Twa Jet Was Downed By Us Missile

Salinger told reporters that he had been given a document by an agent of the US Secret Service which said the airliner had entered an area where the US Navy was staging missile tests.

The paper that I have read is very very strong proof that a missile did have a part in bringing the plane down, he told Reuters TV.

He also questioned whether the evidence in his possession had been withheld to avoid embarrassing President Bill Clinton before Tuesdays presidential election.

There are some people that I have talked to since I have had this information that thought it could have been hidden until the election because it would have been very embarrassing for the administration if the truth came out before the election, Salinger told Reuters in a television interview.

 

Now it will be interesting to see since the election is three days ago whether there will be a change in the way they are doing the investigation, he said. The airliner was not the target of an attack. It was shot down by a military missile during a test, Salinger told French television LCI.

Salinger said the document given him by the agent showed that military officials had conducted the test at an altitude of 13,000 feet in the belief that all aircraft in the area were flying at 21,000 feet.

The officials were unaware that TWA flight 800 had taken off late from New York and was flying lower than its scheduled altitude to steer clear of another aircraft, he said. The airport control tower, in a tragic error, failed to inform the Navy, Salinger said.

There is a lot of proof for the document. I have since talked to several individuals who have upheld what the agent said, he said. The truth must come out.

A Navy spokesman at the Pentagon denied that a US missile had accidentally brought down the Boeing 747. A spokesman for the FBI also denied the suggestion.

Salinger, 71, was press spokesman for the late President John F Kennedy and later Paris bureau chief for the US television network ABC. He initially made his allegations to some 100 airline officials from 20 countries attending a meeting in Cannes. He said he had passed on his information to an unspecified US television network which did not broadcast it. He accused the US government of clamping a news blackout on the crash.