Reopening The TWA Flight 800 Crash Case: New Evidence To Potentially Link A Missile Strike To Killing 230 Passengers

With a documentary on the tragic TWA Flight 800 crash on July 17, 1996, set to air next month, former investigators want to use the surge to reopen the case with the theory that the crash was caused by a missile strike and not the reported fuel tank explosion.

The New York-to-Paris flight crashed into the Atlantic just after the jetliner took off from the John F. Kennedy Airport.

All 230 passengers aboard were killed.

And while the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officially ruled the cause of the crash as an electrical short circuit prompting detonation, others from said organization, the TWA and Air Line Pilots Association are affirming otherwise.

"We don't know who fired the missile," said accident investigator Jim Speer.

"But we have a lot more confidence that it was a missile."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a petition was filed yesterday to reopen the probe saying they have "reviewed the FAA radar evidence along with the new evidence not available to the NTSB during the official investigation."

"Of course, everyone knows about the eyewitness statements, but we also have corroborating information from the radar data, and the radar data shows an asymmetric explosion coming out of that plane, something that didn't happen in the official theory," stated documentary co-producer Tom Stalcup.

So far, the NTSB seem open to reopening the investigation.

"We assign petition responses to the relevant modal office for drafting," said NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel according to CNN. "The NTSB's Office of Aviation Safety will assign staff, to the maximum extent practicable, who did not work on the original investigation to carefully prepare a response. The response will be presented to the full Board for their consideration and vote."

"While the NTSB rarely re-investigates issues that have already been examined, our investigations are never closed, and we can review any new information not previously considered by board." 

The documentary is set to air on July 17 on EPIX cable channel, USA Today.