Washington - The Federal Bureau of Investigation suppressed a report blaming mechanical failure for the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 because its own theory was a bomb or missile, the Washington Post said yesterday.
The paper said that in January 1997, six months after the plane crashed off the coast of Long Island killing all 230 people on board, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) issued a report that the crash was caused by mechanical failure.
But the FBI dismissed the report as "unprofessional and reprehensible", according to the newspaper, because it was convinced the flight had been attacked. The FBI declined to comment on the report yesterday.