No Bomb, Missile Behind TWA 800 Crash: NTSB

Despite claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that a bomb or missile caused the July 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, the National Transportation Safety Board insisted in a press conference yesterday. NTSB officials declined to comment directly on whether a petition calling for a fresh investigation will indeed lead to a new probe. But they stressed that there was no radar evidence of anything "intercepting the plane," and that the patterns of damage were not consistent with a bomb or missile strike, Politico reports.

After the longest investigation in its history, the NTSB concluded that the crash that killed all 230 people on the New York-to-Paris flight was caused by a fuel tank blast caused by faulty wiring. "I am upset about bringing this back up, for the sake of the people who lost folks in the accident," said the director of the board's Office of Research and Engineering, who was the chief fire and explosives investigator on the crash probe. A documentary to be aired later this month features "whistleblowers" from the original investigation team who say the probe should be reopened. (More TWA stories.)