- New Yorkers who believe they saw American Airlines Flight
587 explode in flames before its tail sheared off have accused crash
investigators
of ignoring their eyewitness accounts and prematurely ruling out a
terrorist
attack.
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- Six witnesses, including a recently retired police
lieutenant,
an FDNY deputy chief and a former firefighter, have written to the National
Transportation Safety Board, demanding they be called to testify at a
public
hearing.
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- Tom Lynch, 59, a retired firefighter, said he had also
spoken to 18 other people who saw the Airbus A300 flying on fire before
it crashed into houses in Belle Harbor, Queens, on Nov. 12, killing 265
people.
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- "The NTSB is not publicly acknowledging the many
eyewitness accounts of the in-flight fire or explosion, many from people
who are adamant that the fire occurred before any tail or engine
breakups,"
he told The Post.
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- Lynch, who organized the letter, said he was standing
on Rockaway Beach Boulevard when he saw a bright orange ball of flame
streaming
from the right side of the plane.
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- Two or three seconds later, he said, he saw a larger
eruption of flames consuming the entire right side of the plane's
fuselage.
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- "There were no falling parts until the second
explosion
of flames - I'll go to my grave with that," he said.
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- The witnesses said they were surprised NTSB Chairwoman
Marion Blakey was able to say, only hours after the crash, that all
indications
pointed to an accident, rather than a terrorist attack.
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- "How could that statement be made while the
flight-data
recorder had not been recovered, the crash-investigation team had not yet
showed up and initial eyewitness reports included many accounts of one
or two explosions in flight?" Lynch said.
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- Another witness not involved with Lynch's group, Michael
Benjamin, said he saw a huge orange fire engulfing the front third of the
plane's right side while he was driving along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn
with his wife and two children.
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- Benjamin, who works for the Oversight, Analysis and
Investigations
Committee of the state Assembly, said he had attempted to contact the NTSB
but had not received a return call.
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- Preliminary reports written by the NTSB have not
mentioned
in-flight explosions, but have focused on air turbulence, the composite
materials used to build the jet's vertical tail, and sudden rudder
movements.
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- An NTSB spokesman said more than 200 eyewitness accounts
had been recorded and were being considered as part of the
investigation.
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- But he said if the NTSB decided to conduct a public
hearing,
it would most likely seek opinions from air-safety and aeronautical-design
experts rather than witnesses.
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- The people who signed the letter, in addition to Lynch,
are retired NYPD Officer James Conrad, FDNY Deputy Chief Peter Hayden,
retired transit cop Richard Kvies, sales manager John Power and
food-services
manager Ellie Scholfield.
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- http://www.nypost.com
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