UFOs hit Gander
Unfettered,foolish opinions are flying on the Net
about what caused the Arrow Air crash
You could call it a case of dueling  theories. Or dueling conspiracies

Either way, the crash of the Arrow Air flight in Gander in 1985 has spawned a legion of theories connecting the crash to everything from the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger to the Lockerbie crash of Pan Am 103.

And the fallout from that crash is perhaps the best lesson possible why accidents involving the actions of government agencies have to be fully and publicly examined—everything from air crashes to police shootings— even when they seem straightforward.

Perhaps much of the current creativity can be traced to the uncertainty over the crash itself; with Canada's Transportation Safety Board split on the results—five members believed the crash was the result of icing, four mem

‑ bers disputed that conclusion—the door to other theories was left wide open.

And some of the stuff that has bolted through that door has been truly incredible.

Take the theories of Lieut.‑Col. T.E. Bearden, a retired nuclear engineer who believes the Arrow Air Crash was the result of a Soviet test of an eIectromagetic weapon.

The language is a

bit heavy, but Bearden's theory suggests "Soviet 'over‑the horizon radars'—with infolded Whittaker bidirectional EM wave structures to provide distance‑independent holog

, raphy and dispersion‑free phase conjugate shooting—locked‑on and destroyed a U.S. Arrow Airlines DC‑8 jet aircraft at Gander International Airport, Newfoundland.

"It was a brutal, cynical, overt act of war by the Soviet Union."

The electromagnetic weapon, he maintains, had already sunk a U.S. submarine, created 20‑inch snowfalls in Tucson, Arizona, and caused power disruptions on a number of aircraft, and was ultimately used to destroy the Challenger space shuttle (theories about the failure of O‑rings notwithstanding).

Contrast that with the story put forward by Charles M. Byers, who wrote to the Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Oversight Committee, saying, "For 15 years, my company, Accuracy Systems Ordinance Corporation, provided specialized explosive devices to law enforcement, the military, Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency"

Byers' letter, now an Internet staple, goes on to say that, when it comes to the bomb he says caused the Arrow Air crash, "our firm designed and manufactured the responsible device exclusively
HIDDEN AGENDA
RUSSELL
WANGERSKY
The Telegram Tue.Jan.23/01
St.John’s, Nf. Canada 

for,and sold it only to the CIA"

Hold your breath now—in Byers' world, the CIA blew up the plane to prevent the leak of information about a failed plan to use a nuclear backpack bomb to sabotage an Iranian nuclear project. And the backpack bomb—on its way back to its U.S. armoury on board Arrow Air —supposedly made its presence known after the crash.

"There was a glowing white‑hot object the size of a large grapefrui t that had burned through the plane and 	through the body of

	                        	a stewardess. The 
The object continued to glow 'white‑hot' for 16 hours, even after
fire hoses were trained on it.

"This is NOT chemical behavior. It is what can only be expected of a sub‑critical core of a nuclear bomb whose explosive shell had burned but did not detonate."

Byers' letter maintains the US. government blew up its own aircraft and soldiers—just as, he claims, the CIA blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

No, I am not making this up.

The problem is that the nature of the Gander crash—and the differences in the aviation community about whether it was brought down by wing icing or by a terrorist act—has woven its demise along with 248 U.S. servicemen and women, firmly and inextricably into the fabric of worldwide conspiracy theory

All in all, it's the best advertisement possible for the full, open and complete investigation where the state is in any way investigating its own actions or omissions.

The alternative is Arrow Air, fast becoming our own little X‑file.

Russell Wangersky is the assignment editor of The Telegram. He can be reached by e‑mail at rwangergthetelegram.com