Lahr

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Crash and the Investigation

At approximately 8:19 p.m. on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 left John F. Kennedy Airport in New York en route to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris. Twelve min- utes after departure, the Boeing 747 aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone on board died. According to the government, many eyewitnesses reported seeing a “streak of light, resembling a flare, moving upward in the sky to the point where a large fireball appeared.” The eyewitnesses then saw the fireball split into two as it descended toward the water.

The National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) launched a broad-based civil investigation into the cause of the crash.1 As part of its efforts, the NTSB appointed several entities to assist in the investigation, including the Boeing Company, the Air Line Pilots Association, and TWA. Initial examination of the eyewitness reports and information from the cockpit voice and data recorders led the NTSB to narrow the possible causes to three: structural failure of the airplane; a bomb or missile; and an explosion in the fuel tank. The pos- sibility that a bomb or missile destroyed TWA Flight 800…