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Howard's End: Flight 587 - Truth Will Out

Published: Tue 20 Nov 2001 09:27 AM
Some media, including Scoop, is not convinced the explanations of the U.S. administration that American Airlines flight 587 out of JFK New York simply came apart and crashed over Long Island passes the smell test. Maree Howard writes.
Scoop, and a minuscule number of other media, put off the record questions to some senior aviation people including two 747 pilots.
1. Have you ever heard of a plane losing the tail section like Flight 587? "No!"
2. Have you ever heard of a plane losing two engines like Flight 587? "No, although one engine has been known to have fallen off due to traumatic weight shift."
3. In all of aviation history, have you ever heard of a modern aircraft losing the tail and two engines spontaneously and simultaneously? "Never!"
Scoop has been told that statistically, the probability of any commercial aircraft losing the vertical stabiliser tail section, which was found intact, along with two engines the way Flight 587 did, would require a mathematical equation involving an explosion of zeros following the decimal point.
Many of us were relieved to hear that the tragedy of Flight 587 was not an act of terrorism, but I suspect there is a lot of smoke being blown around this crash in an attempt to tell us want we want to believe and to try and keep confidence in a haemorrhaging global aviation industry.
Flight 587 left Kennedy Airport on Monday morning after being parked-up overnight following a flight from Miami.
While passengers are forbidden from taking nail clippers, scissors, fruit knives etc on board, the equipment itself - the aircraft, jetways, jet bridges, despite the new security hype is left unguarded.
Some aircraft from overseas countries parked at U.S. airports, do have armed guards posted alongside the aircraft at all times but that appears to be at the initiative and expense of the airline itself.
The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority has given surveillance videotapes of the take-off of Flight 587 to the FBI, but media investigators are questioning why the FBI demanded them when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the lead investigator.
And why hasn't the FBI released them, or at least commented on those videos?
Dozens of eyewitnesses have reported they saw an explosion at the juncture of the wing and the fuselage moments before it began to break up, losing its tail first, then both engines.
NTSB investigators have examined the engines and found no evidence of mechanical failure. Although we were originally told that catastrophic engine failure was the probable cause of the crash.
Now we are told that wind (wake) turbulence from another plane is the most likely cause. Senior pilots, while recognising wind sheer and wake turbulence, are very skeptical of this theory. "If wind turbulence caused that crash I won't be flying again," said one 747 pilot.
In my opinion, American Airlines Flight 587, which came apart over Long Island and crashed into homes in Rockaway N.Y. killing all board, was not an accident.
A few in the media now believe the evidence points to sabotage with the U.S. authorities blowing smoke to "protect" us from the truth and to try and build public confidence. With just a few skeptical global news-hounds sniffing around, truth will out!

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