Editing TWA Flight 800 (section)

===Controversy===
{{See also|TWA Flight 800 conspiracy theories}}
After the accident, former Joint Chief of Staff [[Thomas Moorer]] and former White House Press Secretary [[Pierre Salinger]] speculated that the airplane was destroyed by a missile, with a nearby U.S. Navy ship being the likely culprit.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://georgetowner.com/articles/2013/07/22/salingers-accusations-about-twa-flight-800-resurface-new-documentary/ |title=Salinger's Accusations About TWA Flight 800 Resurface in New Documentary &#124; the Georgetowner |date=July 22, 2013}}</ref> The NTSB's conclusions about the cause of the TWA 800 disaster took four years and one month to be published. The FBI's earliest investigations and interviews, later used by the NTSB, were performed under the assumption of a missile attack, a fact noted in the NTSB's final report. Six months into the investigation, the NTSB's chairman, Jim Hall, was quoted as saying, "All three theories—a bomb, a missile, or mechanical failure—remain."<ref name="cnn01172007">{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/17/twa/index.html |title=Six months later, still no answer to the TWA Flight 800 mystery |date=January 17, 1997 |work=CNN |access-date=June 18, 2008 |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613113437/http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/17/twa/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Speculation was fueled in part by early descriptions, visuals, and eyewitness accounts of the disaster that indicated a sudden explosion and trails of fire moving in an upward direction.

On June 19, 2013, the NTSB acknowledged in a press release that they received a petition for reconsideration of the investigation into the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20130619.aspx |title=Statement on Petition for Reconsideration of TWA 800 Investigation |website=www.ntsb.gov |access-date=2020-02-26 |archive-date=August 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809013218/https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20130619.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2014, the NTSB declined the petition to reopen the investigation.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ntsb-refuses-reopen-twa-flight-800-crash-probe-n147051 |title=NTSB Refuses to Reopen TWA Flight 800 Crash Probe |website=NBC News |date=July 3, 2014 |language=en |access-date=2019-07-10 |archive-date=November 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130235504/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ntsb-refuses-reopen-twa-flight-800-crash-probe-n147051 |url-status=live}}</ref> In a press release, the NTSB stated: "After a thorough review of all the information provided by the petitioners, the NTSB denied the petition in its entirety because the evidence and analysis presented did not show the original findings were incorrect."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20140702.aspx |title=NTSB Denies Petition on 1996 Crash of TWA Flight 800 |website=www.ntsb.gov |access-date=2019-07-10 |archive-date=August 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816203514/https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20140702.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref>