twa flight 800 had just taken off minutes earlier from jfk on it's way to paris and crashed in the atlantic. all 230 people aboard dead. the investigation as to why the plane went down riveted the nation. terrorism? the suspicion of terror was heightened by the fact this disaster happened only three years after the first terrorist attack on the world trade center. jim was one of the men in charge of the investigation. he was ahead of the new york city field office of the fbi. >> we talked about the possibility of a missile taking down the airplane. the first time i believe we ever said that in law enforcement in the united states. >> reporter: the origin of the missile theory was sustained by eyewitnesss. this woman was with her baby at the time overlooking the water. >> it looked like a red dot that went up and didn't leave a tail behind. >> reporter: she drew a sketch for the fbi and for me. >> the red dot went up like this curved, came to a point where i thought little fireworks was