[Non-Sequitur]

At 8:31, FAA radar operators out of Islip saw an unknown object appear on-screen and head toward Flight 800. At the same moment, FAA radar picked up something else unusual – a ship of good size nearly right under Flight 800's airborne position.

How does an FAA air traffic control radar pick up a surface object? If that radar picked up every metal object on land or sea - ships, buildings, water towers, trucks, trains, what have you - then how can they distinguish air planes from all the ground clutter?

[RobtPruitt]

Impossible.