Flight 800: Tragedy Shared

Inch by inch, from fragments of metal wreckage and human remains, investigators are working around the clock to solve the dreadful mystery of TWA Flight 800. All of us need to know what happened, almost as much as the grieving relatives and friends of the victims.

The more time that passes, the likelier it seems that the explosion was the result of a deliberate act of terrorism. For all Americans, and certainly for those of us who live on eastern Long Island, hard by the roar of the same ocean that covers so much of the plane and so many of the bodies, this is particularly horrifying.

Over and over, even in what ought to be a post-Star Wars era, the events of history and the accident of geography make many of us believe ours is a fortress nation. When the destruction of Flight 800 struck the national consciousness it hit a deep psychic nerve, and dispelled, or should have, the myth of invulnerability once and for all.

Everyone's security has been violated, everyone's trust shaken. The still-smoldering memory of the ValuJet plane that crashed two months ago in the Everglades, also in a watery grave, sharpens the pain. But in that tragedy, at least, the cause was soon learned: a cargo of oxygen tanks had been put on board, and they exploded.

As for the Lockerbie crash in Scotland eight years ago, which is being recalled in sorrow this week, we know it to have been the work of zealots, who, protected by other zealots, have not been brought to justice.

Whether Flight 800 proves to have been destroyed by an onboard explosion, a missile attack, or as the result of another remote possibility, it would assuage the public to have airlines acknowledge the reality, and the fear, of sabotage.

4 The families of those TWA victims who are still in the sea want their loved ones back; they will think of nothing else until the bodies are recovered, or officially declared lost. The rest of us, though, may find it helpful to consider the political divisions and hatreds that make life so vulnerable.

TWA, in the aftermath of the crash, has stopped advertising and is said to be thinking of diverting part of the millions it usually spends on ads to beefing up security at its terminals. That would be reassuring, even if this tragedy did not involve a failure in airport security.

Meanwhile, many agencies, from the Federal level down, are taking part in the investigation. They are not always moving as fast as the families would like, or even perhaps as fast as they might. But those who know say there are very good reasons for a slow pace.

Like everyone else in the country, we on the East End hope these officials will work together smoothly in the weeks ahead, and find us some answers, if not real explanations. Perhaps what they learn will lead to the development of planes that are less flammable and more impregnable.

We hope, too, that they will display the kind of professionalism and grit shown by the Coast Guard teams, commercial fishermen, and private boaters who raced to the scene when fire was seen in the sky and gave all they had, all night long, for the strangers in the sea.