INVESTIGATORS combing the sea floor off eastern Long Island have found a trail of luggage several miles from the rest of the wreckage of TWA Flight 800. This reinforces their suspicion that a bomb in the jet's forward baggage hold brought down the Boeing 747 last month.
Searchers using an experimental laser scanning device found suitcases and clothes nearer Kennedy International Airport than any other debris, suggesting that items of luggage were blown out of the aircraft before it exploded in a fireball on July 17th, killing all 228 people on board.
The discovery of the luggage has provided investigators with their first significant clue in almost a week of increasingly frustrating underwater detective work. While agents are convinced that the jet was brought down by a bomb, the massive search has so far yielded no conclusive evidence of sabotage.
Officially investigators insist they are still considering three possibilities a bomb, a missile, or a catastrophic mechanical failure. The missile theory has been boosted by reports of a test firing in the area several days before the crash.
So far investigators have learnt most from the location of the wreckage, 120 feet under the Atlantic. Parts of the nose and first class compartment were found IV miles from the rest of the aircraft, suggesting that it was effectively decapitated by a blast.
With the discovery of luggage nearer Kennedy Airport, investigators have now found debris along a six mile track, suggesting that most of the aircraft may have remained airborne for as long as 24 seconds after the initial explosion.