Couple Convicted in Flight 800 Thefts

A self-styled investigative reporter and his wife were convicted of stealing scraps of upholstery from the wreckage of TWA Flight 800 in an effort to prove his theory that the airliner was shot down by a Navy missile. A federal jury in Uniondale, N.Y., took two hours to convict James Sanders, 53, and his wife, Elizabeth, 52, a former TWA training supervisor, of conspiracy and aiding and abetting the thefts. The couple from Williamsburg, Va., could get up to 10 years in prison when sentenced July 9. All 230 people aboard Flight 800 were killed when the Boeing 747 exploded over the Atlantic on July 17, 1996, minutes after leaving New York’s JFK International Airport on a flight to Paris. The government has said the plane was destroyed by a fuel tank fire of as-yet unknown origin but has rejected sabotage, terrorism or “friendly fire” from the Navy.