FBI eyes TWA jet's Athens leg

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. Continuing their efforts to learn what caused TWAFlight 800 to explode, investigators said Friday they werequestioning passengers on the earlier Athens-to-New York leg.

"We are interviewing all the passengers," said Assistant FBIDirector James Kallstrom. "We know who they are, we have themanifest. I think I'll leave it at that."

Kallstrom refused to comment on a WNBC-TV report Thursday nightthat said a TWA employee encountered a stranger on the plane beforepassengers boarded, and escorted him off the jet when the man couldnot produce identification.

Three more bodies were reported recovered Friday, leaving 26 ofthe 230 victims still missing.

Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National TransportationSafety Board, gave some insight into the frustrations of the probewhen discussing a new piece of wreckage that could be key to solvingthe riddle.

The 8-foot-long piece appeared to have come from above theplane's second doors, where investigators believe the jumbo jet wasblown apart at 13,700 feet. But it was not found in the field ofwreckage closest to the airport, where investigators would haveexpected it to be.

"It continues to be extraordinary," Francis said. "You thinkthings are starting to look like they've got a pattern, and all of asudden there's something that comes . . . from left field."

In addition, all four engines from the airplane have beendisassembled and examined, and there is no indication that theycontributed to the crash, investigators said.

Three truckloads of plane debris were hauled up Friday,including a 35-foot section of fuselage with all its windows intact -one of the largest single pieces of airplane found yet.

About half the plane has been recovered, but small pieces ofwreckage remain scattered over a five-mile area 120 feet deep in theAtlantic Ocean.

The plane was on the tarmac at Kennedy Airport for at leastthree hours after arriving from Athens before it took off July 17 forParis. The plane exploded off the Long Island coast.

Investigators continued to theorize that the plane was destroyedby a bomb, a missile or a mechanical malfunction. If it was a bomb,likely hiding places would be in carry-on luggage or a food cart in agalley.

Contributing: Washington Post