Probe Now Shifts to Jet’s Midsection

Discouraged that they have yet to find evidence of a bomb or mechanical failure in the cockpit or front cargo section of TWA Flight 800, federal recovery workers said Monday they plan to redirect their attention to the center of the aircraft.

The officials also strongly cautioned that although 50% of the plane’s wreckage has now been recovered, it still could take weeks or longer to determine why the Paris-bound jetliner exploded off Long Island, N.Y., 11 1/2 minutes after taking off on July 17.

All 230 passengers and crew members were killed when the plane’s front section broke away as it climbed above 13,000 feet into the night sky.

Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, offered a picture of how slowly the underwater recovery effort is going: “When I was out there today, they brought out a basket which represented 12 hours of work with a deep drone. And they had 15 pieces of aircraft wreckage, none of which were particularly large.

“It’s not a quick process that’s going on out there,” he said. “Expectations of cosmic news every day are unfortunate if people think we are going to be having stuff quickly.

“This is slugging away. We are trying to find those little pieces we hope are going to tell us what happened.”

Officials said they also now know where the fourth and final jet engine landed in the waters off East Moriches, N.Y. They said experts plan to examine all four engines together.

Also Monday, authorities announced that they had found one more body, raising the number of victims recovered to 199.

By refocusing on the center of the 747 jumbo jet, experts with the NTSB and the FBI are attempting to rebuild the plane’s middle section, which includes the central passenger area as well as a middle fuel tank that was basically empty at takeoff, holding only several hundred gallons of fuel.

The center section also includes the spot where the wings join the fuselage. Experts have found heavy burn patterns where the right wing met the fuselage. But they do not know yet whether those burns are from the explosion or the resulting fire.

In contrast, the cockpit, front cargo section and galley areas have shown no “extraordinary” signs of an explosion, Francis said.

But officials were not prepared to say why an explosion in the middle or rear of the plane would cause the front of the aircraft to break in two.

“I don’t know enough about planes to answer that question . . . or what happens to them aerodynamically and pressure-wise,” said James K. Kallstrom, an assistant FBI director who is overseeing the criminal phase of the investigation.

Francis declined to comment on whether a midsection explosion was a possibility.

Kallstrom agreed with Francis’ summation that the recovery is going very slowly. He noted that with stormy weather expected midweek, scuba diving and other salvage work may have to be postponed.

“It’s awful hard to tell whether we’re talking another week or two weeks or what before we’re done here,” he said.

But he said FBI agents are nonetheless pressing for answers.

“We’re looking at everything that touched this aircraft,” he said. “Everything that went on board it and everything that came off. The maintenance people. Everyone.”

But are they any closer to finding the cause of the plane crash?

“We have more of the aircraft up, so that’s a positive,” he said. “And the Navy is focusing on where the areas are where the rest of the wreckage is.”