BACKGROUND TO THE PHOTOGRAPH

http://www.multipull.com/twacasefile/kabotbg.html

The Kabot photograph was taken by Linda Kabot at a Republican fundraiser at
Docker's restaurant. It was attended by over 200 people. Docker's is located
on the north side of Dune Road in East Quogue, Long Island. For an
orientation to Docker's and its relationship to the crash of TWA Flight 800
please see Field Trip to Docker's and Crash Area Coordinates.

According to the NTSB, Mrs. "Cabot" (Kabot) states she was using an "Cannon"
(Canon) EOS 7000 camera equipped with a 35-80 mm lens at 35 mm, with Fuji
ASA400 color film.

Many people at the fundraiser heard a noise. Some thought the noise was a
sonic boom. Others reported that it sounded like fireworks to them.

The film Mrs. Kabot shot between 8:20 and 8:40 PM on July 17, 1996 was
developed a week later. Lance Kabot, Linda's husband, discovered a curious
area in the background of one of the photographs. One person who saw the
original photograph stated it "looked like a cylinder with one end aglow."
An early news account described it as a "long, cylindrical object high in
the sky. It is in a roughly horizontal position, although its left end is
tilted downward. Its right end seems to be brightly lighted."

Eyewitness Tom Dougherty was leaving Docker's , and facing south, when the
"sonic boom/fireworks" noises were heard. He heard a series of noises as
well as seeing an ascending object south of Dune Road, over the Atlantic
Ocean. Witness Dougherty told me he saw three aircraft in the area prior to
the events he heard and saw: an HC-130 aircraft and two helicopters.

Some commentators have stated the image in the Kabot photo, whatever it is,
is inherently irrelevant to the subject of TWA Flight 800 because the photo
was taken while Mrs. Kabot and her camera were pointed north, away from the
site of the aircraft's explosion.

The FBI has stated it cannot ascertain what the object in the Kabot photo
is, although it is some type of an object in flight.

The NTSB has also not reached any conclusion concerning the meaning of the
photo. As of the NTSB hearings at Baltimore last December, the FBI had not
supplied the NTSB with a copy of its analysis. The NTSB was not given access
to the Kabot photo itself...as the FBI would only entrust a copy of the
photo to the NTSB.

Thus the NTSB's ability to analyze the Kabot photo was commensurate with
your present ability, using the materials at this website....