NO-HEADLINE

Washington - The most likely explanation for the crash of TWA flight 800 off Long Island last summer is still "catastrophic mechanical failure", according to the head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, writes Mary Dejevsky.

In a television interview yesterday he denied that the FBI had been party to a "giant cover-up" and dismissed suggestions that the jet might have been brought down by a missile.

Mr Freeh was nonetheless careful not to rule out any possibility too categorically. He said he hoped the official inquiry would present its findings by late summer, more than a year after the crash which killed 230 people.