Fbi Close To Calling It Sabotage Chief Investigator Denounces ‘Cowards’ Responsible

The FBI Friday moved closer to declaring the crash of TWA Flight 800 on Wednesday an act of sabotage, as investigators pored over debris for signs of an explosion aboard the Paris-bound 747.

Preliminary examination of pieces of the wreckage points to an explosive device aboard the plane, federal sources said, but significant questions remain and much of the evidence seems inconclusive.

“They think, from the pieces that have come up, that it may have been a device, based on patterns, marks and holes,” a federal source close to the investigation said. “But they still need to get it under a microscope, and that hasn’t been done yet. There are also people at the makeshift morgue looking for rug or floor material that may have been driven up into bodies from a cargo hold explosion. So far that is a negative.”

James Kallstrom, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, emphasized that he is not yet ready to declare the crash an act of terrorism, but his anger seemed to indicate otherwise.

“Anyone who would do this to a fellow human being is a coward,” Kallstrom said.

The bodies recovered so far - 100 whole corpses and numerous additional body parts - do not contain microscopic traces of metal, which probably would be evident if a bomb made of metal were used, said Charles V. Wetli, the Long Island medical examiner. Plastic explosives would not give off such traces.

The remains were not charred, as they would have been if a bomb were in the passenger cabin, Wetli added. The crash killed 230 passengers and crew members.

TWA’s president and CEO, Jeffrey Erickson, also suggested that the crash was not an accident. “There’s been no indication of a mechanical problem,” he said.

Pounding seas off the coast of Long Island, which sickened rescuers and severely hampered efforts to retrieve pieces of the jet, prevented divers from raising the largest chunk of wreckage, discovered about 120 feet deep. Searchers have yet to pinpoint the whereabouts of the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder.

“We have the people here, we have the equipment and we have a plan, but the weather is not cooperating,” said Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, at a briefing last night. The most important goal, he said, is to recover the aircraft’s flight recorders.

Francis did reveal that the jet was equipped with another automated flight data system that routinely communicates engine and other mechanical information to ground observers. A signal from that system indicated that the jet’s engines were operating normally one minute after takeoff. “There were no anomalies in that,” he said.

Francis also said that less than 1 percent of the total wreckage has been recovered so far.

For his part, Kallstrom last night somewhat edgily defended the pace of the investigation. No cause was identified for the World Trade Center bombing for 2 days, he said.

Among Friday’s other developments:

Unidentified sources quoted by ABC News said a federal agency received a claim of responsibility for the TWA explosion from a group tied to Ramzi Yousef. He is now on federal trial in New York City, accused of plotting to blow up 12 West Coast-bound airliners in a single day in 1995.

Yousef, 29, who says he is innocent and is representing himself at the federal trial, is also accused of bombing a Philippines Airlines flight in December 1994, killing a Japanese passenger. Authorities also believe Yousef was the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.

The group said the TWA explosion was in retaliation for Yousef’s capture, ABC said. An FBI spokesman refused to comment.

Investigators traveled to Athens, where the 747 spent much of Wednesday morning. The Athens airport was declared a security risk by the US Department of Transportation last March, prompting published warnings on all tickets for flights to Athens. In May, however, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena lifted the ban. Authorities are closely studying the names on the passenger list for the 747 flight from Athens to New York, to see if one might be linked to a terrorist group. CBS News reported last night that a Lebanese citizen on a terrorist watch list had sought to board the the TWA aircraft in Athens, but that neither he nor his baggage made it on the plane.

The Pentagon has ruled out the possibility that the plane was hit by a missile fired from a shoulder-launcher on land, believing the jet was too far off the coast to have been within range of a missile shot from land. They are continuing to investigate the possibility, however remote, that a water-based launcher was used, sources said. A witness reported Thursday that he saw flare-like flashes in the sky before the plane exploded. But the witness, National Guard Maj. Fred Meyer, said Friday, “There was nothing I observed that gave me any indication that the streak of light I saw was caused by a missile. I don’t know what I saw.”

TWA’s Erickson denied reports that some of the luggage on the plane may not have been X-rayed for explosives. But an aviation security expert said the airline’s difficulty in producing a complete passenger list raises questions about whether it kept proper track of the bags on board. One additional New Englander, Elaine Loffredo, 50, an off-duty TWA employee from Glastonbury, Conn., was added to the list of victims Friday.

At the Ramada Inn at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, family members of victims from around the world prepared to begin the process of identifying their loved ones. An estimated 110 families congregated at the hotel, where reactions ranged from anger to grief.