A meteorologist.

A commercial fisherman.

A commuter airline pilot.

Three eyewitnesses to the fiery midair breakup of TWA 800 share one clear recollection -- an ascending object struck the jumbo jet.

Yet when federal investigators reinterviewed 244 of the more than 400 eyewitnesses to the crash, no agency -- not the FBI or the CIA, not the Federal Aviation Administration or the National Transportation Safety Board -- conducted a follow-up interview with any of the three, whose accounts have not been widely published.

Their initial recollections, given within hours of the disaster July 17, 1996, remain part of the classified record of the second most deadly aviation crash in U.S. history.

"I find it all very intriguing," said Paul Beaver, an editor and missile specialist with Jane's, a British publishing and research group. Military organizations worldwide use the prestigious 100-year-old company's information for training and to keep track of each other.

"From Jane's perspective, we would like to say this leaves the whole question of what happened to TWA 800 in the balance," Beaver said in an interview. The accounts are "an indication that it may be something more than a catastrophic (mechanical) event."

The meteorologist and the airline pilot were among the first people to report the incident to authorities. All three said they talked to FBI agents within 24 hours of the incident.

FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette declined to discuss any eyewitness accounts. He said they were part of a continuing investigation.

The FBI is handling the criminal investigation, including the possibility that a bomb or missile strike brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747. All 230 aboard were killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is the head agency in the overall investigation, but is pursuing studies to determine if a mechanically created spark might have ignited fuel vapors in the plane's center wing tank.

The three witnesses each described colored objects heading upward until they disappeared with the emergence of a large fireball that later was identified as Flight 800. Two, who witnessed events from boats, described speedy flare-like objects while the third, an airline pilot, told of a strange yellow light that he thought might pass near his jetliner.

One saw a bright flash before the plane exploded and another saw the plane split into three pieces.

Beaver said accounts of a flare-like object, even on a zigzag course, ascending toward the plane are consistent with some types of missiles that use infrared guidance systems. He said a missile's burning solid fuel can emit a reddish glow, with the intensity and duration depending on the specific type of projectile and its purpose.

Beaver has been naval editor and aerospace and defense editor for Jane's. He is a pilot, British army reserve officer, has fired air-to-ground missiles and has observed missile tests.

A witness' account of how long he saw a reddish streak could be affected by the point in flight he picked up the object, Beaver said. A bright white flash, reported by some witnesses, could be solid fuel exploding, he said.

Some military drones, including a Banshee or Firebee, also emit red glows from the exhaust, with visibility depending on the background, Beaver said.

The accident's initiating event probably occurred at 8:31.13 p.m. EDT, NTSB officials say. Near sunset, the background and visibility depended upon whether witnesses faced east or west and their altitude.

The FBI investigated orange-colored metal in May that was found among the Flight 800 debris recovered from the Atlantic Ocean off New York's Long Island. Officials said the metal was compared with a Firebee drone -- a stubby, bright orange, jet fighter-shaped unmanned vehicle -- but results of the study have not been made public.

Some critics of the investigation, including freelance journalist and investigator James D. Sanders, said they believe the plane was shot down accidently during a Navy exercise in which a missile with an inert warhead tried to hit a drone but struck TWA Flight 800 instead.

The FBI said it investigated all known military ships, aircraft and units near the crash and found no evidence any was involved. The FBI has said that extensive tests of crash debris and other tests have found no physical evidence a missile or missile fragment was involved, but those possibilities remain on the official investigative list, along with a possible bomb and mechanical failure.

Another witness, ex-Air National Guard helicopter pilot Maj. Fred Meyer, was on a routine training flight that evening and said he saw a reddish streak and two aerial explosions -- the first reddish orange and the second bright white -- before Flight 800 erupted into a fireball. He said that, based on his military experience, he believes the airliner was struck by some type of military ordnance but could not be positive it was a missile.

His co-pilot, Capt. Chris Baur, said within hours of the incident that he thought a missile brought the plane down. Meyer said he has not been re-interviewed by the FBI since shortly after the crash and Baur is under government orders not to discuss the incident.

Beaver said the eyewitness accounts did not point to a specific missile or provide conclusive proof Flight 800 was brought down by a missile.

However, based on the eyewitness accounts, "I wouldn't want to put it (missile) out of the question," Beaver said. "It keeps the debate open, which is just as important."

FBI and CIA officials say they have reinterviewed and analyzed reports of 244 witnesses and determined that what the people saw happened after the initiating event and was "the burning (Boeing) 747 in various stages of crippled flight, not a missile." Some investigation analysts say witnesses mistook pressurized sprays of flaming fuel going downward for something that looked like a missile or emergency flare headed upward.

All of the witnesses interviewed by The Press-Enterprise said they were never reinterviewed by the FBI or CIA and what they saw started before the midair explosion, not after.

Neither the FBI nor the CIA would discuss their guidelines for deciding whom to reinterview or how they categorized witnesses' reliability.

Donald Eick

For Donald Eick and his family, the scene in the July 1996 summer sky is a permanent memory: a reddish flare-like object just off the water heading upward, zigzagging a little in an unmistakable vertical climb, a fireball erupting at the end of the ascent.

The initial drama took no more than 12 to 15 seconds, Eick estimates.

Then, the meteorologist, his wife and 12-year-old daughter saw three sections of aircraft "fluttering" toward the Atlantic Ocean.

The fireball and wreckage soon were identified as TWA Flight 800. The crash would become America's second-deadliest civilian air tragedy. The search for the cause, still unsolved 15 months later, would become the costliest aviation investigation ever.

Eick's description, previously given only to FBI investigators, is different than others because he says he and his family saw the plane separate: two parts in flame and one part seeming to arch upward before heading toward the Atlantic.

All other published accounts, including reports from airline pilots in the air, tell only of seeing lights, explosions or fireballs, but not the fuselage.

The Islip, N.Y., family was returning to Long Island's Great South Bay after a day of boating and swimming when Eick's daughter noticed the reddish light headed upward.

Eick does his work as a meteorologist for TWA, but he says that his link with the airline has no bearing on what he saw. He also is a civilian pilot and has participated in accident investigations.

"It was what we would best describe as a boat flare, a reddish object going up," Eick said. "It went up and a few seconds later we saw an explosion in the sky. I can't say if it came off shore or on shore. At first, we thought it was a boat flare. It zigzagged a little. We thought it strange.

"Then, several seconds later, we saw an eruption of fire. We never heard anything. We saw a fireball, and at that point we identified what was an aircraft. We could see it fluttering down. We were the third boat on Long Island to report the incident to the Coast Guard."

Eick said the family clearly could see three sections of wreckage, one of which lofted upward a bit before heading downward. That piece did not catch fire, he said.

Officials say the plane was at about 13,700 feet at 8:31.13 p.m. EDT when it began disintegrating.

"When I was interviewed by the FBI the next day, they were interested in the wreckage I saw go upward," Eick said. "I think it probably was the nose."

A classified NTSB report based on an examination of the wreckage said the nose separated almost simultaneously with some unknown event that produced excess pressure in the center fuel tank and began its collapse. The nose then plummeted, without catching on fire, to an Atlantic site separate from the main fuselage.

The report said the main part of the fuselage began a steep dive after the nose separated and the wing tips ripped off because of the intense strain, followed by the left wing and, sometime later, the right wing.

Eick said it was "completely erroneous" to believe that the red flare he and his family saw was fuel or other descending plane debris.

"It was something going up to it beforehand," he said. "Yes, I saw flaming debris go down. Something attracted us to the area before it exploded. And even my wife and my oldest daughter, we all were witnesses to it. There definitely was something there first before the aircraft went down."

The meteorologist estimated visibility at "about 20 miles and unrestricted." He said he and his family were about 10 miles from where TWA's wreckage rained into the ocean.

William Gallagher

William Gallagher, a commercial fisherman, had just finished trolling for squid when he saw a reddish light in the sky.

"I picked it up three seconds before it turned into a bright white ball, which split," Gallagher said. "I thought it was fireworks. And then I didn't know what to think because from the white ball, I saw two wide orange bands of light fall down, obviously the fuel igniting."

It was TWA Flight 800. When he returned to port, he called the FBI.

"I'll lay my ass on the table and tell the president or the FBI, and someone can hypnotize me: There was no way that red light was descending," Gallagher said. "It was ascending. It made contact with what turned out to be that airplane and made a white bright light and then split in two."

He thinks something is wrong with the investigation.

"If I were in a courtroom and the prosecutor says I've got an eyewitness, then I become a trump card," he said. "We're not just one witness but 135 or more strong."

Officials say more than 400 eyewitnesses were interviewed, many reporting a red flare-like or fireworks-like object ascending toward the plane.

"I saw something hit the right side of the plane," said Gallagher. "My opinion was it blew the wing off on impact. I assumed something went through the airplane, like behind first class and into the wing."

Gallagher, of New Jersey, has worked the ocean waters near the crash for more than 15 years.

"My honest opinion, my gut feeling, is that we have the most brilliant people in the world and the best technology," Gallagher said. "If they've been on scene for a year and they've not come up with something, as a critical thinker I have to ask, could they be covering up something?"

FBI and NTSB officials bristle at such comments and say they are meticulously searching for clues among more than 300,000 pounds of debris, with another 15,000 to 25,000 pounds missing and deemed unrecoverable.

David McClaine

Eastwind Airlines pilot David McClaine's aerial view of the Flight 800 fireball made him the person to transmit the first known message of the tragedy to authorities.

McClaine, piloting a Boeing 737 jetliner, had just leveled off at 17,000 feet on the plane's commuter run from Boston to Trenton, N.J.

He had been watching a strange yellow light gradually ascend from the direction of Kennedy Airport. The light was different, he said, not the bright white that jetliners' landing lights give off.

McClaine said he had never seen a similar light in his 30 years as a military and commercial pilot. He thought it might be flames but heard no radio traffic, saw no smoke and decided it wasn't fire.

The object moved up past 10,000 feet, where pilots normally turn off the lights they use as aerial warning beacons, but this one kept burning. He fixed his gaze on it for more than a minute, he said, and decided it was time to flick on his landing lights because his 737 would pass to the object's left.

Before he could reach the switch, the yellowish light exploded into a ball of flames.

"It blew up, just one big explosion," McClaine said. No more than a second later, two streamers came out of the bottom, flames trailing about 4,000 feet, he estimated. He did not actually see TWA 800's fuselage; smoke and flames trailing the plane blotted out the aircraft's debris as it fell 2 ½ miles to the ocean.

The yellowish light remains a puzzle. Federal Aviation Administration regulations require white landing lights and airliners have two main lights, not one. TWA's Boeing 747 landing lights are "a very bright, bright, white light," a company spokesman said.

Beaver, Jane's missile expert, said a minute would be an exceptionally long burn for a surface-to-air missile but a drone's propulsion system lasts much longer. The BQM-34 "Firebee" drone, for instance, has a range of 700 miles and can stay aloft for about an hour at full speed. Others have longer ranges and flying times.

McClaine immediately called Boston air traffic control with news of the in-flight explosion but got no response. He repeated the call twice more. A Boston controller told pilots to stand by for a roll call and orally ticked off the known aircraft.

"They called TWA 800 twice," McClaine recalled. "I said, `Boston, I think that's them'. And they said, `That's right.' " He said he thought at the moment that some "on-board incident," possibly a bomb, blew the plane apart, an opinion he still holds.

He said he had not changed his original conclusion because he could not say the yellow light was a missile or drone.

The incident held a special footnote for McClaine. As a youngster, he took the TWA flight often while traveling between the United States and Saudi Arabia where his dad worked for the Arab American Oil Co.

FBI investigators talked to him a few days after the disaster but he hasn't been contacted since, he said earlier this month. He was initially asked if he saw anything like the tail of a missile headed toward the plane but said he didn't.

Published 10/20/1997