NTSB Denies TWA 800 Conspiracy Theory Petition

The NTSB today denied a petition to reconsider its findings of the probable cause of the mid-air explosion of  a 747 aircraft operating as TWA 800 on July 17, 1996.  The petition was brought by a group calling themselves The TWA 800 Project.  The group claimed that it had new evidence that the mid-air explosion was caused by “a detonation or high velocity explosion”,  likely from a missile.  Although the original NTSB investigation was an exhaustive four-year search for the probable cause of the accident (I was a Member of the NTSB at the time and closely involved in the accident investigation), the NTSB appointed a team of investigators not previously associated with the accident to review the petitioners’ claims.