosion.” A week later, the Suffolk County Police took GPS readings of her sighting.

  Witness 159 was leaving a restaurant in Quogue when “two claps of thunder” drew his attention.7 Looking to his southwest, he “observed an orange/white glow diminishing in size as it moved away from him.” He described it as “rising skyward.” At top of its trajectory, he saw a whitish glow, heard “more thunder” and saw an orange ball of flames drop toward the ocean. The Suffolk County Police re-interviewed him.

  Witness 166, a veteran of the Polish Army with missile experience, was at a park in Lindenhurst with his wife when he “noticed something ascending . . . like white, yellow fire, trailed by black smoke.”8 He heard a “shhh” sound. The object arched slightly at top. He then observed an explosion. Said the FBI agent, “After hearing news of the crash, he concluded he had seen a missile.”

  Witness 174, a retired naval officer, was looking out the window of his beachfront home in Rowayton, when he “saw a skyrocket type object streak up into the night sky from behind Sheffield Island.”9 A few seconds later, “after the skyrocket contrail disappeared,” he saw “a large orange fireball.” Although the two FBI agents interviewing Witness 174 neglected to ask about sound, they did ask “whether he may have actually seen something going down instead of up.” Four weeks after the crash, the agents had likely gotten the hint to discourage missile talk. The naval officer did not oblige them. He “insisted that his skyrocket went up.”

  Witness 221 was sitting on the beach in Fire Island with his wife watching the surf come in. He saw a commercial jet fly by, surely TWA 800, and then “saw a streak of light travel up from the water into the sky. [He] described the streak of light as though it was like a rocket or shooting star only going upward.”10 He then heard a “low rumbling sound” and saw a flash of light but was not sure whether sound or light came first.

  Witness 233 was looking out the open window of her parked car at Patchogue Bay when she “noticed a flare off into the distance, rising off into the air.”11 She described it as “moving steadily straight up” and as being “reddish orange with a short reddish-orange smoke trail.” Like many of the other witnesses, she saw something “brightly pulse.” Two seconds later, “she observed a large object seemingly stopping its forward momentum while igniting into a fireball.” The fireball broke into two pieces and floated downward. As the FBI agent duly noted, this witness “could not recall hearing any sound related to the incident.”

  Witness 241, while walking around the track at Westhampton High School, “observed a bright white light arching into the sky.”12 At its apex, she observed “that the light appeared to fizzle out, then moments later, a huge explosion occurred.” The FBI agent reported that she “did not hear any sound or explosion.”

  Witness 243 was crabbing with about twenty other people on the dock at Forge River Marina in Mastic when a young boy alerted him and the others to what appeared to be “a flare flying up into the air.”13 Two days after the crash Witness 243 told the FBI, “The flying object was relatively slow in flying up and took four or five seconds before hitting the airplane. The smoke, which trailed this object, was whitish in color and the band of smoke was narrow.” The resulting explosion “made no noise.”

  Witness 260 and a friend were fishing at the Moriches Inlet when he saw an apparent flare rise into the sky south-southeast of his position. The witness told an FBI agent he “watched the flare move upward in the sky to a point where the flare seemed to lose energy and arc and begin to descend.”14 The witness then “observed a fireball somewhat above where he saw the l
ast flare.” The agent recorded no information about sound.

  Witness 275 was walking to her car in East Quogue. She looked up and “observed an orange colored ‘arc’ moving upward from behind the trees southwest of her home.”15 The arc continued to travel upward and “ended in a large explosion.” Once again, the FBI agent made no reference to sound.

  Witness 280, sitting in his jeep with the top down in Riverhead, “saw a red dot traveling from west to east, parallel to the horizon.”16 Three or four seconds later he saw a “bright orange explosion.” He told the FBI, “It was like the red object pushed whatever it hit forward, causing it to explode, and dive downward.” The witness added that he “never heard any sounds.”

  Witness 282, a master sergeant with the New York Air National Guard, had just parachuted into his base at Gabreski Airport as part of an exercise. He was on the ground, looking south, “when he saw what looked like a flare at about 2500 to 3,000 feet traveling from west to east. The object was orange with a pink center. It also had a very faint grayish white plume.”17 The flare then “erupted into a fireball and the fireball fell straight down and broke into two.” Although the witness was interviewed by an NYPD detective and an FBI agent, neither appeared to inquire about sound.

  Witness 305 was looking out a restaurant window in Sayville when she saw a “thin stream of orange flame, but no smoke, which traveled for about three seconds . . . until it disappeared over the horizon.”18 To her, it looked like a “firework” that came “straight up out of the water.” This was immediately followed by “a huge explosion.” The witness told the FBI agent she “did not hear a sound.”

  Witness 324 was standing on the outside deck of the Westhampton Yacht Squadron when someone yelled, “Look!”19 He turned and “observed a red flare arching in the sky and descending downward. As it descended downward, “he heard a ‘thump’ and then there was a sudden burst of flames.” This large body of flames split in two and descended.

  Witness 326 was driving westward along the Sunrise Highway when he “saw a red glowing object ascending from the tree tops.”20 The object arced from the west to the east and suddenly “burst into a larger red glowing ball.” He told the FBI agents he “did not hear any sounds at all.”

  Witness 332, an air traffic controller at Gabreski Airport, “saw a flash of light” that he initially thought was a flare or fireworks.21 He told the FBI, “He heard no noise.” He then saw a fireball that “fell straight down” in three pieces.

  Witness 358 was fishing off a boat in Moriches Inlet with friends when he saw a “flare like object for eight to ten seconds at which time it turned into a bright yellowish orange glow.”22 This glow then turned into a wide flame that fell towards the ocean in two pieces. The FBI agents do not appear to have inquired about sound.

  Witness 364, who had once served as the Marine Corps crew chief of a helicopter squadron, was sitting on the dock of the Bellport Yacht Club with a female friend. Looking to the southeast, he “noticed an object rising vertically.”23 It had a red glow and “rose from the east to the west on a steep angle.” The object took about thirty seconds to reach its zenith, then arced downwards for ten seconds, and sped off on a flat, horizontal course for about fifteen seconds. Just as he told his friend to look, the witness saw a small red explosion, followed by a “tremendous” bright white second explosion, which evolved into an orange-yellow ball that fell in two pieces to the sea. “He realized he had seen two different things,” reported the FBI, “namely the rising ‘object,’ and the subsequent explosions.” After learning of TWA 800’s destruction, “He came to the personal conclusion that what he had seen was a missile hitting the airplane.” If this witness heard anything, the FBI did not report it. During the interview, the Suffolk County PD used GPS to plot the object’s trajectory.

  Witnesses 385 and 386, a couple with their young children, were boating in the Moriches Inlet. They told the FBI that a bright orange-red glow “seemed like it came off the horizon and rose slowly, weaving as it continued upward.”24 It traveled diagonally at a seventy-degree angle going in a westerly direction and left a white smoke trail in its wake. It then disappeared, and a “large oval ball of fire” appeared just above where the object was last sighted. The two heard no sound as they watched as “the ball of fire came straight down,” breaking eventually into two pieces.

  Witnesses 394 and 395, another couple, were standing on a platform behind Westhampton when they “saw a red dot in the sky.”25 The fellow saw “stream of white or grey smoke prior to seeing red dot.” It looked like a flare and was moving from west to east. It soon exploded and “came down like a curtain of flame.” The female witness told the FBI they heard the sound of four explosions in rapid succession beginning about ten seconds after they saw the first one.

  The FBI interviewed Witnesses 409 and 607, a man and wife, in July 1997. It was his second FBI interview, her first.26 Two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) also interviewed the couple three days after the crash. The ATF interview and the first FBI interview in January 1997 dealt mostly with what the husband and his son saw at the crash site to which they repaired by boat after the explosion. The second FBI interview covered what they saw before the explosion. At the time, the couple and their son were standing on a dock at Great Gun Beach on what they described as a “clear, chilly night.” They were looking out on to the water when the wife said, “Watch this, we’re going to see fireworks.” Her husband then “saw a light greyish streak/line ascending into the sky over the ocean.” It was southeast of their location and moving from east to west. The streak disappeared, and he saw a “bright white light” in the sky where the streak had ended. A second explosion followed, bright orange in color. The flaming debris broke into two pieces and fell to the sea. The couple “never heard an explosion.”

  In July 1996, Witness 484 told the FBI she was sitting on a neighbor’s dock in Shirley when she saw “a streak rising into the sky at an angle curving a little to the west.”27 She then saw an explosion that sounded like a “loud firework.” In July 1997, this witness gave a more detailed account to the FBI. The ascending object reminded her of “a lighted match head, blue and orange in color . . . brighter at its head and faded toward its tail.” She watched it for roughly ten seconds “traveling in an arc from her lower right to her upper left.” The object disappeared for a moment, and soon after she witnessed a large explosion, the mass of which separated into two flaming pieces that fell to the sea. In this interview she claimed to have heard no sounds emanating from the event. As was the norm with these second interviews, the FBI questioned her about her eyesight and her drinking and concluded, “She was not under the influence of any substance on July 17, 1996.” As was the norm as well, the FBI relied on the witness’s gesticulations with her arms and thumbs to plot the object’s trajectory.

  Witness 491 was fishing with some buddies off a dock in Center Moriches when he “observed a red light moving up into the air.”28 It was moving in an “irregular type arc” in a southeasterly direction. He followed this “red flare” for an estimated thirty seconds and felt it “was trying to follow something.” The flare then suddenly “turned into a huge ball of flame and fell in two pieces.” Interviewed in July 1996 by the FBI and a New York State Police investigator, the witness made no comment about sound.

  Witness 496, while standing on the dock in East Moriches, saw what appeared to be a flare ascending in the sky. In July 1996, she told the FBI the object was already in mid-air when she saw it.29 The flare had an orange tail and traveled from south to southwest. About ten seconds after she first saw the object she observed an explosion. She first realized “a plane had exploded when she saw the plane break into two pieces as it fell straight to the ground.” Two days after the first interview she returned to the site and helped the Suffolk County Police plot the course of what she had seen. A year later, in July 1997, the FBI interviewed Witness 496 once again. Her story did not change but for one caveat. She all
egedly told the agents, “At no time while she was witnessing the event did she identify the object as an aircraft.” The first 302 reported otherwise. The witness also addressed the issue of sound, which did not come up in the first interview. As she told the agents, she reportedly heard a “loud boom” five seconds after the falling plane wreckage descended below the tree line.

  Witness 497 got double tapped by the FBI as well. In July 1996, he told the FBI he was sitting in his car facing south at Moriches Bay when he saw “a red flare begin its ascent above the horizon line.”30 It flew “straight up” for three seconds or so and terminated in a “bright white explosion.” He heard a “boom,” and after watching the flaming wreckage fall to the sea, he heard four more booms. In June 1997, the FBI interviewed him once more. This time he admitted having a couple of beers. The agents reported an additional and unlikely caveat, namely that his sight was fixed on the horizon, and he was confident the object did not originate at the water line.

  Witness 536 was on Ponquogue Beach with a friend and her children when she saw a “huge flare that came up from the water.”31 There was “grey smoke and white smoke” behind the flare and a “bright orange glow” at the leading edge of the smoke. After the explosion, she heard a “deep, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom sound” that shook the ground. In a second FBI interview in July 1997, she reiterated her story, but the agents added, in what may have been a misprint, that at the time of the incident the witness “was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.”

  Witness 550, working on a charter boat off Fire Island, was interviewed by the FBI and ATF on July 19, 1996, and by the FBI, MSIC, and Suffolk County Police Department a day later.32 The witness “saw a plane coming from west to east and then what looked like a ‘smaller’ plane coming from the northeast on a dead course heading towards the nose of the larger plane.” He heard a “crackling sound” when the two planes “crunched up,” then a “poof” followed by a “whooshing sound.” As he saw it, “The larger plane blew up and became a big fireball which then broke into four pieces.”