TWA Crash Theory Called ‘Premature’

Workers reassembling TWA Flight 800 wreckage accused the National Transportation Safety Board on Monday of trying “to shut the lights off” on the probe by suggesting the plane was brought down by static electricity.

“It’s their one-way ticket out of here,” said one accident investigator about the NTSB’s newest position, that the catastrophic explosion in the center fuel tank might have resulted from a static electricity-induced spark.

It is a theory that the safety board acknowledges it has no evidence to support.

Dismayed workers said they suspect the agency may be preparing the public for the possibility it might never determine exactly what’s to blame for the deaths of 230 people but wants to present a probable cause that would be hard to refute.

“The static electricity theory is premature,” said the investigator. “It’s a catchall theory that, when you can’t prove anything else, you can point to that.”

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The NTSB’s public statements Friday hit especially hard in the hangar in Calverton, where crews have worked around the clock in search of a cause since the plane exploded about 10 miles off Long Island on July 17.

And James K. Kallstrom, who is heading the FBI investigation into the explosion, told reporters last week that he was surprised at the NTSB’s public speculation that static electricity was to blame for the explosion.

Kallstrom declined to comment this week as it became increasingly clear how strained relations had become between NTSB authorities in Washington and their workers on Long Island.

Peter Goelz, an NTSB spokesman, denied that there is a rift. He also noted that faulty wiring and a missing fuel pump are alternative theories still being considered.

Still, the investigator said the workers felt “blindsided” by news of the static electricity theory, since they weren’t consulted beforehand and especially since only a small part of the pipe involved has been recovered.

In the hangar, workers say it seems clear that the plane’s center fuel tank exploded near its middle.

The tank’s center is as much as 4 feet from the pipe the NTSB suggests was the source of static electricity created as fuel was transferred shortly after the plane’s takeoff.

It would be difficult to find a single worker in the hangar who would be willing to suggest that static electricity brought down the plane, the investigator said.

“It’s a straw man being set up,” added one worker from the hangar, who also asked for anonymity. “Nothing we have seen so far points to static electricity. It’s just a theory. We couldn’t believe it.”