Terrorism Issues: Policy Change after Catastrophic Events - Report Example

Terrorism This paper aims to describe the terrorism and the fear of terrorism on human being. The crash of TWA Flight 800 on 17th July 1996 created a huge terror on people. This incident took the lives of all the people travelling on the plane. In this paper we can find out different investigation measures taken by U.S to find out the cause for the explosion of the flight, the bodies of the people travelling in the plane, the broken parts of the plan. All the investigation results, analysis and findings associated with the incident are mentioned here. Eyewitnesses of this plan crash have presented separate views which highlight the striking of missile with the plan and still now it is a very debatable issue. Many possible results are concluded by the investigator which denies the missile strike. This paper throws light on the fact that people do not believe on the investigating body as they feels that many facts and evidences are covered up by them for hiding some facts. This incident became one of the major aircraft crashes of the world. Introduction The world terrorism is derived from French word terrorism. ‘Terreo’ means “I frighten”. Terrorism defines the violent acts which are done to create terror among the human being. Terrorism is highly charged with politics and emotions. This is done for religious or political issues targeting the mass of people. The acts of terrorism include unlawful and violent actions. This is mainly done by the political group. Terrorism’s concept may be controversial. This is because sometimes this is used by the state authority for suppressing its opponents with the help of its owned armed force. The opposite action also happens when accusation comes against the state of carrying out state terrorism. It has been done by many political organization for fulfilling their aims and objectives. Left wing & right wing political parties, religious group, nationalistic group, ruling government, revolutionaries are into this practice. The main symbol of terrorism is to exploit fear of human being for achieving their goals. One of the major terrorist attacks in the world is the bombing of TWA Flight 800. The flight was exploded and it crashed into Atlantic Ocean. This incident happened in 1996 on 17th July. It is the US’s third deadliest aircraft accident.212 passengers and 18 crew members were there in the flight. All of them lost their lives on board. The most prevailing reason of this incident mentioned in TWA Flight 800 conspiracy theories is that a missile being strike on the flight from U.S Navy Vessel or from a territory. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) invested this incident for long four years. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also did a parallel investigated of this matter. On 23th august 2000 the results of the investi9gation came out. It is the most complex, extensive and costly investigation of air disaster in the history of U.S.   Discussion The explosion of the TWA Flight 800 is one of the most deadly aviation accidents. This incident happened on 17th July 1996 in the evening at about 8.31pm.EDI. The Flight departed from John F. Kennedy Intl Airport of New York in U.S. The weather was good with light winds and scattered clouds. The sky was in dusk light condition. It had a stopover in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, in France. The final destination of the flight was Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Roam. The aircraft type was Boeing 747-131.there was total 230 people on the flight among which 212 were passengers and 18 were crew members. Approximately after 11 minutes the flight was flying at an altitude of 13700 feet above the sea level. The plane was flying over the Atlantic Ocean of south Long Island of New York. Just after the flight received the clearance to start a climb to the altitude of cruise, suddenly the plane was exploded. The incident happened without any warning. As soon as the explosion occurred, thousands pounds of kerosene licked from the wing tanks & centre of the plane. It vaporized and created an orange fireball scene along the cost of Long Island. Under the glow of the fireball the plane completely crashed into the ocean. A huge cloud formed over the ocean and the ocean water was full of expanding bubbles. Radio transmission from the plane last occurred in 20.30. Then the crew got the acknowledged guidance from New York Centre for climbing 15000 feet. The last radar transponder was recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at Trevose, Pennsylvania radar site on 20.31.12. Just after thirty eight seconds the captain of Eastwind Airlines Boeing 737 gave information to Boston ARTCC about the explosion that he just had saw. Many other pilots operating in that area reported to air traffic control centre of New York , Long Island about the explosion of the flight they saw. There was many witness of this incident who saw or heard of the explosion (Birkland, 2006, pp- 35-39). Various civilian, police vessels, military reached the place where the plane was crashed. They searched for the people who were boarded on that plane. But no survivors were found. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was informed on that very day of the accident. A full team of investigator from NTSB gathers in Washington. They arrived on the place of accident in the early next morning. Till that time the initial description of the witness present on that place led many people to believe that the plane crash was caused for a bomb explosion or for any missile attack. The criminal activities are not investigated by NTSB. So FBI started investigating the incident with the support of NTSB. FBI started a parallel criminal investigation and NTSB was doing investigation of the accident. The recovery and search operation were also conducted by Government contractors & local agencies. Laser line scanners, side-scan sonar, Remote-operated vehicles (ROVs), all were used in investigating & searching underwater debris. Scuba divers and ROV’s recovered the victims from under water. Scallop trawlers were used latter on for recovering wreckage from the ocean floor. It is one of the largest salvage operation ever conducted in U.S which was assisted by divers. This operation was often conducted in very dangerous and difficult conditions facing many troubles (Cole, 1999, pp.73-77). The result of this is 95% of the flight wreckage was recovered. The recovery and the search report focused mainly on three areas of the wreckage of the flight underwater. The green zone, red zone, yellow zone contained wreckage from rear section, centre and the front of the aircraft. The portion found very far from the flight path was the green zone along with aft portion. All the wreckage pieces were transported to Grumman Aircraft facility in Calverton, located in New York. This was done for examining those things. Grumman Aircraft facility became the main centre for investigation. Persons from FBI & NTSB were present there for observing and preserving the wreckage’s evidentiary value. The Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder were found after a week by the U.S Navy. Those were transported to the laboratory. The victims were moved to Suffolk County Medical Examiners Office in New York. The eyewitnesses of this incident were interview. Many of them told that they had observed a "streak of light" which was moving towards the plane. After that a large fireball appeared on the sky and spitted into two as it came near to the ocean. Many of the people believed that the "streak of light" was a missile. It struck with the flight and caused the explosion. After some days of the incident many executive from the industry privately concluded that the flight was shot down. Initially there was a report that Air Traffic Control radar had picked up something which detected a blip merging with the plane just before the explosion. It could refer to the possibility of missile hit. But this report was quickly withdrawn. The pilots of other flights in that area has eyewitnesses that fact had also mentioned about the bright object striking with the flight. According to the news more than 100 people eyewitness this thing and supported the reason of missile striking. Attention was also focused on test missile as initially a claim was there that no explosive residue was found on the wreckage of the plane. So normally when a missile is used or tested for training have inert package of same weight, size of real warheads. This missile does not explode. But striking of these missiles with plane will cause explosion. The investigator also considered many other probable causes for the flight explosion such as a bomb explosion inside the plane or explosion of fuel in the fuel tank of centre wing. Wreckage’s close examination gave no prove of structural faults, mechanical damage, corrosion which could result in the breakup of the flight. Breakup could have been started by the separation of the flight from inside from the cargo door located in the forward part of the plane. But the evidence indicated that the door was locked and closed. NTSB came to the conclusion that the in flight breakup was not initiated by pre existing condition in which will result in structural decompression and failure of TWA flight 800 (Matza, 2014, pp 53-55). The recorded data was reviewed from different way in a long range. The airport surveillance radars exposed multiple contacts of the flight TWA 800. No contracts among theses could intersect the flight’s position. Focus was given to the Islip data of New York which mentioned three tracks in the surrounding area of TWA 800 which was not mentioned in radar data. None of these data showed radar returns consistent with other objects or missile coming towards the flight. Explosive’s residue trace amounts were found from three separate locations on three material samples. FBI describes those things as materials like canvas and pieces of two floor panel FBI examine those things and determine that those things contained presence of cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine (RDX), RDX and penta-erythritol tetra-nitrate, nitro-glycerine. Backs of many passengers’ seats had brown or red shades particles on them. Those substances were tested in the laboratory of NASA. And those particles were indentifies as adhesives used in the seat. By more examining the flight’s seat, structure, and other internal components no such damage was found which was associated with bomb blast or striking of missile. None of the missing areas of the flight was large enough to cover the possible damages caused for the detonation of missile or bomb. The body of the victims also did not show any prove of injuries caused by any strong energy explosive. The NTSB mentioned about the possibility of the residue of the explosive was for the contamination from dogs training explosive detection which was done one month ago before the incident or from the contamination of flight of 1991 used for transporting troops at the time of gulf war. After the research it was found that the residues of the explosive which was found on the wreckage completely dissipate after 2days in sea water. It was not determined the exact cause of the presence of the explosive residue on the parts of the flight. For the lack of evidence related to explosion and missile attack let the NTSB for concluding that TWA flight 800 had an in flight breakup for any other reason (Negroni, 2013, pp.64-66). The fuel or air vapor explosion generates pressure in breaking the fuel tank which leads in the destruction of flight. NTSB concluded that the condition of the test at Bruntingthorpe was not matching fully with the condition on TWA 800 during the accident time. Based on the breakup sequences of the airplane’s accident, researches and scientific tests on explosion of fuel tanks, fuel, witness information analysis the NTSB concluded that the explosion of TWA flight 800 was initiated by fuel explosion in CWT. The cause of the disaster was reported after four years. In concerned to TWA flight 800 two conspiracy theories prevail. These are missile strike & terrorist bomb on the plane. The people who supported this reasons and explanations believes that NTSB did not investigated properly, their report was made to cover up the actual cause, they did not had all the evidence which was required to reach correct conclusion. On the 17th anniversary of this tragic incident a TV channel made a documentary which highlighted that the incident was covered up. It showed many interviews of the eye witnesses which directly described their version of the incident. The documentary was objected to public. The interviews of the investigators who were involved in this case were shown. Six of the investigator filed petition for reopening that case. They filed the petition based on the evidence of radar which indicates the possibility of the missile strike and on the statement of the eyewitness. They also claimed that the evidence was tampered. Henry Hughes He former NTSB investigator believes that bomb or missile had caused the flight to crash. So from all these evidences, statements and controversy the crash of TWA flight 800 can be accounted as a terrorist activity of killing 230 innocent people and creating a fear among the people (Schwester, 2011, pp 80-85). Conclusion Terrorist activities have their dominance in the world from a long time. With the advancement of the technology and culture terrorism is taking its new shape. But it main ideology of terrorizing people and taking their lives for political, religious and for some other issues remain the same. The disastrous incident of the TWA Flight 800 can be called as an example of terrorist activity. The plan crashed over the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. No one survived in this accident. For a long time investigation was done in U.S by FBI & NTSB. But none of them found the actual cause. The sudden explosion of the flight and crashing done into the ocean still remains as a mystery. There are many controversies associated with this incident. Many witnesses are there to support the reason that the accident happened because a missile stoke into the plan. But the investigator denies this fact. They found many evidence from scientific researches and analysis proved the eye witnesses wrong. Investigator assumed that there might have some other technical faults like fuel tank explosion and other problem which caused this explosion. Many rumors and theories are present with this incident. The investigation involved a huge cost. It became one of the world’s deadliest aircraft accidents. Terrorism activity is not well proved in this case but people always suspect this as a terrorist activity destroying many lives. Still many people want a reinvestigation of this case for knowing the actual reason of plane crash. The government could only investigate that incident and could not punish any individual or group of people for taking life of 230 people. The incidents like hijacking of plans by terrorist and other incidents of terrorism associated with aircrafts makes people believe stronger about this incident as a terrorist activities. References Birkland, T. (2006). Lessons of disaster: Policy change after catastrophic events. Washington: Georgetown University Press. Cole, M.D. (1999). TWA Flight 800: Explosion in Midair. London: Enslow. Matza, M.N. (2014). Disasters and tragic events: An encyclopaedia of catastrophes in American history. California: ABC-CLIO. Negroni, C. (2013). Deadly departure: Why the experts failed to prevent the TWA Flight 800 disaster and how it could happen again. New York: Harper Collins. Schwester, R. (2011). Handbook of critical incident analysis. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Read More