After missile visibility tests were conducted in April 2000, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the NTSB determined that if witnesses had observed a missile attack, they would have seen: a light from the burning missile motor ascending very rapidly and steeply for about 8 seconds the light disappearing for up to 7 seconds upon the missile striking the aircraft and igniting the CWT, another light, moving considerably more slowly and more laterally than the first, for about 30 seconds this light descending while simultaneously developing into a fireball falling toward the ocean. None of the witness documents described such a scenario. thumb|left|Another frame from the CIA's animation depicting how the left wing of TWA Flight 800 was shorn off and created a second fireball Because of their unique vantage points or the level of precision and detail provided in their accounts, five witness accounts generated special interest: the pilot of Eastwind Airlines Flight 507, the crew members in the HH-60 helicopter, a streak-of-light witness aboard US Airways Flight 217, a land witness on the Beach Lane Bridge in Westhampton Beach, New York and a witness on a boat near Great Gun Beach. Advocates of a missile-attack scenario asserted that some of these witnesses observed a missile; analysis demonstrated that the observations were not consistent with a missile attack on TWA 800, but instead were consistent with these witnesses having observed part of the in-flight fire and breakup sequence after the CWT explosion.
After missile visibility tests were conducted in April 2000, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the NTSB determined that if witnesses had observed a missile attack, they would have seen: a light from the burning missile motor ascending very rapidly and steeply for about 8 seconds the light disappearing for up to 7 seconds upon the missile striking the aircraft and igniting the CWT, another light, moving considerably more slowly and more laterally than the first, for about 30 seconds this light descending while simultaneously developing into a fireball falling toward the ocean. None of the witness documents described such a scenario. thumb|left|Another frame from the CIA's animation depicting how the left wing of TWA Flight 800 was shorn off and created a second fireball Because of their unique vantage points or the level of precision and detail provided in ,their accounts, five witness accounts generated special interest: the pilot of Eastwind Airlines Flight 507, the crew members in the HH-60 helicopter, a streak-of-light witness aboard US Airways Flight 217 a land witness on the Beach Lane Bridge in Westhampton Beach, New York and a witness on a boat near Great Gun Beach. Advocates of a missile-attack scenario asserted that some of these witnesses observed a missile; analysis demonstrated that the observations were not consistent with a missile attack on TWA 800, but instead were consistent with these witnesses having observed part of the in-flight fire and breakup sequence after the CWT explosion.