The Event

Shortly after 8:31 P.M. on Wednesday, July 17, 1996, radar contact was lost with a Paris-bound jetliner and news of the horrible downing of TWA Flight 800 spread around the world.

The aircraft, bounding from the John F. Kennedy International Airport with a destination for France was blown away by a catastrophic happening at an altitude of 13,700 feet, breaking apart into 5 large pieces that fell into the waters off of the Long Island coast. The horror of TWA Flight 800 became the second worst aviation disaster in American history.

Speculation after the bombing regarding its cause centred around terrorism or mechanical failure. It was a terrorist bombing that brought down a jetliner over Lockerby, Scotland year’s prior, and TV commentators and analysts sought to illustrate the similarities in the hours after the calamity. Bomb particle residue would be sought from the wreckage recovered by divers, and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) forensic specialists would have every recovered fragment scrutinised for any possible leads, at which time the course of the investigation would then become a ‘criminal probe’ if positive results were discovered.

As the news media reports and official comments ventured on speculative causes for the tragedy. Little by little, an underlying surge of inflammatory information was surfacing that would illustrate a scenario too sensitive for the mainstream press to disseminate to the public, and definitely to damning for hirelings in ‘officialdom’ to consider.

Forced to acknowledge the information by the abundance of reports, the mainstream press and federal investigators had to concede that ‘multiple witnesses’ observed a red, flare-like object traverse the skies in the vicinity of the jetliner in the moments before the tragedy. ₁

"We do have some information that there was something in the sky," confessed the FBI special agent in charge of investigations, James Kallstrom, at a news briefing on the event. A number of people have seen it, a number of people have described it -- some similarly." ₂

Major Fred Meyer, a New York Air National Guard pilot, was flying a C-130 transport plane on a training mission in the Long Island vicinity at the time of the disaster. He publicly stated that he saw ‘an arc of light moving toward the plane.’ "I saw what appeared to be the sort of course and trajectory you see when a shooting star enters the atmosphere, gently descending from a higher to lower altitude," Major Meyer told reporters on a news program. "Almost immediately thereafter, I saw in rapid succession a small explosion and then a large explosion."

Shortly after making his comments, Meyer was ordered not to discuss the matter any further, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Several witnesses to the disaster recalled that a ‘white light’ circled the jetliner at least twice before the explosion. One boater in the Sandy Hook Bay stated that the ‘light’ streaked in the southwestern sky over the open Atlantic, and then watched as it moved north, toward Long Island.

Other witnesses reported a ‘flash’ that strangely lit up the sky before the jetliner exploded into flames. The flash was described by several witnesses as a type of lightning that flashed across the sky. Another witness, Nick Castoro, the owner of a fishing station in East Moriches, explained to FBI investigators that he "saw a flash, like what looked like a sparkler." ₃

Radar Confirmation

At 8:25 P.M., radar detection operations from the New York Terminal Radar Control (TRACON) charted a non-transponding blip, described as a ‘radar anomaly.’

For a six-minute duration as the jetliner was tracked by radar from the Logan Airport in Boston, Mass. and TRACON radar, a second, unknown radar target was detected in the skies near TWA-800. ₄

The radar track of the second object would later be characterised as a ‘radar aberration,’ an explanation that would strangely squelch further discussions of the track, and wholeheartedly satisfied the inquiring minds of the mainstream news media.

Several anonymous sources, reported NBC News and the New York Post, alleged that spy-satellite pictures show an airborne object changing direction to smash into the doomed plane. There were rumours of photos ‘said to be taken’ by a secret military satellite in orbit high above Long Island’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. The classified material reportedly depicts an object ‘racing up to the 747, passing it, and then changing course to crash into it.’ ₅

The continuing flurry of reports from outspoken witnesses about the second object seen before the calamity engendered much speculation about a missile being used to pick the jetliner out of the skies.

The theory, when reasonably analysed, seems full of holes.

Flight 800 while travelling at an altitude of 13,700 feet and about 10 miles offshore at the time of the explosion, was outside the effective range of most shoulder-launched missiles, especially one fired from the shore rather than the water. The American Stinger missile, however, has a maximum performance range of 24,000 feet, though it is considered most effective inside 13,716 feet. ₆

A truck-mounted surface-to-air missile fired from shore conceivably could reach the plane, but its launching would have created a considerable noise whereas none was reported from the surrounding neighbourhoods, and would have left a highly visible contrail. Its launching platform would have been hard to disguise among the residential streets of Suffolk County’s South Shore. ₇

Talk of a friendly fire accident resulting in the calamity escalated when it was revealed that a Navy P-3 surveillance plane was flying near Long Island, just 15 miles south of where the doomed jetliner broke apart. The P-3 even circled back when it got news of the crash and flew over the wreckage.

The surveillance plane was reportedly not equipped with air-to-air missiles.

The Navy Surveillance plane was 15 miles away when the downing occurred and 50 miles south of the site when it became aware of the mishap through chatter on the distress frequency.

The P-3 flew over the fiery waters of Long Island and descended to 800 feet for about 5 minutes while conducting some infrared imagery of the burning debris field. With the air congested by other aircraft, the Navy plane went on its way after 20 to 30 minutes.

Former journalist and Kennedy administration official Pierre Salinger generated an up roar when he spoke out about an alleged document in his possession, showing that the jetliner disaster was the result of a miscalculated missile exercise being conducted from an adjacent military zone. Salinger later somewhat reversed his position, however, after it had been shown that the document in question had already been circulated on the Internet, and FBI investigators ruled out its legitimacy.

The recovery of all four engines from the dark ocean floor seemed to rule out a heat-seeking missile which would have made one of them its target, as no forensic evidence suggested that the four hot engines, providing a broad target range, were struck by an explosive device.

The Photographs

At the time of the calamity, 270 people were attending an area fund-raising event at an East Quogue restaurant. The festivity took place on an outdoor deck that overlooks Shinnecock Bay.

On hand was a Mrs. Linda Kabot who busily photographed the occasion for posterity. Her camera snapped several photos that, when developed, depicted an object that would have normally been dismissed as an optical illusion of some sort, some other place and time. On the fateful day in question, however, the photos are of great significance. ₈

In the clear sky that serves as a backdrop for the otherwise routine snapshot, there appears to be a cylindrical object with one end aglow. It appears to be a long, cylindrical object high in the sky situated in a horizontal position, although its left end is tilted downward. Its right end seems to be brightly lighted or reflecting sunlight. Slightly above the object, which may be the fuselage of TWA-800 or the object in question, can be seen a another brightly glowing ball of light.

Heidi Krieger, a Middle Island realtor, said she is leaning toward friendly fire because there have been no claims of responsibility from terrorists. Krieger was out on her boat in the Great South Bay snapping pictures of her father, on his boat, with a disposable camera and caught the image of a squiggly white line in the background of one photo. The FBI was so interested that they took her negatives.

Combined with the eyewitness testimony, the ‘radar anomaly’ and the two photographs, a sound determination can be drawn that a second object was present in the skies when TWA-800 exploded. The determination of what the object is must and will remain a mystery until officially identified by the FBI and NTSB investigators. Until such time that a satisfactory identification can be applied, the second object remains, by its very definition, a UFO... an Unidentified Flying Object.

UFO’s Reported in the area...?

A definitive aerial anomalism was detected in the skies 70 miles from the crash site 45-minutes before the calamity. Two witnesses, Richard and Fran Shea of Manville, Rhoade Island, observed the aberration.

In a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, the twosome reported observing an object in the sky north of Interstate Route 295 at 7:30 p.m. which appeared unlike an airplane, and seemed to change colour from grey to silver. ₉

Thirty minutes after the Shea sighting, multiple persons from Toronto observed a white, cylindrical-shaped object near the Lester Pearson International Airport. The flight path of the UFO, according to one of the witnesses listed as ‘Susan K.,’ placed the object in the vicinity of the Canadian Forces Base in Downsview, between Sheppard and Wilson Avenues. ₁₀

Four days before the TWA Flight 800 disaster, a woman in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey reported observing a UFO just south of Long Island. A Mrs. Patterson, her mother and another woman witnessed the phenomenon at 8:15 P.M. on Saturday, July 13. The object held stationary in the sky for 15 minutes before streaking away to the west, followed shortly by a second object with ‘blinking lights.’ The Atlantic Highlands area is in northern New Jersey, about 20 miles southwest of the TWA Flight 800 disaster.

Ongoing UFO Dramas in Moriches Bay...

The UFO situation in the Long Island area has extensive historical precedent that has been given no reportage by the ‘mainstream news media’ since the TWA-800 air calamity. The accounts, relegated into fringe news, sighting reports and government conspiracies, should suddenly demand legitimate scrutiny by any objective observer as more information is unearthed. However, this has strangely not been the case.

Surrounding localities such as the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Montauk areas have long been targeted by UFO researchers for the rumour and conspiracy folklore that richly illuminates the region.

Pioneer UFO researcher LEONARD STRINGFIELD investigated the so-called "MORICHES BAY RETRIEVAL" on September 28, 1989. ₁₁

The late Stringfield meticulously researched the details of a carefully planned and executed operation that had been painstakingly projected six months in advance, in which a special operations unit of the armed forces working in conjunction with an intelligence service would allegedly intercept and retrieve a mysterious aerial device from the waters of Moriches Bay, The very waters which would later burn with the fiery remains of TWA-800.

According to the research borne out by Stringfield, the object had been tracked throughout the northeastern part of the U.S. by military surveillance satellite for several months. By charting some kind of orderliness or pattern, intelligence and radar tracking specialists were able to determine the specific location of the object on a particular date, and calculated where its position would be on September 28, 1989.

Mystery Tattler

On the disputed day, a triangular object with large headlights was sighted throughout Connecticut in ten different locations and was also observed by the Peterson family of Centre Moriches at the end of Union Avenue dock. This object was seen over Moriches Bay an hour and thirty minutes after the events in Connecticut. The object was comprised of six very large amber lights and was photographed by the family.

Long Island UFO Network Chairman John Ford met with a reputable scientist who claimed to have been employed at Brookhaven National Laboratories, and also employed as a consultant to two major electronic research and development corporations on the island. This individual displayed his driver’s license, social security card and employee’s I.D. card from Brookhaven National Laboratory to Chairman John Ford, establishing his credentials.

The informant conveyed to Ford that The U.S. government shot down and recovered an unknown aircraft in the Moriches Bay on Sept. 28, 1989, and the object was recovered with the loss of eighteen lives in the process of the retrieval operation.

A blue-white light, which was reportedly pulsating in the dunes, witnessed by the Peterson family, was said to be an electronic weapon located toward the West Hampton Beach side of Moriches Inlet. The light was a plasma field generated by the weapon as it was being energised.

The scientist also informed L.I.U.F.O.N. that helicopter activity around the object was to drive the unknown aircraft into the narrow range of the weapon. The William Floyd Parkway was closed so that a military convoy composed of several flatbed trucks could bring the wreckage into Brookhaven National Laboratories. A stealth aircraft was used to chase the object, tracked first through Canada, and then down through Connecticut. ₁₂

A physicist from the Brookhaven National Labs, known as Dr. Nick, also spoke anonymously with UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield. And stated that he, along with two members of his engineering team, were fetched from their offices by two military officers and ordered to make themselves ready for a late-night test of a weapons system at Smith’s Point Beach Park on September 28 at 11:00 P.M. The operation was conducted on the grounds of the Smith’s Point Beach County Campgrounds, which had been strangely closed after Labour Day. The government of Suffolk County, New York, had announced the unusual closing in late August of that year and stated that the closing, the first in over 18 years, was due to a ‘financial situation.’ The following year the park remained open until late October, as was the usual practice.

The scientist affirmed to Stringfield that he and his group were taken into the campground where several large tractor-trailer flatbed trucks were parked, and also in the field were two military vans, camouflaged by nets for concealment. The group had allegedly been taken to the Dune Preserve where the weapon system had been positioned, and parked nearby were two Ford Econoline Vans heavily equipped with electronic instrumentation.

The alleged weapon system utilised Doppler Radar and had been built and developed by A.I.L. Electronics on Long Island through federal funding allocated for S.D.I. and Stealth technology research, and was powered by a 400 Hz. generator.

According to the scientist, a ‘black-boomerang’ shaped object came into view as it passed over the north-east shoreline, escorted by a battery of large Sikorsky SH-55 helicopters. A string of searchlights that had been hidden along the shoreline suddenly blazed to life and illuminated the object. At some point after 12:00 A.M., the order was purportedly given to bring the object down. The switch was thrown and the object immediately fell into the waters of Moriches Bay, where it broke apart into two sections in a titanic explosion. As more helicopters could be seen approaching the bay area, the scientist and his group were told by military officials to ‘get the hell out of here.’

The unknown aircraft was purportedly rumoured to be the Hudson Valley Object, witnessed by thousands of people in the Northeast since 1982, and generating newspaper, radio and television coverage. The concentration of sightings of the object seemed to be focused around the Hudson Valley of New York. ₁₃

Stringfield researched and confirmed many of the suspicious details of the 1989 operation in Suffolk County, and verified the mysterious closure of the Smith’s Point Beach Park on September 28. Stringfield, in acquiring the information from his source, held that secret operations of the BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY would be the focal point of the mystery.

Mona Rowe, a spokesperson for BNL, was contacted for a comment on the affair and she spoke to the man in charge of SDI testing.

In March of 1992, Channel 12 News out of Long Island videotaped an unknown aerial object seen at the Bagatelle Road exit of the Long Island Expressway. The object resembled another UFO that was later reported on August 1, 1992, over Islip. ₁₅

Incident in Suffolk County

Again, on November 24, 1992, The Brookhaven National Laboratories and the Suffolk County Government is implicated in another UFO crash retrieval conspiracy after a Department of Defence systems analyst smuggled a videotape out of federal government custody and presented it to retired court officer JOHN FORD, researcher with the Long Island UFO Network. Ford has investigated the incident, which was first reported to him on December 13, 1992 by a Mr. Walter Knowles of Majestic Beach, Long Island and a Mr. Bob Harrison of Brookhaven Hamlet.

The witness accounts tell of a tubular-shaped object with blue lights impact into a wooded area near South Haven Park along Gerard Road at 7:12 P.M.

One witness described the object as more ‘oval-shaped.’ The object was observed by residents in areas as far north as Ridge and as far west as Bald Hill in Coram.

A large fire was seen burning fiercely in a wooded area at 7:35 P.M., and over seven fire departments reportedly responded to control the fires. They were said to be Medford, Coram, Yaphank, Middle Island, Brookhaven Hamlet, Mr. Sinai and Ridge.

The editor of the South Shore Press in Majestic Beach, Long Island confirmed that some fire departments had been turned away due to their lack of experience in dealing with radiological fires. The editor had also confirmed that the park itself was closed for several days after the incident because it was ‘duck hunting season,’ although area residents reported that Suffolk County Police managed road blocks near the park entrance for days after the event.

Residents along River Road reported to LIUFON investigators that extensive fire truck activity was seen entering the park during the night of the incident. LIUFON had received confirmation from a Brookhaven Hamlet Fire Department source that their department had been dispatched that night to put out fires that were caused by something which fell out of the sky, but were prohibited from speaking about it due to Federal Government Orders.

LIUFON later retrieved Fire Department equipment from the main fire road in the park on December 20, 1992 that has been identified as being similar to equipment used by Brookhaven Hamlet Fire Department. ₁₆

Aerial reconnaissance over the park revealed evidence of extensive vehicular traffic in the north west section of the park’s fire roads and fields. It was discovered that fire roads had been widened, and heavy construction equipment had been present in areas, which prohibited vehicular traffic.

Area residents also reported helicopter activity over the area for hours on the night of the incident, and others complained of strange electrical problems with home appliances. Elevated levels of radiation was later detected in the park that exhibited abnormal background radiation that came in six-second bursts ranging from .05 to as high as .3 mille-reontgens. Test results from fencing along River and Gerard Roads revealed signs of reversed magnetic polarity, as if the fencing had been exposed to a South Pole magnetic field.

A county-wide alert was sounded by the Suffolk County Police after the unknown object reportedly impacted a wooded area near William Floyd Parkway, instructing all units to use land lines to receive instructions for emergency mobilisation.

Knowles stated that he and his brother-in-law encountered a military roadblock on William Floyd Parkway with civilian traffic being detoured from proceeding west onto Sunrise Highway. The military personnel were seen dressed in black jump suits, and the vehicles showed no markings. Additional personnel also reportedly blocked the side streets of Beatrice, Dawn and Sunset.

John Ford also questioned other witnesses to the event, including a mother of two who was denied use of travel on Victory Boulevard.

One Pentecostal minister reported that his 1984 Mercury Marquis burst into flames when his car attempted to start itself on December 29, 1992. The minister was later taken into police custody and transferred to Stony Brook Psychiatric when he equated the incident with the UFO crash. The minister was released after signing a statement that the car fire had nothing to do with the UFO crash, and was reportedly suing the Suffolk County Police for damages.

John Ford and LIUFON came under Suffolk County Police harassment repeatedly after commencement of their investigations, and on January 9, 1994, was detained and questioned by police, who reportedly attempted to ‘dissuade’ them from distributing literature to residents living on Gerard Road.

Phantasmal Observation

The strangeness in the Long Island area escalated on November 17, 1995, eight months before the tragedy of TWA-800. The sightings were of an odd object described by some as a fireball, by others as multiple red objects hovering over a mountaintop farm, to still others that told of a huge, triangular ship covered with bizarre lights, like traffic lights.

The event can best be summarised through a transcript of radio communication between FAA ground control operators and two commercial aircraft at 10:20 p.m. ₁₇

In light of the tragedy and mystery surrounding TWA-800, one would think that certain details of the aforementioned account would have been presented to the public had the free press of the ‘mainstream news media’ openly handled the situation in a responsible manner. The reader should feel a certain sense of outrage, however, to learn that the account of the November 17, 1995 event has not been addressed by any news organisation in light of the TWA-800 disaster.

TWA-800 and Beyond

In the weeks after the downing of the TWA-800 jetliner, strange and twisted events began unfolding; the details of which certainly raise the level of intrigue in an already bizarre situation.

On August 16, a 9-foot piece of a metal wing flap from a TWA Boeing 727 was found on a street in New York, a day and a half after a sizzling-hot engine part from another jetliner fell on another Queens neighbourhood.

"Everybody just ran out of their houses," recalled area resident Lisa Mandel, who said that neighbours had heard a loud thud in the middle of the night. The falling debris left gashes on the road in South Ozone Park, a residential neighbourhood near Kennedy Airport. ₁₈

The Queens Incident - from the day before - involved a Delta Airlines 727. Resident Anthony Conti heard a ‘strange noise’ as an airplane flew over his house, and within minutes, a boiling hot piece of metal fell from the sky, bounced off his neighbour’s house, and then landed violently in his driveway.

In the hours after the disturbance, Delta airlines acknowledged that Flight 801 from LaGuardia Airport had to make an emergency landing because one engine had no power. However, Delta spokesperson Bill Berry refuted the Queens resident by saying it was ‘impossible’ that a plane part of the size described could have landed in the neighbourhood.

"I checked with maintenance and they said at the most, anything coming from the engine would have been an inch or so," Berry stated, while adding that the plane’s flight path took it over water, not over the residential neighbourhood. ₁₉

Later, Delta acknowledged responsibility for the falling plane part after television news footage showed what appeared to be a piece of metal on Anthony Conti’s driveway.

Strangely, USAir took security measures within this same time frame as plane parts were suddenly flying all over New York neighbourhoods. It was revealed by The New York Times that an internal memo had been distributed to advise USAir pilots that all in-flight telephones were to be disabled during potential disasters. "There may occasions where an in-flight anomaly could occur where it is desirable to disable the phone system," the memo stated. "USAir prefers to furnish press releases for in-flight anomalies instead of having the information reported live via telephone from the aircraft." ₂₀

Also happening on August 14, an F-16 fighter jet strangely lost power and was forced to drop fuel tanks and an unarmed training missile over San Antonio, Texas. The projectiles fell to earth and smashed through the roof of a two-story house. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the plane landed safely. ₂₁

1996 was a bad year for the F-14 and F-16 fighter jet. All flight operations of the Navy F-14 were suspended in February for three days after a flurry of crashes riddled the squadron. One stunning tragedy happened in Nashville, where a fighter jet smashed into a home and exploded into flames, killing five people. ₂₂

In spite of the stunning phenomenon of crashes, however, the military continues to remain abnormally outspoken about its so-called ‘safety record’

Another sighting of a mysterious object occurred as an American Airlines pilot reportedly observed a missile-like device pass his jetliner in flight. ₂₃

The pilot of the flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Boston claimed to watch a missile-like object pass his Boeing 757 as it flew over Wallops Island, Virginia, 220 miles south of the TWA-800 calamity.

Wallops Island is the location of an unmanned research rocket facility used by NASA. The details of the sighting, kept hush-hush for over two weeks, was hurriedly explained after its public disclosure.

The explanation was said to be attributable to the sighting of a 15-foot rocket, which launched a classified research experiment for the Department of Defence. The rocket was said to have had a ‘routine flight’ and dropped harmlessly into the ocean.

However, NASA spokesman Keith Koehler stated that the FAA is alerted regarding any potential rocket launches, and furthermore stated that NASA radar had detected no aircraft within the restricted launch zone. ₂₄

UFO: The 1996 Wave

Reported UFO observations notably escalated in mid 1996, with sightings across the United States that accompanied the discovery of crop circles in fields from Indiana, Ohio, California, Nebraska and Utah. Sceptics attributed much of the upsurge to the release of the motion picture film Independence Day. ₂₅

Persons from Southern Ohio reported red flare-like objects traversing the skies in and around airplanes from Scioto County in September. One observer stated that the objects ‘did not descend, as a flare would.’ On October 16, a videotape recording was made of a formation of flare-like objects that would ‘appear and disappear’ for nearly 1-hour from the Adams County, Ohio area.

The region in question beneath where the objects appeared is home to a massive jet engine research and development facility operated by General Electric and Martin Marietta. An industry spokesperson denied that any operations of the GE facility would have engendered the reports. ₂₆

Initial inquiries to WRIGHT PATTERSON Air Force Base regarding the utilisation of flares for military testing purposes were strangely ‘lost’ at the public relations office, and hirelings at the facility would not assist the public in any investigations, nor would they comment on the October 16th event or videotape.

One month after the flare-like objects were videotaped, an F-16 fighter plane crashed into a wooded hillside in the very area where the phenomenon was observed on October 16. Two Air National Guard pilots safely ejected after the plane was subjected to an unexplained power loss above the Adams County region. However, witnesses at the scene contend that the plane was ‘smoking’ before it went down. See Additional Sources

The skies of the United States were full of flare-like objects in March of 1997, beginning with hundreds of reports from concerned citizens in Arizona, where flare-like objects were seen across a broad area of the southeast. Again on March 26, 1997, residents in Ohio reported flare-like objects in this skies. An Air National Guard Sergeant from the Springfield, Ohio A.N.G. base confirmed that the flare activity seen was due to ‘NIGHT INTERCEPT’ training exercises, and furthermore added that it was ‘routine’ to utilise flares for this practice. See additional sources

The FBI again had its investigative hands full on November 17, when two pilots from a Pakistani International Airlines flight taking off from Kennedy Airport reported an ‘object with lights’ that moved from the left to the right, 3 to 4 miles in front of their plane shortly after 10:00 p.m. The sighting, happening again over the TWA-800 disaster site, understandably alarmed the two pilots. ₂₇

A second TWA plane flying immediately behind the Pakistani jet also spotted the odd spectre, and asked Boston air traffic controllers to turn around. The TWA plane was given permission to retreat from the area, and the air corridor was subsequently closed to any traffic.

Most interestingly, TWA-800 FBI investigator James Kallstrom commented on the event, by saying there were ‘conflicting reports’ as to whether radar picked up any indications of meteors or anything else. ₂₈

In the hours after the incident, Boston FAA had no comment on their radar track of two unidentified targets appearing on radar at the same time of the PIA Flight 712 observation. ₂₉

Later efforts to attribute the November 16 event to a meteor shower was readily accepted by news media hirelings.

High-Intensity Strangeness

At the same time the Pakistani jet pilot spotted the ‘object with lights,’ the entire neighbourhood of Riverside, New Jersey was outdoors gazing at a large triangular object which had been seen to streak across the sky, slow down, and then hover over the area for several minutes. Sightings of UFOs were also reported on that Saturday night from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

On Monday morning, November 18, two fisherman, Martin and Daniel Baudouin, plus boater Raymond Keys, made an unusual discovery two miles off the Long Island coast.

"I saw these two hands flailing above the water," said Daniel Baudouin. "Weird. We were in 50 feet of water, and there was no other boat around." Daniel and Martin worked with Raymond Keys to hoist a disoriented 300-lb. man from the 54-degree water. The man was dressed in a flannel T-shirt and boxer shorts. ₃₀

"He was blue, and floating in and out of consciousness," Baudouin said. "We asked his name, and all he kept saying was ‘Bob. Bob. Bob.’ He may have been in shock."

A Coast Guard crew at Jones Beach was alerted by radio, and a distress flare was fired by the horrified good Samaritans as Robert Slutsky, 54, was plucked from the Atlantic Ocean. The Coast Guard crew wrapped Slutsky in a thermal metallic bag upon arrival, and began treatment for hypothermia.

Slutsky, who was taken to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital by ambulance, later stated that he remembers nothing of the event or how he hot there. He was later described as very traumatised by the affair, even weeks after the event.₃₁

He had told his family that he felt ill with a stomach ailment and was going to take a walk, but the family stated that their house in Far Rockaway is far from the ocean, and has no idea how he ended up two miles out in the icy waters. ₃₂

Baudouin, one of the fishermen who rescued Slutsky called it a day after the unnerving ordeal. "We caught six striped bass, and then the big guy. That was enough excitement for me."

Phantom Plane Crash and Green Fireballs

A Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot at 5:38 a.m over the TWA-800 site made another sighting of a ‘green flare-like object’ on December 12, 1996. The glowing projectile was detected on radar while the plane was at 12,000 feet elevation. Like the report from the Pakistani Airlines pilot a month earlier, the object seen by the Saudi pilot was explained away as another meteor. ₃₃

"There are lots of natural phenomenon," FAA spokesperson Bob Ropelewski stated during a press conference. "This looks like it may fall into that category." ₃₄

One thing, which had not been addressed, was the tantalising clue that the fiery green projectile had been detected on radar. ₃₅

Another ghoulish event happened on January 15, 1997 some 35 miles north-east of Moriches Bay. The Coast Guard, state Department of Environmental Protection, two rescue helicopters, fire departments from Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Madison and Clinton, and some marine patrols and private boats searched 100 square miles after a man reported he had seen a plane dive into the water.

At 7:30 a.m., Daniel Bowes was near Salt Island Road when he saw a plane flying low over the water. He told authorities it looked as if the plane took a nosedive, though he didn’t see a splash.

"He couldn’t tell me what it was," said Matt Brown, who took Bowes’ call at the Valley Shore dispatch centre. "But it was definitely larger than a bird."

At 4 p.m., the Coast Guard called off the massive search and rescue operation, and no trace of any aircraft was found. ₃₆

Abnormal Behaviour

Heated events began happening fast and furious on February 5, 1997, when two F-16 jet fighters hotly intercepted a Nations Air commercial plane carrying 77 passengers. The approach of the two military jets, which appeared to ‘merge’ with the commercial jetliner on radar screens, triggered a warning alarm from the Nations Air jet, causing the pilot to take evasive action. The drastic manoeuvres caused several injuries on board the passenger plane.

According to the official comment, the F-16 pilots simply were checking on an ‘unidentified plane’ in airspace known as Warning Area 107. However, Navy spokesman, Capt. Mike John stated that Navy controllers had already warned the fighter pilots that civilian planes were in the area. John said the pilots acknowledged receiving the warning. ₃₇

Military controllers frantically radioed to the F-16 pilots ``Break off, break off,’’ but one of the fighters relentlessly dogged the helpless commercial jet for reasons still unclear. ₃₈

Strangely, more heated developments happened again on Friday, February 7, 1997, involving not two, but four F-16 jet fighters, which hotly intercepted an American Eagle turboprop airliner in the area. The incident touched off a wonderfully conflicting barrage of verbal explanations from civilian and military air controllers, and shortly afterward, The Air Force temporarily suspended all Reserve and National Guard flights in restricted areas along the East Coast for a review of rules and operating procedures. ₃₉

John Ford of LIUFON, who intensified his investigations into the Suffolk County Police Department and Brookhaven National Lab connections with several of the alleged incidents from the Long Island area, stated in 1995 to DON JERNIGAN, a UFO researcher from Ohio, that he thought ‘the government was going to get rid of him, and that if he was killed, for Jernigan to pick up the ball and keep things going.’ ₄₀

Ford stated to this author in a January 2, 1996 telephone conversation, that he was in possession of ‘information very damaging to The Federal Government of The United States of America" after securing the trust of several ‘internal operatives’ from the Department of Defence who assisted in the recovery operation of the object brought down in 1992 by a ‘particle-beam laser.’ One operative purportedly furnished Ford with videotape taken of the recovery operation. ₄₁

Ford also had cited additional information that several large fires that swept Long Island’s eastern communities had been deliberately set as a diversion to distract attention away from a secretive operation of some nature underway near the grounds of the Eastern Campus of the Suffolk Community College in Riverhead.

In a news release from LIFUON, Ford states:

In the weeks after issuing the controversial memo, Preston Nichols, who was also researching the Long Island Pine Barrens fire, had borrowed Mr. Ford’s truck for use in moving his belongings to a new apartment. When driving on North Ocean Avenue in Medford, he was forced to the side of the road and removed from the vehicle by four muscular men driving a dark Ford LTD Sedan. Nichols was violently beaten about the head and face, and warned by the men to mind his own business. Even the police will not help you, the thugs advised him.

Joseph Mazzuchelli of Manorville made contact with an acquaintance in the Suffolk Police department, and was shocked to learn that they were involved, and ordered not to assist if a report were to be filed. Ford cited newspaper sources, County, State and Federal officials that had conspired together to intimidate and stop the LIUFON investigations into the crashes and fires.

John Ford later felt that the attack on Preston Nicholls was originally intended for him, and also felt that there had been a government-sanctioned contract to eliminate other key leaders of the LIUFON organisation. ₄₂

One month before the downing of TWA Flight 800, Reuters News Agency reported that John Ford had been arrested in Suffolk County in an alleged bizarre plot to commit murder. Also arrested was Joseph Mazzuchelli, Edward Zabo and Arthur Riva, also key members of LIUFON. Ford, a former Suffolk County court officer himself, was arraigned in Suffolk County Court on charges that he plotted to place radium on car seats and in the toothpaste and food of county Republican leader John Powell, legislator Fred Towle, and Brookhaven Public Safety Director Anthony Gazzola, because he was angry over ‘Government UFO Cover-ups.’ ₄₃

In the motion picture film Endangered Species starring Robert Urich, (which deals with UFOs and cattle mutilations) one scene depicts actor Hoyt Axton dying of radium poisoning. Some speculate that this unpleasant scene in the movie could have been the inspiration for the alleged deed. However, the gruesome scene depicted is very much make-believe, and not possible, according to others.

``You couldn’t assassinate anybody with the radioactive material that they had, but I don’t know if they knew that,’’ said Mona Rowe, the spokeswoman for Brookhaven Laboratories. "It is not explosive, but with enough exposure, radium can make someone sick eventually." ₄₄

Radium is used to make watch dials glow in the dark and was used in the 1940s to treat cancer patients.

One suspect in the radium case, Mazzuchelli, denied bail after being charged with three counts of second-degree conspiracy, three counts of criminal solicitation, illegal possession of radioactive materials and one count of reckless endangerment. A separate indictment accused Mazzuchelli of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and third degree criminal sale of a firearm for two guns that did not belong to him. One was licensed to Ford and sold to an undercover police officer, a transaction that prosecutors said led to the discovery of the assassination plot.

Mazzuchelli would have been the one to do much of the radium planting, prosecutors indicated. Investigators said they found five canisters of radium isotope, a low-level radioactive material, in Ford’s home.

Edward Zabo is the alleged radium supplier, and was charged on 34 counts of possession of explosives without a license and criminal possession of a weapon. Any potential threat to public health and safety has been eliminated, according to District Attorney James Catterson. "The material has been removed to a facility capable of its proper disposal_."45

Catterson said evidence showed that the three men had begun to put their plot into action. "We caught it at the beginning."

Martin Thompson, chief of the district attorney’s rackets bureau, said investigators taped a conversation between Ford and Mazzuchelli discussing their plot. He said Northrop Grumman and the Defence Department were also investigating. ₄₆

James Catterson, who said the alleged plot, was like "something out of a novel, best describes the entire affair."

To Ford, the situation he outlined in an earlier statement now resonates with a particular irony. "An even greater fear," notes Ford to a reporter in a 1993 interview, "is the government. You get involved with things that the government doesn’t want people to know about, and they can make life pretty tough for you." ₄₇

The mystery surrounding TWA Flight 800 deepens with the knowledge of the Moriches Bay and Brookhaven/Long Island Retrievals, and further complicates the supposed state of events behind the stunning arrest of John Ford, who presently remains strangely detained in solitary confinement by the Suffolk County Police at the Attica facility, where he is unable to receive any visitors, nor take or place any telephone calls from his restrictive confines.

Regarding TWA-800 investigation, James Kallstrom, the FBI assistant director who is leading the criminal investigation of the disaster, said that the bureau is pursuing every scenario.

"We would not be doing our job if we didn’t look into all these things, even though some may seem farfetched or remote,’’ he said. ₄₈

Will this be the case? And if Kallstrom and the NTSB and FBI investigative hirelings are true to their word, will the aforementioned issues presented in this publication be addressed in an open and objective forum? Perhaps time will tell us the truth.

8. Snapshot Provides Possible Crash Clue: New York Times by DAN BARRY

9. Providence, Rhode Island Journal-Bulletin, July 20, 1996 page B-7

10. UFO Roundup Volume 1, Number 24 July 28, 1996 Editor: Masinaigan

11. CRASH RETRIEVALS: The Inner Sanctum, by LEONARD STRINGFIELD, Published 1991

13. NIGHT SIEGE THE HUDSON VALLEY UFO SIGHTINGS, Phillip J. Imbrogno

14. From the article The Believers Gather, text file courtesy of NeWorld UFO Files

15. UFO Universe, Winter 1994: pages 17, 18, 20 & 21

16. LIUFON PRESS RELEASE, June 25, 1993

17. Text of FAA transcript courtesy of National UFO Reporting Centre

18. Associated Press, FRANK ELTMAN August 16, 1996

22. CNN Military Affair Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, Feb. 22, 1996 & Jan. 29, 1996

23. Associated Press, LARRY NEUMEISTER Sept. 7, 1996

24. Associated Press, Sept. 10, 1996

29. New York City WCBS-TV News, 6:36 p.m. EST November 17, 1996

32. Ocean Survivor Felt Ill, Kin Says by Virginia Breen, NY Daily News Nov. 22, 1996

35. CBS Evening News with DAN RATHER, 6:30 p.m. E.D.T. telecast, December 12, 1996

36. The Day of New London, Connecticut: January 16, 1997

37. By Donna De La Cruz, Associated Press, February 7, 1997

38. NBC News, Thursday, February 6, 1997

39. By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER AP Military Writer, February 10, 1997

40. Jim Donohoe, EQUINOX advised in memo to this author: June 18, 1996

41. Telephone discussion with JOHN FORD, January 2, 1996

42. February, 1996 press release from LIUFON chairman JOHN FORD

43. Reuters News Agency, July 22, 1996

45. RADIUM PLOT UNCOVERED the Cincinnati Post, June 15, 1996

48. Fbi Considering Saboteur Theories; Pat Milton, Associated Press, November 25, 1996