"The FBI's announcement that there's no evidence that a missile or bomb brought down TWA Flight 800 draws a line under 16 months of speculation about the cause of the disaster. The organisation's assistant director, James Kallstrum, said the likely cause was mechanical failure. In an attempt to quiet the doubts of eyewitnesses who reported seeing missile-like objects flying towards the aircraft, the FBI took the unprecedented move of releasing a video showing that people must in fact have been seeing flaming debris from the wrecked aircraft. Some of the relatives of the victims were at the news conference and said their main priority now is to discover the real cause of the explosion. Steve Poonian, a lawyer representing most of the families, told the BBC that it must have been the result of a mechanical fault. That strengthens their lawsuit against TWA and the maker of the aircraft, Boeing. He said the priority of most of his clients was to ensure that a similar disaster never happens again. Though the FBI has ended its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board is still trying to pinpoint the cause. It will be holding a public hearing into the issue next month."