Patrick Harris

Pierre VS The New York Times Patrick Harris

The evening of July 27th, 1996 started out as just another pleasant, balmy summers night in the Hamptons, but soon turned into one of the worst nightmares in New York City history. TWA 800, a nonstop flight from New York to Paris, exploded spectacularly over the Atlantic, ten miles off the coast of Long Island. Many of the locals rushed to save survivors of the crash, but their efforts were in vain, because all on board had perished in the explosion and subsequent inferno. An investigation by the FBI and NTSB concluded that the plane had simply blown up on its own due to a spark in the center fuel tank. Others disagreed, largely because hundreds of eyewitnesses had seen a light rise from the ground to strike the plane, suggesting the likelihood of a missile attack. Conspiracy theories soon began circulating that the crash was the result of secretive military exercises being conducted in the Atlantic. The objective photographic, eyewitness report, and radar evidence, however, tell a different story, namely that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a single missile launched from, or passing over, Long Island. This book lays out the evidentiary trail leading to this conclusion, but also focuses on the media propaganda wars that were spurred by the opposing viewpoints, particularly with regard to news organizations in the United States and in France.