The first Boeing 747-100 was flown for the first time at 11:34 AM on February 9, 1969. The subsequent problems have their roots in the early days for the construction of the Boeing 747's. The aircraft construction business in the early 1970's was extremely difficult. In fact, one wag wrote in the Seattle Times, "Would the last person to leave Seattle please turn out the lights!" Boeing was under pressure to cut costs. According to my sources, to cut the costs Boeing discovered that it could purchase aluminum parts from a plant in the USSR (now Russia). The Russians could produce the aluminum to the exacting specifications of the Boeing engineers and did so for the first fifteen planes. Then Russia decided that it was not profitable to make the aluminum to the Boeing specifications and decide to cheat. The Russians produced an inferior product but sent it to the USA as meeting all of the requirements. It was not until Boeing had made 686 planes including the 747-100's. the 747-200's and some 747-300's, that it realized what had been going on. Boeing knew there was a problem and designed the necessary modification to remedy the situation. Boeing was a major source of export revenues for the USA and the planes were in big demand since commercially they were very successful. The problem was discovered in the early eighties when there was over a thousand planes flying passengers and freight all over the world. In fact, to shut down over six hundred planes would be a disaster for world commerce apart from the loss of prestige, national pride, and competition from the Europeans who were developing the now equally famous Airbus.

    On the other hand there were other official determinations as to the problems with Boeing 747's of early vintage.

    There are three main theories that may have caused TWA 800 to crash which killed 230 people on July 17, 1996. The bomb theory, the exploding fuel tank theory and the missile theory. I contend that there is also  a metal fatigue failure theory, but has been apparently ignored in favor of an explosion in the central fuel tank as it would appear to be the most likely scenario based on an exhaustive effort on the part of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the expenditure of about 135 million dollars. (The above picture extracted from an article by Time from the Internet.)

    The author of this website has accumulated a vast database, which would point otherwise. On December 5, 1998 the NTSB conducted an unusual public debate on the crash of TWA 800 and the author video taped the entire five days of proceedings. It is not the purpose of this website to review this extremely extensive documentation on the TWA 800 crash as it has been more than adequately covered on the Internet. However, it is important to point out that the NTSB had a firm conduct a detailed evaluation of the potential explosion in the central fuel tank. This firm built a one quarter sized tank to conduct its tests and it was clear that it had great difficulties in creating the conditions under which the JET A fuel would explode even with a deliberate sparking devise in the tank. In fact, to make the tank explode this firm introduced propane into the tank to make sure it blew up. The explosion was spectacular and, needless to say, it was shown on CNN ad nausium with no detailed explanation. It is extremely, difficult to get JET A fuel to burn let alone explode. This is more fully explained at the excellent website --- www.twa800.com.

    The CIA did a great job of writing a simulated TWA 800 video showing the Section 41 and Section 42 breaking away from the main fuselage caused by the "exploding central fuel tank." The video is extremely graphic in that it can also demonstrate what would happen if Section 41 & / or 42 broke away, which in turn would cause the fuel in the central fuel tank to ignite (not explode) and moments later the fuel in the wing tanks. That makes much more sense. It certainly makes more sense than the theories proposed by the Pierre Salinger (now retracted), the missile theory, and if you want to know how that came about and what his neighbors are saying; read my book "Plane Truth". Read what I say about these CIA / NTSB videos in my book. These videos can be seen here). They are large files so please be patient.

Recordings/CIA One.    Recordings/ CIA Two.     Recordings/CIA Three.

    Finally, on this page, I should mention that Mr. Robert Vannoy, with Boeing brought up the fact, during the NTSB hearings, that these vintage Boeing 747 had experienced some metal fatigue problems. He stated that Boeing was aware of the probable and was repairing the planes. In my opinion, he could have gone much further and detail the extent of the problem. He certainly did not show any of the metal fatigue diagrams shown under Fatigue Details.  Fatigue Details

    As you will soon appreciate the whole fiasco appears to be a major cover-up. It is possible that the NSTB and the FBI are unaware of the truth, but but it is hard to accept. In my opinion this tragic accident did not have to happen. Please note that of all the hundreds of pictures of the TWA 800 after the crash not one is of Section 41& 42. Furthermore, of all the interviews conducted by the media not one was with an experienced Boeing 747 pilot!! Check out the TWA accident report. The official version of events was the explosion of the central fuel tank, which blew off the front third of the plane. However, read the official accident report; it states that Section 41 separated from Section 42 and took a part of Section 42 with it. Check out the debris fields too. Really! For more detail on the problems I refer you to the Fatigue Details herein.

Fatigue Details

    I discovered was that the TWA 800 plane was the manufactured in the early 1970's, being number 159 off the production line. What was most significant, however, was the notation that the required repairs to Section 41 were about to be undertaken in 1996 with the ordering of the parts in March, 1996 ................... and the crash occurred just four months later!

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