You are at the A. Ol'khovatov www-page: http://olkhov.narod.ru/tunguska/awst1.htm

The last update: July 20, 2009.
NOTE FOR VISITORS

1. TWA FLIGHT 800 EXPLOSION
2. AIRCRAFTS AND BALL LIGHTNINGS
3. OTHER "LIGHTS" IN THE LONG ISLAND AREA
4. EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990?

Unlike my opinion on Tunguska event, I am not completely convinced that the July 17, 1996 TWA Flight 800 tragedy was caused by a geophysical phenonenon. I can not completely rule out "missile" idea, or anything else, as I am not very deep in this investigation. Nevertheless, I think that some remarkable aspects of the crash are worth to consider.
Several years have past since an explosion of the Boeing 747 TWA Flight 800, but its origin is still disputable (see for example, ARAP www-site, and NTSB www-site). For example, 2/3 of participants of AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY magazine poll were not satisfied with the NTSB investigation.
In 1997 I read several articles in AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY magazine about the tragedy. An idea came into my head, that maybe it was neither missile strike, nor just accidental fuel vapor explosion, but a geophysical event. As a result, I wrote a letter to the magazine, which was printed after some editorial board shortening.
Here it is, published in the July 28, 1997 (p.8) issue of AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY magazine with the idea that the July 17, 1996 TWA Flight 800 crash possibly was caused by a geophysical phenomenon, which sometimes is called 'geophysical meteor', or 'geometeor'( see my geophysical meteors article ). But as the name 'geophysical meteor' was (and still is) poorly known, I had to call it "rocket lightning", which is better known. Unfortunately the latter one hints on a thunderstorm nearby, as there is no need for any thunderstorm in the case of a geophysical meteor.
A geophysical meteor is a moving luminous (sometimes dark!) more or less compact object, often looking like a meteoroidal meteor, and having properties of a ball lightning. Its dimentions sometimes can be much larger than a classic ("thunderstorm") ball lightning. Empirical data reveals that geometeors are used to appear during atmospheric instable conditions i.e. atmospheric airpressure variations, before cloudiness increase (besides thunderclouds, of course), etc., and gravitate to geological inhomogeneties (faults, ore and water deposits, etc.). It hints that geometeors are result of a coupling between atmospheric and subterranean (tectonic) processes. In an utmost case, when atmospheric factors strongly dominate, we have a classic ("thunderstorm") ball-lightning. In another utmost case, when tectonic factors strongly dominate, we have meteor-like "earthquake lights".
Probably, nowadays we can consider geometeors as a a high-speed kind of ball-lightnings. Despite that their physical mechanism is unknown, there is some observational/empirical knowledge about them.

"ROCKET LIGHTNING", MAYBE

Reading the details of the TWA Flight 800 crash, I found facts about "the streak of light" and radar "blip" interesting.
These facts hint that the TWA 800 aircraft could have been a victim of the rare natural phenomenon called "rocket lightning". It often shoots up in a single streak of light like a rocket and can burst like fireworks. Its nature it not clear but is between ordinary and ball lightning. In 1963, a Boeing 707 flying near Elkton, Md., was destroyed by lightning. It probably entered the fuel tank and caused vapor to explode. Lightning strikes against aicraft miles from thunderstorms are known; they're called "bolts from the blue".
Also interesting was the sound captured by the cockpit voice recorder. Lightning can be accompanied by a swish, click, hiss, rip or other sounds.

Andrei Ol'khovatov
Moscow, Russia

Please, pay attention that apparently a geometeor is much more dangerous for an aircraft than ordinary (linear) lightning. The reason is that the linear lightning hardly penetrates inside metal aircraft, while geometeor, (being evidently a kind of high-speed ball lightning) makes it much easier (examples are in the text below).

Since that time much more info appeared on the event, icluding witness's accounts. Through Internet I get some limited geophysical data associated with the event. And it seems that the data is in favor for the proposed geophysical interpretation.

Let's compare this with shooting down a Russian TU-154M airliner by Ukrainian S-200 missile over Black sea on October 4, 2001. In that case there were no any eyewitness of a missile, just an explosion of the airliner was seen. Almost all fragments and 'black boxes' had sunk at 2km depth. Russian president V. Putin in a few hours after the crash announced that a hit by Ukrainian missile can be ruled out, and Pentagon, after initual claim for possible Ukrainian missile hit, prefered not to be involved (insist). Ukrainian militaries, and even Ukrainian president L. Kuchma denied the missile hit. But evidences (of the missile strike) from the few fragments found on a sea surface were so compelling and overwhelming (numerous holes in the airplane fragments, fragments of a missile) that in a few days a state commission was to recognize the Ukrainian missile strike, despite very strong political problems it resulted.
And compare this with TWA Flight 800 situation, where almost all airplane's fragments were recovered from shallow-water area!

The TWA Flight 800 missile theory has many problems. Besides well-known ones ( i.e. that no traces of missile explosion were discovered ), I would like to attract attention to the fact that in reality the witness's accounts don't conform the missile theory too! Here are the arguments.

- Several witnesses reported about a "loud sharp noise", and "paper cracling sound", simultaneous with the "object" explosion (as it was predicted in my letter above!).

- Real experience with Stinger-type missile shows that it usually brought down rather small military aircrafts by knocking out their engines. It is practically impossible that a small Stinger-type missile warhead could tear off a giant "head" (cockpit) of Boeing-747. On the other side, according to "missile" supporters, the missile was able also to transfix easily the giant aircraft (and leaving no traces inside!)
By the way, I even don't discuss here what is to successfully launch (being almost outside of the missile range) a missile from a small boat moving at 56 km/h in a sea... Moreover, some of triangulated (see www.twa800.com) "missile's launch sites" show that they were originated in clear water, i.e. without any vessel nearby, and/or far outside Stinger-type-missile launch range!

But even presence of a superman with the mysterious supermissile can not save the missile interpretation, as some witnesses stated that at first they heard thunder-like sounds (some of them shook the ground! - according to an expert, at least in order of 1 t TNT must be exploded...), then saw an "object" in flight (a Stinger-type missile reaches its maximum range about 5 km for about 10 seconds, and its sound could travel just 3 km for this time, while majority of witnesses were on shore at least 10-15 km away...).

In other words, as soon as supporters of "missile theory" begin to try to develop their theory, they completely confuse with large descrepances at once, and practically the only what they can say is about the streak of light, and problems with NTSB explanation.

On July 12, 1999 Paul Angelides gave an account of what he saw during the TWA 800 downing to Cmdr. Donaldson. In the interview Angelides stated: Paul Angelides: After work on July 17, 1996, I went to our ocean front summer rental house to have dinner with my wife and 1 year old son. After dinner my wife was bathing our son before putting him to bed so I decided to go to the ocean side deck to enjoy the view. As I walked through the sliding doors to the deck a red phosphorescent object in the sky caught my attention. The object was quite high in the sky (about 50-60 degrees) and was slightly to the west and off shore of my position. At first it appeared to be moving slowly, almost hanging and descending, and was leaving a white smoke trail. The smoke trail was short and the top of the smoke trail has a clockwise, parabolic shaped hook towards the shore. My first reaction was that I was looking at a marine distress flare which had been fired from a boat. I said to myself, someone must be in trouble. I quickly realized that the object was too large and then began moving too fast to be a distress flare. I followed the object as it moved out over the ocean in the direction of the horizon. I lost sight of the object, as it was about 10 degrees above the horizon. In the same area of the sky out over the ocean, I then saw a series of flashes, one in the sky and another closer to the horizon. I remember straining to see what was happening as there seemed to be a lot of chaos out there. There was a dot on the horizon near the action, which I perceived as a boat. The flashes were then followed by a huge fireball, which dropped very quickly into the sea. I yelled to my wife. Come here quickly you've got to see this.
Tom Dougherty: "I looked up because it sounded like thunder. I kept looking trying to figure out what it was. And that's when I saw a flare come off the water. The flare, trailing orange flame, shot up roughly at a 45 degree angle, then rapidly increased it's angle of ascent.... Then it appeared to strike something." After the missile hit the plane, the plane glowed very bright as part of it fell and then, after becoming luminescent, it burst into flames. This was the strangest thing I ever saw. Everyone calls it a 'missile theory,' but when you see something, you know what you see, and I didn't see a theory."
Witness No. 238:
"While he was fishing in Moriches Inlet, he was standing in his boat facing northeast, trying to untangle his fishing line, when something caught his attention out of his right eye. He looked in an east/southeast direction and saw what he described as a perfect column of red yellow flames with a black "spinal cord" of smoke running down through the center. He compared the size and shape to a radio tower. He stated that he thought that perhaps a propane tank might have exploded on the sand bar which separated him in the inlet from the ocean. He said he watched the flames for about ten (10) minutes [seconds?] and then went back to his fishing line. When he looked up again later, the flames were gone, leaving a column of black smoke with a small gray mushroom cloud on top. He did not see any objects and only heard two muffled sounds approximately fifteen to twenty (15 to 20) seconds after seeing the flames. He stated that it was a clear evening and there was still daylight [8:15-8:30PM]."

Witness No. 372:
"He was on a boat located west of Ponquogue Bridge. He was facing southwest. His friend brought the incident to his attention. From behind the dunes, a tube of reddish/orange fire appeared to go straight up into the sky. It took off like the space shuttle. It appeared to be 100 feet wide and 1/2 mile high. When the fire reached the highest point, it appeared to split into two pieces. At this point, the flame disappeared and a big black smoke cloud appeared. The black smoke remained for a couple of seconds. Then, a white puff of smoke appeared above the area of the black smoke cloud. The black smoke disappeared and the white smoke remained for at least four or five minutes. The smoke remained after he left the area. Twenty to twenty-five seconds after the initial sighting, he heard two booms 'back to back.'"

Here is the last one from www.twa800.com (see a map here):

USAir Flight 217 crossed Flight 800's path heading NNE about 24 seconds after Flight 800 passed. Flight 800 was at 13500 ft. and climbing. USAir217 was above at 21500 ft. When Flight 800's transponder stopped sending data, it was approximately 2 miles ahead, one mile to the right and 8000 below USAir217. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dwight Brumley was on US Air Flight 217 from Charlotte, North Carolina to Providence, Rhode Island. Mr. Brumley was seated in seat 5F at the window on the right side of the aircraft. He saw a streak of light overtaking his aircraft from right to left. As he lost sight of the streak he saw a large fireball erupt going from his left to his right. He then lost sight of the fireball as it disappeared underneath the right wing.

In other words, it is practically impossible for "missile" advocates to fit even just witness's accounts into their theory, and the only way to the missile theory to survive is an extremely large deep and successful US government's cover-up, including mass-distortions of data, mis- and dis-information, etc., with many people involved. I think, that despite such super-cover-up can't be completely excluded, it seems to be rather unlikely.

Besides the above-mentined successful prediction of the sounds simultaneous with the accident (by the way, in a case of a lightning their physical mechanism is still disputable), there are many other facts hinting at geometeors.

Here is an extract from NTSB Meteorological Factual Report [DCA96MA070], regarding NTSB investigation on possible lightning strike in TWA Flight 800. Please, pay attention to the text I marked in boldface.

On November 26, 1996 an individual with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Norman, Oklahoma was interviewed by phone. The following is a summary of the interview:
Clear air lightning can occur in clear air in the vicinity of a thunderstorm i.e. within a few kilometers of a thunderstorm. Clear air lightning probably does not occur in totally clear air. Some convection in the vicinity is needed. Cloud to ground lightning data from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) prepared by Global Atmospherics Inc. [see Report to Vice Chairman Francis 10/23/96] showed that the closest cloud to ground lightning stroke for the time period 0020 to 0035Z was located in East-Central North Carolina, about 361 miles from the accident site. The NLDN does not detect cloud to cloud or intra-cloud (within cloud) lightning strokes. Detection efficiencies off the coast probably drop to 60% (sensors are land based although the sensors have a very long range capability - 1,000's of kilometers).
An Optical Transient Detector (OTD), a space based sensor developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), can detect the full spectrum of lightning flashes, including cloud to ground, cloud to cloud, and intra-cloud. The OTD is on a satellite which is in a near polar orbit. According to an individual from the MSFC, phone contact 12/5/96, the satellite was over New Guinea at the time of the TWA 800 accident. Therefore, no data pertinent to the accident was available.
A Senior Engineer with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico reviewed lightning detection data from the National Lightning Detection Network [NLDN] and from the Niagra Mohawk Power Company lightning detection sensor array in Western New York State.
He noted on January 21, 1997 in a phone conversation that there is no convincing evidence of electrical activity at the time and in the area of the accident based on these data. Although data from the Wallops Island, Virginia NLDN sensor [LPATS sensor] showed an electrical transient about the time of the accident, this transient was not verified by the data from the Mohawk Power Company. The Wallops Island sensor�s area of detection includes the accident site. The exact location of the electrical transient is unknown. This electrical transient needed to be detected by more sensors to determine its exact location. The Wallops Island sensor will detect cloud to cloud and intra-cloud lightning.

It was described in BULL. AMER. METEOROLOGICAL SOC., vol.33, p.348 (1952). On July 21, 1952 an aircraft with trailing cable was struck by a lightning in a clear sky condition (there were no clouds of any type present at the plane location). About 10 miles away, there was an altocumulus cloud emmitting a light drizzle. The nearest lightning was seen about 50 miles away.

Let's check other hints at geometeors.

The development of the cloud cover is well-seen in the smoothed and averaged for the 6-hours long intervals cloudiness data, taken from NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center. On a cloudiness map for 18-24 UT July 17, i.e. right before the explosion, not much clouds were in the place of the event. But the situation have changed significantly just some hours later, and is seen on the map for 6-12 UT July 18.
Details of the development are even more impressive (see for 18-24 UT July 17, and 6-12 UT July 18).

If to establish a scale of my confidence: is weather in favor for geometeors (0 - "no", i.e. unlikely; 1 - sooner "no", than "yes"; 2 - sooner "yes", than "no"; 3 - "yes", i.e. likely), then I will give "3" in this case.

The TWA Flight 800 flight recorder (FDR) recorded strange sounds (similar to tape damage noise) at 00:31:05 UT. (at 00:31:03 the FDR recorded as a crew member pronounced some unintelligible word, just the second such word for the flight). Couldn't it be caused by some electromagnetic precursor event ( for example, a ball lightning, penetrated inside)?
Remarkably, that Navy P-3 airplane (which flew near the TWA Flight 800 explosion site about 15 seconds earlier than the latter) reported later that a part of its electronic equipment failed during the flight. Accidental coincidence? Maybe...

It was discovered by NTSB investigators, that the airplane electric wiring was evidently in bad condition, including some problems with it right before the explosion (read here), so the investigators even said that a weak disturbance can lead to a center fuel tank explosion. In other words, a collision with a geometeor could be just a trigger (a "last drop") in that case. By the way, the electromagnetic disturbance may be partly responsible for some anomalous data recorded in the TWA Flight 800 flight data recorder in its final moments.
For example, it seems to be the only plausible explanation for gyroes readings of the aircraft's roll jump from 0 degrees at 00:31:11 UT to 144 degrees a moment later (!), and then returning to normal 0 (!), which at once was followed by the stop/end of recording at 00:31:12 UT.
At least, I can't imagine how moderate (very weak for such giant aircraft, in reality) shock wave (as the missile supporters say) from Stinger-type missile could do it...
Some other "strange" damage of the aircraft can also be explained by electromagnetic effects. For example, the mysterious nosegear tire shredding (it is known that a lightning strike sometimes shreds and/or tears a tire), and some others given below.

Remarkably, that on March 12, 2001 Ian Goddard, an advocate of "missile theory" for several years altered his opinion to "missile with an electromagnetic pulse warhead", pointing to numerous evidences of electromagnetic surge on TWA Flight 800 plane wreckage (to tell the truth, I did not expected that the evidences of the surge would be so strong, if their discoveries by I. Goddard's are correct, of course).
Remarkably, that in January 2001 Ian Goddard e-mailed me that he had read this my www-page on the TWA Flight 800 crash... Hoping that soon he will alter his opinion further to "natural missile"...
It is interesting that NTSB in their document "Factors Suggesting the Likelihood that a Short-Circuit Event Occurred on TWA Flight 800" write (besides mentioning traces of probably electric arcing in the plane):

"Further, as noted previously, there are several indications that possible anomalous electrical events occurred in the airplane just before the explosion. First, the captain's CVR [cockpit voice recorder] channel recording has two "dropouts" of background power harmonics, indicating some type of electrical anomaly, less than a second before the CVR lost power."...

The second way of a geometer influence is a direct mechanical destruction, as sometimes a ball lightning does. For example, the reported numerous holes (perforation) in one area of the Boeing 747 right wing (see below) resemble those, which a ball lightning sometimes does.

...Former TWA pilot Al Mundo then talked about another aspect of the electrical spark theory: on Good Friday, 1995, when he was flying the plane that would become Flight 800 in July, 1996, the aircraft was struck not once but twice by lightning.
The plane did not explode.
"We were descending into Rome. We were at about 13,000-11,000 feet. There were two strikes of lightning, about three minutes apart. There was a loud bang, and a yellow flash; initially there was no indication of anything wrong in the cockpit."
But a photoelectric cell activated an inerting gas whose purpose was to smother any fire or smouldering that could be caused by an electrical spark. This was done on the first lightning strike.
Mundo said, "Upon landing it was discovered there was not only substantial damage to the right wingtip, it was also found that an electrical charge had gone all the way into the wing area, causing circuit breakers in the cockpit to pop and the wheel brake temperature indicators to register full scale when the brakes had scarcely been used. It is quite evident from this that a strong surge of electricty went through the wing.
"The damage incurred was extensive. The plane was out of service for a week," said Mundo.
But despite the damage that had been inflicted by the two lightning strikes, the plane was able to land safely. The inference is obvious: if the plane that expolded fifteen minutes out of JFK in the summer of 1996 was brought down by an electrical spark igniting the center wing fuel tank, why didn't two lightning strikes, which would certainly supply infinitely more voltage to the electrical system of the plane than the theorized stray spark, cause the aircraft to be blown apart?
Early on in the Flight 800 investigation, Mundo learned that there had been sooting found on the right wing vent system. "It seemed strange to me that if the explosion was initiated by the center wing tank, why would there not be sooting on both sides of the wing? I contacted personnel in the investigating team and suggested they check those records from the 1995 flight to determine if the sooting came from the lightning strikes. I was later informed that the records could not be located."...

The next extract is from Lloyd L. Mielke's www-site www.icstars.com/Flight800/TWAflt800Long.html (please, pay attention to the text I marked in boldface). L. Mielke writes that probably a meteorite struck TWA Flight 800:

...One of my former co-workers had spent several months at the Calverton Hanger in New York investigating the accident. He had told me early on of his findings. Following is some of what he wrote: "something came through Right Wing Upper area 29 feet (8.84 m) inboard of the Wing Tip and severed the Wing Skin and the Center Fuel Tank vent/stringer. The vapors in the Center Fuel Tank Vent/Stringer. were then ignited either by a spark, heat generated from a moving object or an open flame. A Fuel Vapor Fireball then proceeded down the Center Fuel Tank Vent/Stringer(65 feet or 20m ) and ignited the Center Fuel Tank Vapors."
The investigator continued, "The proof of the above will be found on the applicable Right Wing Upper Skin and Upper Vent/Stringers 29 feet inboard of the Wing Tip. There will be Trace Materials found on this structure that possibly can only be detected in a laboratory using the latest equipment." NOTE: A meteor could cause a puncture in the upper wing skin.
Also according to NTSB data. "At Wing Station 1542, which is at the exit the outboard main tank vent stringer, the upper skin contains an ~ 1"by 1" puncture, with the fracture surfaces curled into the surge tank. There is a yellowish-orange material on the fracture surfaces which is being analyzed." As far as we can find out this fracture surface has not been analyzed. This vent leads directly to the Center Wing Tank (CWT). Ref. NTSB Fire & Explosion Group report Page 105...

And the final extract, this time again from twa800.com. It is a witness #73 account (I marked some remarkable text in boldface):

...According to the official FBI eyewitness summaries, 21 witnesses saw one object hurling toward another. Thirteen of these described the target object as a plane. FBI Witness #73 had a pretty good view of the disaster.
Witness 73: "While keeping her eyes on the aircraft, she observed a 'red streak' moving up from the ground toward the aircraft at an approximately a 45 degree angle. The 'red streak' was leaving a light gray colored smoke trail.The 'red streak went passed the right side and above the aircraft before arcing back toward the aircraft's right wing. Described the arc's shape as resembling an upside down NIKE swoosh logo. The smoke trail, which was light gray in color was narrow initially and widened as it approached the aircraft... She never took her eyes off the aircraft during this time. At the instant the smoke trail ended at the aircraft's right wing, she heard a loud sharp noise which sounded like a firecracker had just exploded at her feet. She then observed a fire at the aircraft followed by one or two secondary explosions which had a deeper sound. She then observed the front of the aircraft separate from the back. She then observed burning pieces of debris falling from the aircraft."...

It seems that the object struck upper side of of the right wing, perforated it, grounded to the fuel tank vent, (and penetrated inside the fuel tank?), making some burn marks on its way...
I hope a specialist on the damage could check it, and correct, if it is needed.

So there are many hints at geophysical meteors in association with the TWA Flight 800 tragedy, and evidently the idea should be taken into account. Moreover that there are confirmed cases of aircrafts collisions with ball-lightnings (fortunately, lucky ones, so we know about the cases).

Examples of aircrafts collisions with ball-lightnings are rather known.
Here you can read (demands DJVU-plug-in) examples taken from pp. 38-43 of a book "The Nature of Ball Lightning" by Stanley Singer (1971, Plenum Press, NY).
Below are more fresh remarkable examples (I marked several interesting points in boldface) of contacts of an airplane with a ball lightning-like objects in none-thunderstorm conditions, and having "happy end", fortunately. Unlucky examples in aviation were not reported...

On Oct.16, 1981 a Soviet fighter plane was accompanied in none-thunderstorm clouds (and no any thunderstorm in the region) by a ball of light about 5 meters in diameter. The flying ball disappeared, accompanied with a sound of an explosion. A smell of burning appeared in a cockpit. The airplane engine stopped, but later a pilot was able to re-start it, and to land. There was some damage on the fighter plane: some avionics went out due to an electric fuse burned out, and the fighters's fin (vertical stabilizer) was damaged.

It was at altitude of 7000 meters, and cloudness was 5-6 points (i.e clouds covered 50%-60% of sky). No any lightning was detected visually, as well as by a radar. A bright white ball lightning, large as a tennis ball with some halo moved from an antenna connector to the pilot's seat (1.5 - 2 m) for about 20-30 seconds. Despite that it was for some time at distance from the pilot less than 1 m, he did not feel any heat from it. Then the ball lightning exploded and burnt out about 3 cub. cm of metal. All people in the cockpit were "blind and deaf" for 1-2 minutes after the explosion. All aircraft radiostations were out due to their electric fuses burned out. Later black burnt strips were discovered on antennas.

It happened with TU-104 jet airliner in August 1975. The plane was in complete cloud cover, and at 1.2 km height its crew saw as blue electric discharges appearred on window's glasses. They were 15-20 cm long, and periodically they "took off", and flew forward. Then, about 3-4 seconds later near the glasses a green-blue ball appeared with diameter 10-12 cm. It was followed by a deafening explosion, and flame covered the glasses. Later it was discovered, that the principal radiostation and radiocompass were burnt. Also a small auburn mark was on a metal strip crossing the glasses.

On Aug. 28, 1989 a Soviet military pilot was on training flight in the area about a border between the Rostov's and the Krasnodar's regions. At 17:31 (apparently Moscow time) at 4 km altitude he saw an orange fireball slightly to the right of his course. The fireball, as well as his airplane, were above clouds. The pilot reported about the fireball to the control center. The fireball approached the airplane, increasing to 2 meters in diameter. The pilot eyes were "burnt", and he hung his head. In his flight report he wrote that he had a feeling as somebody was looking at him, and in the right side of his head he said unpleasant feeling. He tried to get up his head but failed to do it due to unexplained fear. Emergency lamp "generator" switched on. The pilot reported it to the ground and then "fire" emergency lamp switched on. He saw a [smoke?] trail behind the airplane. His eyes "burnt" more strongly and smoke appeared in a cockpit... At last the pilot had to bail out (successfully).

AN 124 was in Algerian airport of town of Bousfer (spelling?). On the night of Dec. 20/21, 1999 there was a thunderstorm in the area. On the morning the thunderstorm went to the east, towards Tunisia, the weather got better, stars appeared between clouds. On-board radar showed (along their planned route to Byelorussia) remnants of cloudness, which followed the thunderstorm. Such cloudness doesn't produce any danger for aviation. It could produced drizzle, a weak turbulence, no more. So the airplane took off the the west, and soon commenced a right turn towards town of Algiers.
The altitude was 250 meters, speed 500 km/h. Suddenly the Captain saw ahead, just a little bit to the left of their course an approaching fireball about 2 meters in diameter. It was covered with turquoise (with yellow-blue tint) glow. For a moment the airplane "stopped", as it met some invisible soft spring-like obstacle. For some fraction of a second its speed decreased for 10-15 km/h. And something explode in the cockpit. The Captain was blinded for some minutes. It smelt as ozone, or something similar. There was a stalling/surging in one (out of 4) engine, and it was turned off. Flame was seen passing through the engine and getting out from its nozzle as a bright comet-like trail. The flash also was seen from the ground. The whole airplane was engulfed in a bright blue flame. The airplane glowed as a ghost against black sky background.
Many electric safety devices were out, but then restored (turned on). In 2-3 minutes the airplane was on its course. And again powerful flash and a strike in the airplane nose - much more powerful than the first one. The Captain was blinded for sometime again. Streams of molten metal moved flowing over the left windshild glass down of the nose dome/fairing. They looked like Bengal lights. About 1 meter of a lightning-protection-conductor was burnt out. The electric safery devices were out again, but but soon restored (turned on) again. The only exception was an upper radar. The airplane was able to fly to Byelorussia.
Later detailed investigation revealed that there was a large circular dent (diameter 120 cm) in the nose dome/fairing. The metal was caved in to the first airframe. There were holes in the dent, other parts of the airplane nose, and its belly, as from spot-welding. Electrostatic-protection devices (trails at the end of wings and fin to prevent an aircraft electric charging) were half-burnt. In many places paint was out/absent, and in some places even spackle was missing. The damaged radar was jammed. All its electronics was burnt, fused and charred. There were fissures on two blades of the damaged engine's turbine.
Interestingly that about a month later at the place of the ball lightning strikes, an engine of another AN 124 suddenly was out...

A Soviet 4-engines turboprop airliner IL-18 took off from Sochi on the Black Sea, in fair weather. Soon after the takeoff thunderclouds were noted about 60 miles away. Suddenly, at the height of 1 km, a fireball about 10 cm in diameter appeared on the fuselage in front of the crew's cockpit. It disappeared with a deafening noise, but re-emerge several seconds later in the passenger's lounge, after piercing in an uncanny way through the air-tight metal wall. The fireball slowly flew about heads of stunned passengers. In the tail section of the airliner it divided into 2 glowing crescents which then joined together again and left the plane almost noiselessly. Upon landing back in Sochi, holes were discovered in the fuselage fore and aft.

There is also a remarkable encounter of F-15 airplane with a "surface-to-air" fireball.

An interesting and important report by Dr. R.F.Haines (ex-NASA) called "Aviation Safety In America: Neglected Factor" dated October 15, 2000 just appeared. It deals with about similar phenomena in US aviation.

Dr. M. Stenhoff in his book BALL LIGHTNING. AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM IN ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS (1999, Kluwer Academic/Plenum publishers) summarizing data on aircrafts contacts with ball-lightnings, writes (p.117) that altitudes recorded for three cases of ball-lightning seen outside an aircraft are between 2500 m and 3400 m (mean value 3100 meters). Two cases record that the aircraft was ascending and one that the aircraft was descending at the time of the incident.
In other words, the situation is well-matched with the TWA Flight 800 plane...

A strange very bright, green object passed two commercial aircraft in the vicinity of Long Island, New York.

- November 16, 1996.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 712 left Kennedy at 9:25pm (probably local time, i.e. EST), bound for Frankfurt. The pilot, W. Shah, said his co-pilot saw an orange light coming from the left hand side to the right hand side of the airplane. The object was 3 - 4 miles in front of the aircraft and above it. Boston apparently confirmed 'two unidentified blips' on radar. The tapes were turned over to the FBI and NTSB since the object(s) rose directly out of Long Island Sound and ascended almost vertically. Radio 5 in the U.K. reported that the object which crossed the Pakistani aircraft had exploded. On a McNeill - Lehrer newshour, when asked about the direction of the object, Mr. Kallstrom (FBI boss) admitted that it was "ascending". TWA Flight 884 was following close behind the Pakistani flight. Another report on this incident stated: "This evening I flew flight 1504 FLL to BOS. It was an extremely clear night over the Eastern Seaboard. You could see the Connecticut shoreline from Cape May, NJ. We were at FL 330 just east of JFK proceeding direct to PVD. It was about 10:15 PM when an aircraft asked center the following question: were there any fireworks going off in the area. Center replied in the negative, to the best of their best knowledge. The aircraft then reported they had something streak up towards them from the left and pass in front of them and through their altitude. There was silence on the frequency. I asked center the position of the aircraft reporting the event. Center replied 20nm south of HTO. It was a foreign carrier, but judging by the accent of the pilot, I would say it was Air India or Pakistan Intl. I didn't get a call sign, and to my surprise, center did not ask any more questions. It was a crystal clear night, and we could see the Hamptons from our position. There were no fireworks taking place anywhere. Unless the controller was working both frequencies, the aircraft was at least climbing to or in the high sector. Fact is someone reported a streak that came from the ground and to the left of them and passed in front and through their altitude. It was 10:17 when center replied to me that the aircraft was 20nm south of Hampton. Is it merely a coincidence this is close to where TWA 800 blew up, or is something else going on? I don't believe the aircraft was flying inverted and that was a meteor that streaked by their windshield. Again I was amazed at the silence of the controller after the report. This event certainly got our attention." Kallstrom told Lehrer on the PBS Newshour of November 17, 1996 that object observed was probably a meteorite.

- March 17, 1997.

A "missile" was observed by Northwest Airlines 775, US Air 1937, Delta 2517 and Northwest Airlines 361. Northwest Airlines Flight 775 was traveling from Newark to Minneapolis and Flight 361 from Laguardia to Minneapolis. Both flights departed at 6:55 PM and reported the missile about 15 Minutes into their flights.

On my scale of confidence I give "3".

- August 9, 1997.

On August 1997 two Swissair pilots had to "duck" at 23,000 feet over Long Island. Swissair has revealed that an unidentified flying object almost collided with one of its planes over the United States. The captain and his co-pilot said an oblong and wingless object shot past at great speed - only fifty metres away from their Boeing 747. The Swissair pilot reported his 747 jet was nearly hit by an unidentified flying object, possibly a missile, near the area off New York where a TWA airplane crashed in 1996, The Canadian Press has learned. Swissair Flight 127 was cruising at 23,000 feet on Aug.9, 1997, when the pilot interrupted an address to passengers to report the near miss by a round white object, says a report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "Sir, I don't know what it was, but it just flew like a couple of hundred feet above us," he radioed Boston air traffic control. "I don't know if it was a rocket or whatever, but incredibly fast, opposite direction." "In the opposite direction?" asked the controller. "Yes sir, and the time was 2107 (Greenwich mean time). It was too fast to be an airplane." The controller asked another aircraft if its crew saw anything like a missile in the area. The reply was negative. He then asked the Swissair pilot again how far above the plane it was. "It was right over us, right above, opposite direction, and, and I don't know, two, three, four hundred feet above. All that I can tell, 127, is that (we) saw a light object, it was white, and very fast." ..... "It passed over the cockpit, slightly right of centerline. If it had been any lower, it would have hit the aircraft. The sun was at the pilot's back. He apparently did not have time to take evasive action. ..... The first officer, whose flight time totalled 7,500 hours, said he was bent over to adjust the volume on his headset when he looked up and saw the object pass overhead "very quickly." "It was close enough that he ducked his head because he thought it would hit them... The FAA report quoted the captain as stating that the object "appeared to be moving" and "the object did not appear to have an exhaust plume, or resemble any characteristics of a rocket". The captain denied that these were his statements in contacts with staff of the UFO Research Coalition which conducted an investigation of the incident... The UFO Research Coalition Report on Swissair 127 ISBN 1-928957-00-5 (1999) Pages 7-8. Captain Bobet: 'The object appeared to be moving...' is a wrong statement. I insisted on the very high speed of the object at different occasions. So, the object did not APPEAR to be moving, it WAS moving. "In addition, the object did not appear to have an exhaust plume, or resemble any characteristics of a rocket ...." I NEVER mentioned the word "rocket" (or missile). I would have done so only if I was sure that we encountered one. Even though it was (and still is) very tempting to use the word, I will never use it as long as I am not 100% sure it was a rocket. Thus, I certainly did not say that "the object DID NOT resemble any characteristics of a rocket."

All of the data allows me to reconsider my scale of confidence for this event, and give "2".

The unexplained "dive" (40.3 N; 69.8 W) from 10 km altitude of the Boeing 767 at 6:50 UT (1:50 am EST) on October 31 led to a catastrophe. The origin of it is not resolved (see here and below).

SUBMISSION ABSTRACT The Boeing Company, as the airplane�s manufacturer, is acting as a technical and operational advisor to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigation.
Our conclusions in this submission are based on factual information, the expertise of our staff, information using analytical tools, and a methodical investigative process. We devoted approximately 13,000 recorded man-hours to this investigation, as well as the use of a simulator, two 767 test airplanes, and other sophisticated equipment.
Flight control surface movements recorded on the digital flight data recorder (DFDR) are capable of generating the airplane flight path recorded by the DFDR and radar.
Based on the examination of the recovered wreckage, Boeing did not find any evidence of a failure condition within the airplane flight control system that could have caused or contributed to the initial pitchover, or prevented recovery from the dive.
Boeing participated in examining all potential failure conditions developed during the investigation and could not find a failure condition that: (1) matched the data recorded on the DFDR or (2) resulted in a condition that was not recoverable by the pilot.
Therefore, Boeing does not believe that the loss of Egyptair 990 was the result of a mechanical failure of the aircraft or aircraft systems.

There is another point of view below (I marked some interesting places in boldface):

August 17, 2000 (Reuters). EgyptAir Chairman Mohamed Fahim Rayan said on Thursday he was 99 percent sure a technical problem and not a suicidal pilot caused an EgyptAir plane to crash last October, killing all 217 people aboard...The NTSBs 1,665-page assessment appeared to dismiss Egyptian theories of technical problems but did mention alleged lewd behavior by the relief co-pilot Gamil al-Batouti...Rayan said the suicide theory did not fit with the planes controlled descent, mentioned in last weeks NTSB report. He said that the switching off of the planes autopilot just before its fatal descent did not constitute evidence for the theory because it had disengaged itself three times during the planes earlier flight from Los Angeles to New York... The Egyptian side has demands which must be seen through, such as radar and air traffic control information... There are mechanical issues about the hydraulic bell cranks and elevators, he said. The Egyptian Pilots Federation said last week it wanted U.S. authorities to release radar images and to question an air traffic controller on duty at the time of the crash, as well as three pilots from Germany, Jordan and Britain, said to have seen missiles while flying in the area where the plane went down. Last week EgyptAir said metallurgical analysis of wreckage showed that the rivets on two of the three bell cranks in the right elevator were sheared in a direction that would force the elevator down. The rivets on the other bell crank were sheared in the opposite direction, a pattern EgyptAir said was consistent with the possible failure or jam of power control units that would cause the aircraft to pitch down...

Several pleasure boaters off the coast of Nantucket report seeing at least two large and silent triangular craft in the vicinity before reports of the loss of Flight 990 from radar. "The huge objects passed over us at an unbelievable speed," stated one observer. "There appeared to be a glowing light at each corner of the object, and stars and clouds behind it disappeared. That's how we knew it wasn't just an airplane, but something else." "We thought it was just a jet or something from JFK, but we had never seen anything like this." reported a group on a pleasure cruise on their sailboat. 'There were at least two of them, and they were totally silent and passed over us very quickly from east to west.'

Please, pay attention, that so called Hessdalen lights can also form the regular pattern - triangle in flight (see here).

Let's look at other accounts, this time taken from http://members.aol.com/bardonia/egyptair.htm

November 4, 1999 From Newsday (LI) Edition: Nassau and Suffolk The dull orange glow caught Stuart Flegg's attention in the dark sky of a bracing Halloween night on Nantucket island. And for the next four to five seconds, his eyes tracked the light falling down ... until it vanished into the horizon formed by the ink-black Atlantic Ocean. Hours later, Flegg and his friend Scott Proffitt, who also saw the dime-sized orange spot, concluded they'd viewed the flaming wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990, which plunged from 33,000 feet at 24,000 feet per minute on what was supposed to be a routine flight from New York to Cairo. .... they called police, and Tuesday, they told their story to the FBI. "What caught my eye was like an orange glow in the sky. And then it was falling rapidly. I mean, it was falling very fast. And then, about halfway down, it started slowing down," Flegg, 32, said yesterday. "And then the flame got a little wider. As it was falling down, it got longer. And then it just kept coming down, going slower, slower, slower and then it just passed over the horizon from where I was." ...... At first, Flegg thought the small ball-shaped glow was a meteor, a comet or a shooting star, but it was moving much too fast. It "didn't look anything like" those things, he said. Proffitt, 22, said the orange light dotting the black sky initially looked like fireworks. "But then I noticed that it was way too far up in the sky to be a Roman candle and too far away," Proffitt said. "It wasn't an extraordinary brightness, but it got our attention. It was orange. If I had to pick a shade, I would say burnt orange." Both men said they heard no sound at all. The men, carpenters who work together, were among a group of about five left after a Halloween party of 40 or so people at the Fleggs'. They were seated in chairs around a backyard fire pit about a mile from the water enjoying the last moments with friends and some beer. Though they cannot pin down the exact time they saw the glow, they said it was between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., when they retired for the night. The plane's signal was lost shortly before 2 a.m. more than 50 miles south of Nantucket. .... "I believe I saw the plane," Proffitt said yesterday. "I mean, there is no other explanation for what I saw. We were facing the right direction, it was the right time of the night, and I know it was not a shooting star. So I definitely believe I saw the plane." The men told their story Monday to local folks and to two local television crews. The next day, two FBI agents showed up with a lot of pointed questions. "They asked me how the lawn was set up with the yard chairs," said Stuart's wife, Monica Flegg, 34, who had gone to sleep before the crash. "I showed them the yard and showed them how it was set up. Then they interviewed Stuart and Scott, separately." Flegg said he told them he was facing south-southeast, with Proffitt sitting to his left. He said he saw it first, tapped Proffitt on the shoulder, and said, "Look at that." He told them there is very little light pollution off Nantucket, that you can see a "long, long way," and that he often sits in his backyard and watches airplanes on similiar flight patterns. Sometimes he can even see their shining lights. Flegg acknowledges that he and the others had had "a couple beers" that night, but, "I mean, we weren't falling over backwards, stone drunk." "I know what I saw-that's what I told the FBI guys," Flegg said. "I don't care what they say, I know what I saw. It was definitely that plane going down that I saw. It was definitely on fire." Officials say none of the wreckage recovered so far shows evidence of fire.
The FBI may prefer that Flegg and Proffitt be perceived as unreliable witnesses given their consumption of "a couple of beers", yet the wreckage does indeed indicate that the "fire" they saw did not come from the aircraft. Both of them describe the EgyptAir 990 incident using phrases such as: orange glow .... dime-sized orange spot . .... moving much too fast ... fireworks ... flame .... Roman candle .... no sound .... not a shooting star.
Flegg stated that there is "no other explanation for what I saw" yet the descriptions he and Proffitt provide are remarkably similar to numerous eyewitness descriptions of TWA 800's destruction.

The question imposing itself now is: Why did the US investigation authorities refused to allow the Egyptian investigation team to review certain parts of the FBI official report? These parts have been reported to include the testimonies of two eyewitnesses from an island nearby the spot of the plane's crash. "The two saw a UFO. One of them thought that it was a comet. The other said that comets move from up to down, not the opposite, thus, this UFO can never be a comet." said the report.
Just after their short conversation, they saw that UFO hitting the plane. They immediately reported the matter to the FBI. The following day, they knew of the crash of Egypt Air flight 999, what a coincidence!

...At the time, a German was piloting a business jet, some way behind flight 990. He saw both dives. He was aware that the plane was in distress, and changed his course to maintain closer proximity. The lone pilot then picked up on his radar screen a fast-moving blip of an object coming towards both his plane and the Egypt-Air jet. He performed evasive maneuvres and watched a missile pass his plane and strike Flight 990 in the tail section. He saw the jet plunge into the sea. Upon his return to Germany, he was visited by three FBI agents, who told him that he 'did not see what he saw...

I also have been told by an Egyptian investigator about a Jordan pilot, who was shown on Qatar TV, and said that he left JFK 3 hours before EA990 and after taking off, 45 min at 33,000 feet, the pilot went to the toilet and then he was surprised to hear the co-pilot screaming and uttering some religious muslim words, and he was scared to death,the pilot came back and tried to calm him down, and he told him that he saw a fireball coming to them at a very high speed and it did in fact pass near...

Please, pay attention, that some aspects of the above-mentioned stories may sound, to say, strange, but we always should to remember about political meaning of the results of the investigation... But despite that mis/disinformation can not be completely ruled out in some cases, appearences of similar info in completely different sources and some other aspects hint that probably some phenomena were real indeed.

The idea about missiles means a super-cover-up, and seems unlikely for many reasons. Morever, some details of the missiles's descriptions don't resemble known types of missiles.
By the way, behaviour of the relief co-pilot Gamil al-Batouti also doesn't resemble behaviour of a man who decided to suicide. My impression is that the co-pilot became a witness of something extraordionary and dangerous (probably even scaring), and as a result he turned off auto-pilot, then 7 seconds later he decreased engine's throttles. Finally, a second later he pushed pilot's column into "dive" (by the way, the sequence of events doesn't conform with airplane's elevator's failure as origin of the dive).

According to the geometeor interpretation, the "missiles", the "burning aircraft", the "UFO", and possibly the "something" seen by the co-pilot could be in reality specific manifestations of atmospheric electricity.
Indeed, it is rather strange that no words were said in the cockpit of the airplane during its final minute on the origin of this extreme dive. For me there are two most plausible reasons for this: the airplane co-pilot was scared, and the origin of the airplane dive was evident and frightening, so it was hard to talk about. In the absence on any known significant failures in cockpit, the absence of the words hints that the origin of the dive was seen outside the airplane, and probably in threatening proximity.
By the way, the presence of the atmospheric electric phenomena can explain unknown thumps and clicks recorded by CVR in a minute preceding the auto-pilot was turned off.
Remarkably that according to NTSB investigation, during the final few seconds of the CVR recording, a noise identified as an unsquelched background radio noise, was heard on the First Officers radio channels of the CVR recording. This noise starts at 0150:25.04 EST and continues until the end of the recording....

Let's check meteorological data.

NOAA satellite images (taken from www.saa.noaa.gov ) show the cloud formation even more clearly. Just look at the Oct.31 images in the satellite's band 4 (infrared), and see the development of the cloud's formation: image of 8:34 UT ( its map); image of 10:37 UT ( its map); image of 13:43 UT ( its map); image of 21:55 UT ( its map).
You can see "explosive" clouds appearence between 10:37 UT and 13:43 UT.

The development of the cloud cover is well-seen in the smoothed and averaged for the 6-hours long intervals cloudiness data, taken from NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center. On a cloudiness map for 0-6 UT October 31, i.e. right before the explosion, there are already some cloudiness in the place of the event. But on the next map for 6-12 UT October 31 18 the cloudiness increased significantly, and the rise continued further ( see a map for 12-18 UT October 31).
Details of the explosive cloudiness development are impressive (see for 0-6 UT October 31, 6-12 UT October 31), and 12-18 UT October 31).

It seems that the ill-fated EgyptAir Flight 990 was in wrong place and in wrong time!...

I give "3" on my scale of confidence that the meteorological conditions were in favor for geometeors.

Another remarkable aspect is ULF electromagnetic disturbances detected by Charlie Plyler from ELFRAD at the time of the crash (see here). As it was shown, at least some geophysical meteors were accompanied with similar disturbances. Remarkably, that one of the disturbances exactly coincided with the time of the accident.

One more remarkable event occured about a hundred km to the north of TWA Flight 800 crash site in May, 2000. A small airplane almost collided with a slow-moving fireball (see here).

A question may arise: why the geometeor's encounters with aircrafts are concentrated in the Long Island area? For me it seems due to two major reasons. The first one is that air traffic is extremely heavy in this region. And the second one. It is known that there are some regions where geometeors meet more often than in others, apparently due to geological (tectonic) and meteorological peculiarities of these regions. At least meteorologically the region is a border between continent and ocean, where various atmospheric instabilities can be expected.

Maybe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was right, saying: "There may be something in the atmosphere or weather conditions may be sometimes very tough there."!

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