U.S. senator convinced TWA crash caused by sabotage

July 19, 1996
Web posted at: 8:55 p.m. EDT

CHICAGO (CNN) -- A U.S. senator briefed Friday by FBI Director Louis Freeh on the investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800 said it looked "pretty darn conclusive" that either a bomb or a missile caused the explosion.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN his conclusions come after "various conversations" with government officials. Freeh briefed Senate leaders on Capitol Hill Friday.

"I won't go so far as to say it was terrorism, but there was sabotage here," Hatch said. "It looks like that."

All 230 people aboard the Boeing 747 jet were killed after the plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island Wednesday night.

"We're looking at a criminal act," Hatch said. "We're looking at somebody who either put a bomb on it or shot a missile, a surface-to-air missile."

Hatch said the National Transportation Safety Board should now turn the investigation over to the FBI, because the crash was not related to an aviation problem, in his opinion.

"It's very -- almost 100 percent unlikely that this was a mechanical failure," Hatch said. "It looks pretty darn conclusive that it was an explosion caused either internally or externally that was caused by a criminal act."

Hatch said there was no intelligence available on who may have planted a bomb or fired a missile.

FBI close-mouthed

While the FBI and other officials encouraged the public not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the crash, sources said Friday that FBI agents were leaning toward the theory that a bomb caused the plane to explode after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Officials said based on the evidence found so far, the FBI probably will take the lead role in investigating the crash as a "criminal act."

Investigators told CNN that there is no indication that the Boeing 747 suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure.

"We are not here to take over the investigation yet. We are not here to declare this is a terrorist event," said FBI Agent Jim Kallstrom. "We have multiple theories up on the board. We're going to bring to the forefront those theories that have the most credibility."

He said investigators will be looking for certain tell-tale signs as the fragments of the plane are recovered.

"We're going to look for certain residue, for certain streaking patterns. We're going to look for the way the metal is shaped or fragmented," he said.

NTSB vice chairman Robert Francis told CNN Friday that his agency is considering that a mechanical malfunction or a criminal act may have caused the tragedy. "Certainly, the possibility of a criminal act is a distinct one." He said about 10 percent of the plane has been recovered.

Large object detected

Francis said a recovery ship had detected something large at the bottom of the ocean near where jet fuel had earlier been seen bubbling to the surface, but conditions were too rough to send down a recovery team.

"There was a definite spike," Francis said, indicating that the sonar had detected an object 15 feet high underwater.

Weather conditions worsened Friday with overcast skies, high winds and rain squalls. Waters in the area are more than 100 feet deep with water temperatures around 40 degrees.

Francis said if conditions are better Saturday, divers will again attempt to find the aircraft's flight and data recorders -- the so-called black boxes. "That's critical," he said.

With wind and strong currents having dispersed the wreckage, recovery workers expanded the search area to 490 square miles, starting about nine miles south of Long Island.

Missile theory ruled out

There was some speculation that a surface-to-air missile, perhaps fired from a boat off the coast of Long Island, could have brought the plane down. But a top Pentagon intelligence official told CNN such a possibility has been ruled out.

The reason: a stinger missile is heat-seeking, and analysts concluded it would have had to make too sharp a turn to hit the TWA flight, the source said. Also the plane was "too high," about 10,000 feet, which is at the outer edge of the range for such a missile.

Counter-terrorism analysts in Washington have looked into calls claiming responsibility for the crash; all but one such claim has been ruled out. The source declined to discuss the nature of the possible threat they were still evaluating.

Correspondents Art Harris, John Holliman, Gary Tuchman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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