I had a friend who, I think, honestly believed she had been raped. For a year and a half, she had herself, her doctors, and all of her friends convinced that she had been raped in the parking lot. A year later, we found out that it was "just a dream" and she didn't realize it.
People invent and believe all sorts of stories, and taken from a childhood journal is certainly not a credible source.
Also:
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Pierre Salinger, a former White House press secretary to President John F. Kennedy and ABC News journalist, prominently and repeatedly claimed he had proof that the flight was downed by a missile from a U.S. Navy ship. The documents on which he relied were later found to be rumors that had been distributed over Usenet, with attributions only to many "unnamed experts". Some people briefly gave the name of Pierre Salinger Syndrome to the tendency to believe things that one reads on the Internet.
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Quote:
After what has been billed as the longest and most expensive accident investigation in American aviation history, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found that the flammable fuel/air mixture of the center wing fuel tank probably ignited due to electrical failure in the center fuel tank, causing the plane to explode in flight. The FBI agreed that there had been no criminal act after examining all the plane's wreckage that had been recovered.
The NTSB subsequently made several recommendations to the FAA with an eye toward reducing the potential for future fuel/air vapor explosions in fuel tanks. In February 2004, the FAA indicated that it would start the (rather long) process of ordering airlines to install a fuel tank inerting system in most of their aircraft. It was stated that the order would probably actually be issued within two years, and then the airlines would be required to install the devices over the subsequent seven years. The FAA stated that, including the TWA Flight 800 crash, there had been three fuel tank explosions in airliners over the previous 14 years (the two others having occurred on the ground), and that based on this statistic, fuel tank inerting devices could eliminate about 4 accidents over the next 25 years.
Paradoxically, the less fuel in the tank, the more dangerous it is, since fuel has a higher specific heat capacity, and is slower to heat up than an air mixture.
Boeing has stated that it will install its inerting system in all aircraft starting in 2005.
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.. from the Wikipedia article, TWA Flight 800.