FBI Accused of Risking Safety in TWA 800 Case

The FBI put the flying public at risk by trying to bottle up a Treasury Department bomb expert’s report that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by mechanical failure, not a bomb or missile attack, a senior senator charged Monday.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) released new documents at a congressional hearing that exposed a seething battle at the heart of the Flight 800 investigation and raised questions about the FBI’s objectivity and overall competence.

The Paris-bound Boeing 747 exploded off Long Island on July 17, 1996, shattering into a million pieces and killing all 230 aboard. From the beginning of the exhaustive investigation, three explanations were possible: a bomb, a missile or mechanical failure.

According to Grassley, an isolated and frustrated FBI clung to the missile theory while agencies such as Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the National Transportation Safety Board and even the CIA concluded otherwise.

“FBI leadership, in the case of TWA Flight 800, was a disaster,” said Grassley, chairman of a subcommittee that oversees law enforcement agencies and one of the most dogged investigators in Congress. “In my view, the FBI risked public safety.”

The FBI strongly disputed Grassley’s allegation that it “suppressed” a Jan. 20, 1997, ATF report. That document examined damage to recovered portions of the aircraft and concluded it was caused by an internal explosion, not by a bomb or missile.

“Allegations that the FBI attempted to hide the report . . . are ludicrous,” said Lewis D. Schiliro, who heads the bureau’s New York office, which spearheaded the investigation.

Yet Grassley’s inquiry found no indication that the transportation safety board ever received the report and plenty of evidence that the FBI was upset over its conclusions. The NTSB is responsible for investigating major transportation accidents and recommending safety improvements.

Andrew Vita, a senior ATF manager, told Grassley’s panel that he was directed not to forward the report to the safety board. He read from notes he had taken at the time: “I wrote that the FBI was risking hundreds of lives. A hundred planes have the same wiring configuration.”

Schiliro defended the FBI’s overall conduct. But he said the bureau had instituted policy changes to assure better cooperation in the future with other investigative agencies.

“The FBI’s investigation of TWA Flight 800 was one of the most thorough and finest ever conducted by this agency,” he said. Ultimately, the FBI also concluded that no terrorist or criminal act was involved.

Investigators now believe that the explosion was most likely caused by a spark from wiring that ignited vapors in the Boeing 747’s overheated and near-empty center fuel tank.

But in early 1997, the NTSB was virtually alone in publicly sustaining that theory. In mid-December, the NTSB had issued a safety recommendation calling for design changes in the aircraft to minimize chances of a fuel tank explosion. Since then, U.S. airlines have embarked on a major overhaul of wiring in aging aircraft.

But the FBI was incensed at the safety board’s recommendation. An internal FBI memo released by Grassley accused the NTSB of “going off on a tangent” and embracing a “speculative theory . . . unsupported by evidence.” It accused the safety agency of “blindsiding” the FBI with its recommendation.

The ATF report, received by the FBI’s New York office in early March 1997, generated more consternation. A memo approved by James Kallstrom, then-head of the bureau’s New York office, called the report “premature . . . unprofessional . . . reprehensible,” and a possible obstacle in any criminal prosecution.

Kallstrom, who has since left the FBI for the business world, told Associated Press he is proud of the FBI’s investigation.

Responding to Grassley’s queries, the FBI produced an unsigned cover letter from Kallstrom to the safety board, transmitting the ATF report a few days after he received it. “I think it’s wise to be skeptical that the ATF report was ever sent to NTSB,” Grassley said.

The CIA also disputed the FBI’s theory that a terrorist act brought the plane down. In a March 28, 1997, assessment, the CIA concluded that streaks of light seen by eyewitnesses could not have come from missiles.

“What these eyewitnesses saw was the crippled aircraft after the first explosion had already taken place,” said the CIA report, released by Grassley. “Our analysis, combined with the total absence of physical evidence of a missile attack, leads CIA analysts to conclude that no such attack occurred.”

About 10 months later, the FBI agreed.