Attachment

Statement of Donald Kerr

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today to discuss the FBI's
investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800.

On the night of July 17, 1996, I responded to a page and was advised that a TWA 747 in the sky just off the south shore of Long Island had disappeared from the radar and was believed to have crashed. Because I was the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office Criminal Division, I was directed to report to the Coast Guard Station at Moriches, New York and was assigned to oversee and direct the FBI's efforts for what we initially believed would be a search and rescue operation.

Upon arrival, additional reports came in that changed the nature of our mission, including that there had been a large explosion and fireball, that all communications from the plane had been normal, that no distress calls had been issued, and that numerous eyewitnesses reported seeing flarelike objects and other events in the sky. Within a day, the law enforcement team had interviewed numerous eyewitnesses, including some who witnessed the events while in the air, and many of them provided credible accounts of these flarelike objects. Recognizing the limits of our own capabilities, the FBI contacted the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and requested assistance in evaluating these reports of events in the sky.

Two days after the crash, experienced analysts from DIA's Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MISIC) were on the scene in Long Island and accompanying FBI Agents on interviews and reinterviews of some of the eyewitnesses. The MISIC personnel who reported to Long Island are among the U.S. Government's foremost experts on shoulder launched surface to air missiles, known as MANPADS. They reported to us that many of the descriptions given by eyewitnesses were very consistent with the characteristics of the flight of such missiles.

In addition, at the time of this tragedy, Ramzi Yousef was on trial in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York charged in a conspiracy to blow up twelve U.S. airliners, simultaneously, over the Pacific Ocean. Yousef's plot, for which he was subsequently convicted, was not the stuff of science fiction. In fact, he had already tested his theory of concealing a small shaped explosive charge on an aircraft, a test that resulted in the death of a Japanese citizen.

It is against this background - a sudden disappearance of an aircraft, with no distress calls, in an explosive fireball resulting in the deaths of 230 men, women and children - with descriptions by credible eyewitnesses deemed by government experts to be consistent with the flight of a missile - at the same time that one of the world's foremost terrorists was on trial in Federal court charged with an audacious conspiracy to attack American airliners - that the FBI launched its criminal investigation of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy, an investigation that would become among the most far reaching and thorough ever conducted by the FBI. If there was ever a chance, whether it was 10% or 90%, that this catastrophe was criminal, that a terrorist operating under the flight path of one of the nation's busiest airports had brought down an aircraft with a shoulder launched missile and could still be at large planning further attacks, it was critical that a proper and aggressive investigation take place immediately.

Hundreds of FBI Agents and other law enforcement officers responded almost immediately, including elements from the FBI/NYPD Terrorist Task Force, the ATF, Secret Service, US State Department, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Park Police, INS, Port Authority PD, Suffolk County PD, Suffolk County Park Police, Nassau County PD, New York City PD, NY State Police, along with the NTSB, the FAA, the Coast Guard and the United States Navy, whose divers worked around the clock risking their lives to recover the bodies of the victims and, later, the aircraft wreckage. In the first days after the crash, many of the law enforcement team were assigned to the Coast Guard Station in Moriches receiving the bodies of the victims of the crash and, in the following days and weeks, witnessing the autopsies conducted by the Medical Examiners Office. Mr. Chairman, as the Agent in Charge at the Coast Guard Station, I can tell you that everyone involved in that task was deeply and emotionally affected by this experience and their hearts went out to the families of these victims.

As the Committee knows, the FBI's responsibility for conducting investigations in a case such as TWA Flight 800 flows from a number of Federal statutes, including, among others, terrorism, destruction of aircraft, crime aboard aircraft, false statements. In this investigation, the FBI and the law enforcement team initially focused on the possibility that the aircraft was destroyed by a missile, either a direct hit on the plane or a proximity explosion, a bomb placed on the aircraft, to include in the center fuel tank area. As a result of some of the initial interviews of mechanics and other information we received, the FBI also looked at that the possibility of Federal criminal violations applicable to any intentional violations of regulations or reporting requirements relating to compliance with certification procedures for aircraft products and parts, manufacturing quality control or maintenance and safety procedures. Our investigation included more than 7,000 interviews, including eyewitnesses, individuals in contact with the aircraft at both JFK and in Athens, family members, and passengers from the flight that preceded Flight 800; we reconciled and traced all luggage and cargo placed on the aircraft; reviewed all unusual event reports, stolen motor vehicle and boat reports, records of all boats traveling through New York Harbor and the area of Long Island, records of all drawbridge openings on Long Island for a three month period; our Laboratory conducted over 3,000 residue examinations and ultimately, together with NTSB, engaged in a massive reconstruction of portions of the aircraft. An outline of our investigative efforts is attached to my statement and is submitted for the record. The result of the FBI's 16 month long investigation was that no evidence was found which would indicate that a criminal act was the cause of the TWA flight 800 tragedy.

I understand that there are several issues of particular interest to the Committee and I would like to address them briefly. In the recovery effort, the FBI treated all the recovered wreckage as evidence and endeavored to maintain the best possible chain of custody of the evidence we could given the large amount of wreckage recovered (over one million items) and the fact that it had to be recovered, for the most part, from the ocean floor, 120 feet below the surface. All evidence was brought to the hangar at Calverton where it was initially handled by FBI evidence response teams and examined by certified bomb technicians, metallurgists, and chemists for explosive damage. Pieces exhibiting any unusual characteristics were referred for subsequent intensive testing/examination. As investigators, we knew from the outset that science and the work of scientists would play a crucial role in the investigation, as it does in many of our investigations. We, therefore, aggressively sought to locate and use the finest scientific minds and techniques available to provide insight and direction to our efforts.

Examinations and analyses were conducted by scientist from the FBI Laboratory as well as outside experts, including the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California; U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Lab Fort Rucker, Alabama; U.S. Air Force, Wright Patterson AFB, Aircraft Accident Investigation Office, Dayton, Ohio; Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Bethesda, Maryland; Defense Intelligence Agency, Missile and Space Intelligence Center, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; Picatinny Arsenal; Hughes Missile Systems, Hughes Aircraft Company; a Contract Metallurgist recommended by the FBI Laboratory and Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory.


I am well aware that there was some tension and disagreement between the New York Office Field investigators and metallurgists at the FBI Laboratory over the need for additional intensive testing of some of the recovered wreckage. The field investigators were mindful that the aircraft damage noted as being possibly indicative of a bomb or a missile could also be attributed to the stresses of the break-up of the aircraft. However, this investigation, and the possibility that the aircraft could have been brought down by a missile or a proximity missile explosion was, in our view, unprecedented.

As I understand it, the FBI, indeed the U.S. Government, had no baseline forensic data regarding a missile strike on a commercial aircraft such as a Boeing 747 to use as a basis of comparison. We sought additional intensive examination of what certified bomb technicians had identified as unusual pieces to see if there was anything unusual that could be observed. We firmly believed that we owed no less than a complete, thorough and exhaustive effort to the victims and their families. We did not desire to speculate or project results; we wanted, and the families and the American people deserved, the best science available to the government.

As I said earlier, we recognize the critical role of science in many of our investigations and we have a high degree of respect for the talents and insights provided by FBI scientists, who are among the finest forensic scientists in the world. They provide insight, direction and very often, the critical evidence necessary to bring a case to a logical and just conclusion. However, it is important for all of us involved in investigations to understand and respect our various roles. Ultimately, when there is disagreement on whether or how to proceed, the responsibility for the decision rests squarely on the shoulders of the investigators in charge of the case.

The FBI conducted the TWA Flight 800 investigation in a professional, responsible, and methodical manner. We worked to ensure that we were thorough and complete before coming to a conclusion as to whether this tragedy was the result of a criminal act. Can you imagine, Mr. Chairman, if we had not pushed to look at every possibility, no matter how remote; if we had relied on cursory examinations by magnifying glass and not sought to use every sophisticated tool of science available to us to reach a decision in this case and later found out that this was a very sophisticated criminal act or had overlooked something that may have brought us to a different conclusion. I and all of the law enforcement people who worked on this would not have been doing our jobs and would have been, rightly, subject to harsh criticism.

Let me briefly address the issue of jurisdictional disputes with the NTSB. Mr. Chairman, you cannot have an investigation of this magnitude, with the level of media attention this case attracted, with the number of people and the number of agencies involved that ran for as long as this one did without from time to time having disagreements or differences of opinion that need to be resolved. When we had differences of opinion, we sought to, and, usually did, resolve them amicably. Some of these disagreements were the result of our very different methods of conducting investigations. The FBI had no problem in sharing investigative results with NTSB and the morning after the crash, we offered to have NTSB personnel participate in all our interviews. Overall, the cooperation between the FBI and the NTSB was excellent at every level. All of us who were involved never lost sight of the reason we were there, of the goal of our efforts, which was to determine what caused TWA Flight 800 to plunge in a fireball into the ocean with the terrible loss of 230 lives.

I would also like to address the issue of the ATF report dated January 20, 1997, concluding that the cause of the crash was a mechanical malfunction. ADIC Kallstrom received that ATF report on Thursday, March 13, 1997. On Monday, March 17, 1997, ADIC Kallstrom forwarded a copy of the report to NTSB Chairman, Jim Hall, as evidenced in the transmittal letter, a copy of which is attached to my statement. Allegations that the FBI attempted to hide the report from NTSB are ludicrous. It is also inexplicable that NTSB now fails to recall receiving Mr. Kallstrom's letter.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I want to state for the record that the FBI's investigation of the TWA Flight 800 was one of the most thorough and finest ever conducted by this agency. We have learned much from the experience of TWA Flight 800 and have been working, under the leadership of the FBI Laboratory along with NTSB to institutionalize what we have learned, to incorporate it into our procedures so that we improve our response and investigative product in the event a tragedy like this recurs in the future.

In early March, in furtherance of this effort, we held a meeting at Calverton that brought together representatives of virtually all the agencies that participated in the TWA investigation. The meeting was productive and additional meetings will take place in the future. Separate from that effort, we have held several preliminary discussions with NTSB in an effort to write a Memorandum of Understanding between our respective agencies, to formalize and structure our relationship in a manner that leads to improved training, better understanding of our respective missions and investigative requirements and, better service to the American public.