The conversation shifts to EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed under puzzling circumstances. Hoagland raises the possibility of an electronic attack on the aircraft's fly-by-wire computer systems, noting that the radar data showing a steep dive followed by a partial recovery does not match a mechanical failure like a thrust reverser deployment. He also highlights the unreported Operation Bright Star military exercises happening simultaneously in Egypt.
Art takes open lines where callers discuss topics ranging from ancient Arctic fossils suggesting a dramatically warmer climate thousands of years ago to the ongoing threat posed by the Taurid meteor stream. The program also touches on Y2K concerns, government preparedness drills, and the FBI's Operation Megiddo targeting potential millennium-related extremist activity.
Key Moments
Hoagland retracts the Turkey eclipse 'mystery objects': After analyzing higher-quality copies of NASA's Turkey eclipse footage, Hoagland concludes the mysterious aerial objects were flashbulbs and light-pole stanchions in a crowd cutaway, undermining the foundation of the November 7 attack rumor.
Operation Bright Star and the EgyptAir 990 backdrop: Hoagland flags Operation Bright Star, a massive 11-nation military exercise underway in Egypt with U.S. forces storming Alexandria, denounced by Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, yet absent from coverage of the EgyptAir 990 crash.
Operation Wake-Up Call mock anthrax drill on Nov 6: Hoagland reads from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article describing Waukesha County's Operation Wake-Up Call, a first-of-its-kind federal-local mock bioterrorism (anthrax) drill staged starting November 6, mirroring an ABC Nightline scenario aired weeks earlier.
FBI Operation Megiddo briefing linked to EgyptAir 990: Discussion of the FBI's Operation Megiddo (Armageddon) report on millennial extremists, briefed to police chiefs that week in North Carolina, with Hoagland teasing an imminent published link between Megiddo and the EgyptAir 990 crash.
Hypothesis: EgyptAir 990 brought down by computer attack: Citing the new radar showing the 767 diving from 33,000 to 16,000 feet then climbing to 23,000, Hoagland argues a thrust reverser is impossible and proposes the avionics computers were either reprogrammed on the LAX ground stop or hit by an outside electronic attack.