AS THE opening of the Olympic Games in Atlanta today heightened fears of an act of terrorism, the investigation into the mid air explosion of a TWA jumbo jet off Long Island was stepped up.
President Clinton warned against assuming it was caused by a terrorist bomb. He insisted in a brief statement of national sorrow that awe do not know what caused this tragedy" which has claimed 230 lives. Earlier TWA put the figure at 228.
ABC News reported that a major Arab newspaper had received a warning there would be an attack on an American target from the group Movement for Islamic Change which has been blamed for a bombing last November in Saudi Arabia which killed three US servicemen.
The State Department spokesman, Mr Nicholas Burns, said that ABC may have mistranslated or misinterpreted the message which did not seem to be a specific threat.
The explosion of the 25 year old Boeing aircraft minutes after taking off for Paris was being treated as a "potential crime" and the FBI was assisting in the investigation. White House and State Department spokespersons had said that there were no "credible" claims of responsibility.
Over 100 badly burned and mutilated bodies were recovered yesterday and brought to a temporary morgue on Long Island while grief stricken relatives were being counselled at a hotel near Kennedy Airport. There was criticism of TWA by the mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, for increasing the distress of the relatives by the delay in confirming the names on the passenger list. TWA officials said they were following required procedures.
The small town of Monioursville in northern Pennsylvania was in a state of shock when it was learned that among the victims were 16 students from the local high school with five adults. They were flying to Paris for an educational tour.
A claim that one of the two flight box recorders had been recovered among the wreckage could not be confirmed by the vice president of the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), Mr Robert Francis, who is heading the investigation. Navy divers and sonar equipment were rushed to the area about nine miles south of Long Island to recover bodies and wreckage. A container of AIDS virus contaminated blood was on the aircraft but experts said that there was virtually no risk to rescue workers.
A Mayday distress call was picked up just before the explosion of the airliner but TWA said that there was no evidence that it came from the jumbo.
Security at Athens airport, from where the plane had flown to New York, was regarded as inadequate by US authorities but was strengthened last May.
The take off of TWA Flight 800 was delayed by an hour at Kennedy Airport when there was a baggage unload because a passenger who had checked in failed to board the plane. But the passenger later arrived.
. TWA's Amsterdam office was evacuated yesterday after police received a telephoned bomb threat, ANP news agency said. Bomb disposal experts found nothing.