Pataki draws families' ire with report of body sightings;

By Fred Kaplan, Globe Staff; and Pamela Ferdinand, Globe Correspondent

NEW YORK

Gov. George Pataki outraged family members of TWA Flight 800 last night by passing on unconfirmed reports that "dozens and dozens" of bodies had been sighted by divers who recovered three victims yesterday.

Leading federal investigators, however, at an evening press conference said only three bodies had been retrieved and no others seen near a large piece of fuselage at the center of the underwater search. While optimistic more victims will be recovered, they said Pataki spoke too soon.

Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that he had no knowledge of the discovery of additional bodies.

"Not to our knowledge are there dozens and dozens of bodies," Francis said. "There are no bodies down there we have discovered that we have not removed."

Angered family members stormed out of the Ramada Plaza Hotel at John F. Kennedy Airport shortly afterward, saying Pataki had falsely raised their hopes.

"If he had just been put on a speaker phone with us and admitted that he was misinformed or wrong, that would have been OK," said one relative. "Our hopes and fears were in the balance."

In response, Pataki said in a statement that he remained "confident" more victims would be recovered.

Francis did say that the 45-foot-tall piece on the ocean floor might "contain a large portion of the fuselage and passengers."

Pataki said the fragment may be raised to the surface as early as today, now that the USS Grasp - a large Navy salvage ship, equipped with heavy chains, robotic recovery gear and video scanners - has arrived in the area.

Meanwhile, investigators said they still do not know what caused the midair explosion of Flight 800 last Wednesday night shortly after it took off from JFK Airport en route to Paris. Nor have the plane's "black boxes" - the cockpit voice and flight data recorders - been found.

And conflicting reports persisted on whether chemical traces of a bomb have been detected on a fragment of the plane. Late Monday night, two federal officials said special machines had detected such traces. However, one of these officials and several others said yesterday that further tests were as yet inconclusive.

One official said preliminary analysis of the debris is handled by portable machines that occasionally indicate positive signs of explosive chemicals when, in fact, none are present.

The confusion spread to Washington. White House chief of staff Leon Panetta told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that "chemical leftovers" on wreckage had been shipped to the FBI lab. Later in the day, White House spokesman Mike McCurry denied any chemical traces had been found, noting that Panetta is "not an expert in forensic analysis."

President Clinton, on a campaign trip in California, said: "Finding various traces of things may indicate that something happened, and it may not. . . . Right now, the people who have been looking at this have not drawn any firm conclusion that's been relayed to any of us."

Officials said the piece of aircraft found Monday could provide crucial clues about the explosion. Pataki said an Air National Guard C-130 transport plane was flying another large piece of wreckage, recovered earlier, to Washington for more analysis. Panetta said that analysis should be completed in two or three days.

As of last night, the bodies of 108 of the 230 victims had been recovered. Medical examiners had positively identified 78 and tentatively identified another 10. Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom said last night that 56 bodies have been turned over to families.

Robert Bontempi, a spokesman for the Suffolk County medical examiner, said his office is now working around the clock, with the assistance of French, Italian, Swiss and Norwegian doctors.

Bontempi said blood is being taken from relatives of victims so that additional bodies might be identified through DNA comparisons. He also asked relatives for more data - photos, dental and fingerprints records or child ID programs - to expedite the process.

Sources said the medical examiners are giving material found on or in the bodies - plastic, wood, and metal - to the FBI as possible clues of what might have caused the explosion.

Meanwhile, the search for bodies and clues continued to expand. Francis said 60 divers were searching along a 2-square-mile "debris field" yesterday. Another 20 divers will join them today. They can stay underwater for as long as 90 minutes, though the task is dangerous. One diver had to be put in a decompression chamber and rushed to the hospital yesterday after an attack of the bends.

Kallstrom said the FBI has conducted more than 1,300 interviews since last week.

Officials continue to explore three possible sources of the explosion: a bomb inside the plane, a missile fired at the plane from a boat or a catastrophic mechanical failure. However, one source familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified, said, "There is little doubt among anyone that this will turn out to be some kind" of explosive device.

"If this was a terrorist attack, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we will know who did this and where they are," Kallstrom said.

Although many experts and officials discount the possibility of a missile fired from the water, FBI agents have pursued all leads in that direction. For example, rumors circulated that a security guard at a marina in Center Moriches reported a stolen boat the night of the crash. It turned out to be untrue; the guard said he had not known the owner had loaned the boat to friends. There were also rumors that a suspicious couple rented a boat the night of the crash and never returned. Two men did pay a $ 66 deposit on a boat slip at the Center Yacht Club, but it turned out they decided to use another marina.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said radar tapes have shown no sign of anything resembling a missile in the vicinity of the 747 jet before it exploded and crashed into the ocean. However, he also noted that missiles, such as shoulder-fired Stingers, would have been hard for radar to see.

MSNBC News reported last night that a US spy satellite detected the explosion of the airplane, but had no ability to determine what might have caused the blast.

John Pike, a military analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, said yesterday the satellite was probably the CIA's Satellite Data System II.

Each satellite is equipped with a long-range, high-resolution TV camera with a sensor, known as the Heritage, that detects objects by the heat they emit. The data are transmitted to a ground station almost instantly. Pike said the Heritage would be able to see the fireball that eyewitnesses said engulfed the plane last Wednesday night. It would also be able to distinguish an explosion from a fire by how rapidly the "heat signature" expanded.

The FBI asked the Massachusetts State Police Monday to send bomb-sniffing dogs from Logan Airport to the Long Island hangar where pieces of the plane and luggage are being gathered. Three troopers and two dogs arrived yesterday. Joseph Lawless, director of public safety at the Massachusetts Port Authority, said the dogs are trained to pick up the scent of nitrates in a wide variety of explosives.

Washington is also becoming more directly involved in the search. The operation will be coordinated, starting today, by the USS Oak Hill, a 609-foot Navy vessel that will serve as a floating command center, CNN reported.

James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, was on the scene yesterday and said he will brief Clinton and members of Congress today.

In another development, a New York Post reporter was arrested Monday night for entering a secure area of the Ramada hotel and posing as a cousin of one of the victims, authorities said.

Port Authority police identified the reporter as Tonice Sgrignoli, 43, of Brooklyn.

"She gained access to the area posing as a victim's family, including wearing a pin which identified her as a family member," an official said. The officer said it was not known how she obtained the pin.