"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 May 2005 15:04:06 +0000, NOYB wrote:


"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 04 May 2005 21:45:27 +0000, NOYB wrote:


As to which incident? Oklahoma City or Flight 800? I'll admit that
with Oklahoma City there are some unanswered questions, but no where
have I read anything that credibly suggested Flight 800 was a
terrorist act.

http://twa800.com/pages/alhayat.htm

They cite articles by Reuters, NY Times, London Times, etc.

As I said, I think there are still unanswered questions about Oklahoma
City, but as to Flight 800 that site is thin, real thin. Flight 800 was
flying at 13,700 feet when it exploded. While there are stingers that
can reach that ceiling, I believe the stingers available to potential
terrorists (Afghanistan) would have been at or over their limit.


Assuming that it was a Stinger built in the mid 80's and supplied to
Afghan rebels to fight the Soviets, it was most likely the FIM-92B, with
a
range 15,600 feet. That means TWA 800 was within range of the shoulder
fired missile that al Qaeda was most likely to have in their arsenal.

http://www.janes.com/defence/air_for...1013_2_n.shtml

Not so fast, look at the maximum *altitude* from that site.


12,464 feet. Yes, if the altitude was indeed 13,700 feet, it appears that
TWA 800 was out of range of the Stinger FIM-92 missile...at least according
to Janes. Of course, when you state 13,700 feet number, you're relying on a
number given to you by the same people who claim it was an accident.
Richard Clarke has said on one occasion that the plane was at 15,000 feet,
and then contradicted himself in his book when he said it was at 17,000
feet. Even the altitude of the plane at the time of the explosion is in
doubt.

The shoulder-fired Anza MK-II (Chinese) has been in Pakistan's arsenal since
1990. The QW-1 (Chinese) is also in Pakistan's arsenal. The maximum
altitude for these portable shoulder-fired missiles is about 4km...which is
very close to, but just shy of TWA 800's *alleged* altitude.

Are there other shoulder-fired systems that could have hit the plane?
Possibly. I know that there are plenty of mobile Surface-to-Air missiles
that could easily reach that altitude (PL-9D, etc).

Can you think of a motive why the government wouldn't admit that it was a
terrorist attack on an airplane? I can. Especially in 1996...just 4 months
before a Presidential election.