[CTRL] Feds Conceal Suspicious Facts About Recent NY Airline Crash

[William Shannon]

http://www.americanfreepress.net/12_08_01/Flight_587/flight_587.html Feds Conceal Suspicious Facts About Recent NY Airline Crash Experts cite evidence that the recent airline crash in New York was no accident despite “official” government pronouncements.   Exclusive To American Free Press By Mike Blair   Federal officials are trying to convince the public that the Nov. 12 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York was an accident. How ever, a growing number of experts, including some in the FBI, question the National Transportation Safe ty Board (NTSB) claim that the crash, which killed all 255 people on board, was due to a structural failure that caused the French-built A300 Airbus to lose its tail three minutes after takeoff from JFK International Air port. Leading the critics of the NTSB explanation is Ver non Grose, a former inspector of the NTSB, who said: “They are trying to placate the public because they fear people won’t fly.” Grose was one of the leading NTSB officials to probe the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800 over the Atlantic near East Moriches, Long Island, also just after takeoff from JFK. All 230 people on board were killed. Despite more than 300 accounts by people who witnessed from the ground what appeared to be a missile streaking toward Flight 800 just before it burst into flames in mid-air, the NTSB, with Grose dissenting, concluded after months of investigation that the tragedy was caused by a spark from frayed electrical wiring within the Boeing 747’s center fuel tank. Grose strongly questions that conclusion, as he now does the NTSB’s line that Flight 587’s tail fell off and plunged into Jamaica Bay, near a residential area of Queens. “The tail would not have come off that way unless the bolts were loosened,” Grose said. “There is a possibility that someone loosened those bolts.” Grose’s skepticism is echoed by Mary Schiavo, former inspector general at the Department of Transportation, who said she is “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 NTSB claims the airplane’s tail fell off because of turbulence created by the takeoff of a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet moments before Flight 587 was airborne. But Schiavo said, “air turbulence tends to go down. Flight 587 should have been well above the preceding aircraft’s wake when it ran into trouble.” NTSB spokesman George Black says the planes took off from JFK more than two minutes apart, as required by federal law. The NTSB was designated the lead agency in the investigation before the flaming wreckage of the airliner had cooled. The FBI said that there was an “explosion aboard the plane before the crash.” Hundreds of Queens’ residents saw the explosion. That report by the FBI came just hours after the aircraft went down and was repeatedly reported on FOX News and other television broadcasts for many hours following the tragedy, before NTSB claims of an accidental crash finally knocked it off the air. New York fireman Thomas Lynch said that while taking his morning walk he saw Flight 587 completing its “banked turn and heading east toward the ocean. At about the time it appears to be leveling out . . . there was an orange-red explosion in the fuselage, behind or near the left of the wing, followed by a larger, second burst of flames. It flew for two to three more seconds, lost control and started a curved dive, losing parts as it fell from the air.” Monica Kalfur of Rockaway, Queens, also saw the plane coming apart in the air and coming down in pieces, including its separated engine and left wing. The NTSB now claims that the plane’s pilot was fight ing the controls of the aircraft just before the crash as the aircraft experienced vibration. The NTSB’s chairman, Mary Blakey, said shortly after the downing that “communications from the cockpit were normal until the last few seconds before the crash.” Flight 587 was in the air for only three minutes be fore it plunged to the ground and the NTSB’s top official stated that communications from the plane’s cockpit were normal until the “last few seconds.” Various officials and experts on air crashes are also pointing to the terrible record of air crashes that have occurred after takeoff from JFK. On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 crashed with the loss of all 280 people on board. Then, on Sept. 2, 1998 Swissair Flight 111 went down near Blandford, Nova Scotia, after leaving JFK, with all 215 passengers killed. That was followed on Oct. 31,1999, by the crash with the loss of all 217 aboard, of Egyptair Flight 990, which landed in the Atlantic, about 60 miles south of Nan tucket Island, Mass. And, now, there is Flight 587. This has prompted Larry Johnson, former deputy director of counter-terrorism at the State Department, to conclude that either there are saboteurs at work at JFK or the facility “is the unluckiest airport in the world.” There have been cases of reported sabotage, falsifying maintenance records, using bogus parts and security fraud at JFK, according to Schiavo. “We had 68 cases of falsified maintenance reports from just one major airline there,” Schiavo added. *