Electromagnetic Interference/RADAR
Professor Scarry
In 1998, a Harvard English professor, Elaine Scarry, "came
across an article explaining how the United States Air Force had been losing
Black Hawk helicopters because of electromagnetic interference (EMI) from
military planes. " Instantly, TWA Flight 800 and the mysterious manner
in which it had plunged into the Atlantic came to mind. Even though she is
an English professor, not a scientist, she began to immerse herself in research
on past instances of potential EMI disruption and military planes, and analyzing
the types of military crafts near TWA 800 before it fell. She was able to
publish an article in the New York Review of Books literary journal,
and then, when Swiss
Air Flight 111 followed a similar demise to TWA
800, she published a second article as well. The two flights appear to
share rather eerie circumstances. Both flights took off on a Wednesday at
8:19 from the same airport. They both flew the same route. Both flights suffered
initial trouble twelve to fourteen minutes into the flight. Both flights experienced
electrical problems. They both flew during periods of significant military
activity. Certain transmitters, based on military craft, were in the area
during both flights. That Prof. Scarry would draw a connection is understandable.
When EgyptAir 990 crashed after taking off from the same airport, she decided
there was a case to be made for EMI as a potential cause. (1)
In her article, The
Fall of EgyptAir 990, Prof. Scarry brings up some interesting ideas.
She discusses the timing of allowing civilian aircraft to pass through military
zones when they are not in use. Apparently, the military zone EgyptAir 990
flew through that night, W-105, had only been clear for civilian craft for
fifteen minutes before it was allowed to "short cut" straight to
its next map point. The only way for the military controllers to know about
a civilian craft is if its flight plan is logged in the civilian computer.
Scarry demonstrates that it is perhaps routine that flight plans sometimes
are handled by voice and withheld from the main computer, to be entered in
at a later point. This weakness is potentially worthy of inspection, if purely
from a flight safety perspective. (3)
Many of Scarry's other claims and critiques, however, are more
hypothetical in nature. She pours through the research and finds instances
where different scenarios "could" happen, but does little to explain
how it is actually technically possible. Thus it is interesting to recognize
the possibility that EMI could disconnect a plane's autopilot, but how would
it cause an explosion, as in the case of TWA? Or in the case of EgyptAir 990,
how would EMI specifically go about disconnecting the autopilot, jamming the
rear elevators downward, and shutting off the engines? (2)
Prof. Scarry does provide the only attempt I came across to
explain a rational cause for Batouti to shut down the engines near the end
of the first dive of flight 990. In footnote #36 she provides two examples
of previous crashes in which, thinking a collision with the ground imminent,
the pilots shut down the engines in order to lessen the probability of fire
damage, and thus save lives. There is probably some truth to this idea. However,
the engines were shut down when EgyptAir 990 still had more than 16,000 feet
of elevation. Would they really have given up hope of recovery at that elevation?
And further, Scarry avoids mention of this detail, but I do not think her
two examples of previous incidents occurred over water, if that makes a difference.(3)
Didier de Fontaine, a professor of Materials Science at Berkeley,
took Ms. Scarry to task for her literary embelishments and lack of technical
validation. In his article, Concerning
the Fall of TWA 800, Swissair 111 and EgyptAir 990; The Unfriendly Skies Scenario,
Fontaine presents a well formulated critique of Scarry's three articles. He
illuminates valid points based on science, such as Scarry's general vagueness
and lack of knowledge about the type of radiation she is discussing, and for
having an "I'll let the scientists figure that part out"
attitude. Also, he mentions the monetary costs of such unfounded speculation,
citing the "power lines cause cancer" scare that produced total
costs in the range of $25 billion. (2)
This is apropos given that when she presented her findings to NTSB chairman,
James Hall, "the agency eventually allocated several hundred thousand
dollars for fresh research into EMI" (1)
This question of
the function of conspiracy theorizing as societal benefit versus conservation
of resources is one that is not necessarily so poignant for other conspiracy
theories, such as TWA 800, as it is for of EgyptAir 990. Even if we are content
with believing in the NTSB's assertion that there was nothing more cryptic
than pilot suicide/mass murder, we should still be able to find purpose and
relevance in the various conspiracy theories about EgyptAir 990 that have
evolved. Conspiracies do exist. Agencies within the government and
outside it do get manipulated. It is understandable, then, that we
should appreciate the investigation and scrutiny of the public record in a
way that enhances the pursuance of truth. One of the major benefits of conspiracy
theorizing is the tendency to "inquire and imagine." (4)
But perhaps we should consider Anthony Summers' line about conspiracy theories
versus theories about conspiracies, and make the distinction. Conspiracy theorizing
is an abstraction. It is what entertains the post modernists. As Alasdair
Spark of The Center For Conspiracy Culture writes:
Already, before the events of the late 1980s, it was a trope
of post modern theory (from whichever base one chooses) to characterize
late capitalist culture as defined by fragmentation, incoherence, and a
resistance to meta-narratives; this study will contend that in the conspiratorial
imagination's willingness to plot connections and to connect plots, the
opposite can be seen, and that conspiracy constitutes a postmodern (a hyperreal)
mode of communication and therefore a popular attempt to re-cohere and re-determine
meaning by transforming 'secret' information into common folk knowledge.
(4)
Conspiracy theory becomes the victim of an anthropological
focus. A "conspiracy channel" that one can tap into for ethnological
fodder. As Spark explains, "Examining conspiracy provides a valuable
and overlooked means of understanding popular perceptions of the contemporary
situation." It is a mental/social exercise? Conspiracy theories are what
Robin Ramsey calls "just the gossip of the global village." (6)
But what damage does this global gossip do to theories about conspiracy? There
are real conspiracies that require the same ability to "inquire and imagine"
in order to be uncovered as conspiracy theories do to be dreamt up,
but theories about conspiracy must have empiricism at their base. This being
said, a reliance on empiricism can now become an asset or a liability. Quality
and amount of data appear to have an inverse relationship. Now that communication
lines have been "globalized", and the power of creation is as easy
as what I am doing right now, how does one deal with the necessity for empiricism
in studying theories about conspiracy? With the acceleration of computers
and digital realities, it appears that the epistemological paradigm used to
categorize information requires careful consideration. Where the two forms
of conspiracy study interact is affective for both groups. They will continue
to feed off each other. Real theories about conspiracies sparking imaginations
to develop socially meaningful conspiracy theories, and conspiracy theories
in turn allowing a space to "inquire and imagine" in a way that
is necessary to uncover conspiracies and discover the truth. Perhaps in this
way, conspiracy culture contributes something to the pursuit of accurate knowledge.
But often, that benefit does not come without a cost. In the case of EgyptAir
990, there are points of view that
suggest Egypt has used this open system against itself, and for the political
gain of Egypt. (5)
If this is the case, it is not much of a positive. The NTSB and Boeing have
spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours of labor pursuing Egypt's
continual claims. Maybe science is the ultimate benefactor in this equation,
but even if it's not, the ability to have an open system, one that can pose
questions on every level, is a characteristic that we as a society can not
afford to be without.
Sources:
©
2003 Jacob Lunow. All rights revered, all wrongs
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