NEW YORK (Mar 12, 1997 09:43 a.m. EST) -- An Air National Guardsman who
witnessed the explosion of TWA Flight 800 repeatedly told authorities he
thought a missile had struck the plane, a source said.
After searching for survivors the night of the crash, Capt. Chris Baur, a helicopter pilot, returned to his base and "told officials immediately he thought he saw a missile," said the source, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Baur's eyewitness report comes to light as critics of the investigation are claiming to have evidence suggesting that Flight 800 was shot down by an errant Navy missile. A Pentagon spokesman said investigators had thoroughly probed the issue, even inventorying the Navy's missile arsenal.
"All missiles owned by the Navy, by any ships, submarines, planes in the area, have been inventoried," said Kenneth Bacon, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. "There is absolutely no evidence to support this theory."
Many eyewitnesses say they saw something that could have been a missile in the sky the night of the crash. Baur's clear view from the helicopter and his military training would make his account one of the most credible.
Baur "saw a track of light and saw a hard explosion, then another explosion," the source said. The pilot then shared his observations with the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and investigators from the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Reached at his home Tuesday, Baur would not comment.
An NTSB investigator who interviewed Baur said that what the pilot saw could be explained by mechanical malfunction that might have created "a tongue of flame coming from the aircraft," according to the source.
The FBI seized a videotape early Tuesday from the Florida home of retired United Airlines pilot Richard Russell, who has long supported the theory that a Navy missile brought down the plane. He contends the tape is a copy of Federal Aviation Administration radar and that it shows an object speeding toward the jetliner.
The tape is to be reviewed by a federal grand jury, according to a second source, confirming a report published Tuesday in The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif. A grand jury has been considering possible criminal elements of the crash, but the exact nature of that probe isn't known.
Russell wrote a memo that was widely circulated on the Internet as proof of the missile theory. He has said he had proof of his claim, but hasn't produced it.
The NTSB and FBI continue to say they cannot yet determine whether the jumbo jet was brought down by a bomb, a missile or a mechanical malfunction. The July 17, 1996 crash into the Atlantic Ocean off New York's Long Island killed all 230 people aboard.