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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 18, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Editorial: An explosion of lies
One week after TWA Flight 800 crashed in July 1996, a law was pushed through Congress supposed to punish "terrorism" by imposing sanctions on Libya and Iran. That law still is being used against these countries. But the alleged justification for the law—the accusation that a terrorist bomb blew up the plane—has been abandoned. There was never any evidence to support it. FBI official James Kallstrom just made it up and the big-business media ran with it.
Thus, from the beginning, the government police agency that muscled its way in to take over the investigation strenuously tried to fit it into a right-wing political agenda.
Now government hearings on the crash are taking place in Baltimore. They have to deal with two other problems.
First, the National Transportation Safety Board says it still does not know what set off the explosion in the center fuel tank that ripped the plane apart, causing 230 deaths. Many theories have been advanced for it that would hold Boeing, TWA or the U.S. Navy accountable.
Second, more and more evidence is coming out that the explosion was a disaster waiting to happen. This is not what we were told at first. Then, such a catastrophic explosion was treated as an entirely unexpected and inexplicable event. But now evidence has emerged that an empty fuel tank on a hot summer’s night becomes filled with vapors that take very little to ignite them. A dime dropped from the height of half an inch produces 10 times the energy needed to set off such an explosion, according to Merritt Birky, the NTSB’s fire and explosion specialist.
It also turns out that there have been a significant number of other unexplained accidents, most involving Boeing planes, in which similar structural problems may have been crucial. In 1990, for example, the center fuel tank of a Boeing 737 belonging to Philippine Air Lines exploded.
The NTSB has been under enormous pressure in this investigation. First, it was forced to literally step aside and let the FBI dominate the early press conferences about the crash. But in addition, it feels the hot breath of Boeing and TWA on its neck every day. The NTSB is not a large agency. It has few employees. Its lead investigators draw their teams from the airlines and aircraft companies themselves.
For these companies and their insurers, a great, great deal is at stake. Boeing officials have now acknowledged that the possibility of a center fuel tank explosion is strong enough to warrant the redesign of all its future aircraft. Will it also rebuild the thousands of planes already in use? Will it cover the expense of major alterations? Will the airlines that still use ancient Boeings—the Flight 800 plane was 27 years old—subject them to more rigorous inspection? Will they retire those that need it? Or will the craving for capital and profits prove too strong for these companies, many of which are not in good financial shape?
Deregulation set off a competitive scramble in the airline industry that led to many cost-cutting layoffs and shortcuts—the aim again being to maximize profits. Will the government investigate the impact this move has had on airline safety?
In a capitalist society, the questions of culpability and financial responsibility get resolved in arenas where big corporations and the repressive arms of the government hold the strong cards. No matter how many chairs at the Baltimore hearings are occupied by families of the victims and airline workers, they are basically spectators trying to glean the truth while the basic decisions are made elsewhere.
Their claims for justice can’t be left in the hands of government agencies that are either too weak, under too much pressure, or are implicated themselves in this disaster. Nor can the corporations involved be allowed to judge themselves. Fortunately, millions of people are not in any of these categories. They can join with the victims of this crash, the airline workers, and all others seeking the truth in calling for an independent investigation.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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