Missile theory comes under fire

FBI concludes no criminal evidence in TWA 800 crash

Video simulation prepared by the CIA showing what federal investigators believe witnesses mistook for a missile

After the crash of TWA 800, several eyewitnesses said they had seen a bright light, or flame, speeding toward the 747 just before it blew up. Some said the object looked like a missile intercepting the aircraft.

Within hours, rumors began circulating on the Internet that a terrorist missile had brought down the plane, or that the U.S. Navy had accidentally shot down the aircraft during a top-secret training exercise.

Former ABC News correspondent Pierre Salinger announced that he was "totally sure" that the aircraft was hit by a Navy missile. He based his claim on an alleged air traffic control radar tape that showed a blip heading toward the doomed plane just before it exploded.

Ian Goddard, who co-authored a report on the theory with Salinger and a third man, told CNN in November that the charges were "reckless and a mistake." Salinger did not join Goddard in the retraction but said he was not ending his probe into the cause of the crash.

By the time Goddard recanted , federal investigators had long since ruled out the missile theory having dismissed Salinger's work, which drew on documents posted on the World Wide Web, as "Internet gossip."

Jose Cremades, head of the Victims of Flight 800, said NTSB officials told him what Salinger took for a missile on radar tapes was actually a Navy P-3 transport plane flying 7,000 feet above the plane.

Furthermore, sources close to the investigation told CNN they believe they have an explanation for why eyewitnesses think they saw a missile that night.

They believe that after take-off, an explosion burst the 747's center fuel tank, igniting a stream of fuel leaking from the right wing. This trail of fire may have looked from the ground like a missile speeding toward the plane.

The FBI ultimately ruled out the possibility that the plane was struck by an errant missile and withdrew from the investigation. Their assurances that there is no evidence to support the missile is not likely to sway those who are convinced that a missile struck the plane.

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