10 Things You Didn’t Know About Barry Donadio’s First Book About TWA Flight 800

Barry Donadio (Photo by Matthew Abbott)

Here are 10 things you never knew about Barry Donadio’s First Book “TWA Flight 800 First Responder Witness Account”. This may shock you.

1. He waited 17 years to publish it.

Donadio spent his entire career in U.S. Government service in some way or another. Whether it was in the military or in the United States Secret Service, he had always served in positions that did not permit him to release a book about his experiences. On June 28th, 2013 Donadio made a career change when he went into the private sector. This move opened the door for him to publish his first book “TWA Flight 800 First Responder Account” in September 2013.

2. He had to have the book censored and approved by the U.S Government prior to being published.

Because Donadio held one of the highest security clearances that you can obtain in the United States, he is obligated to submit anything he writes to the U.S. Government for potential censorship. This is due to the knowledge of a broad spectrum of government top secret information that needs to be protected.

3. The original transcript was stored in a file only to be opened after his death.

Prior to publishing his book, Donadio had left his witness account with his will and other papers in the case he died. Donadio knew that he was a part of a mysterious national event that would have many questions asked about it for decades. Being that he was at the incident, he felt he should pass his account to his family.

4. He went to the Alamo and he consulted about publishing his book with Dr. Bruce Winders, the curator of the Alamo.

Donadio traveled to San Antonio to consult with the very respected Dr. Bruce Winders who is actually the curator of the Alamo. Texas was always a special place for Donadio because he had lived in Galveston with his mother in 1975 for about a year. He visited the Alamo for the first time during that time period and had since been intrigued by it.

5. He did not name the book

Donadio could not come up with a name for his book until he consulted with his close friend Christy Bowe of the White House Press Corps. Christy is a world-class photographer and CEO of Imagecather News. The two met at the White House while they both worked there. They still maintain a close friendship today.

6. He does not offer an opinion as to why the plane crashed.

Donadio never speaks about why the plane crashed and offers an opinion on the matter. When he is put on the spot and asked why the plane crashed he states: “I don’t talk about why the plane crashed”. This could be due to the obligations of the confidentiality agreements he signed with the government when he was employed with the military or the U.S. Secret Service. Is it that he could actually know why the plane crashed but he is concerned with potential repercussions? We may never know.

7. He does not make any bold claim to have partaken in any heroic actions during the incident.

Donadio is very open about his experience on the night of the crash of TWA Flight 800. He makes no claim to being a hero or doing much of anything during his response to the incident. He was mostly an observer on that evening because he had no live patients to attend to as an Emergency Medical Technician on the scene. Unfortunately, all of the passengers of the plane were deceased by the time they arrived where Donadio was standing by to help them.

8. He is the only person that has written a book about the crash that was actually there on the evening it crashed.

As of today, Donadio is the only one that we know of that wrote a book about the TWA Flt. 800 crash that was actually there that evening. This gives an insight of small details that occurred during the terrible evening. Many other works that have been written about the crash are highly opinionated and some are even fictional.

9. His account of the injuries inflicted on the victims of the crash differs from newspaper accounts.

If you research public information regarding how the passengers of TWA Flight 800 died, you will find many references of burned bodies. Donadio, however makes no mention of bodies that he observed having any burns or any being burned beyond recognition. This adds to the conspiracy theory supporters point of view.

10. He wrote half of the book while sitting at his wife’s deathbed.

Donadio is only now opening up about speaking about the loss of his wife Alexandra Catalina Donadio on April 17th, 2014. Just when he began writing his book, tragedy struck in June of 2013. His wife underwent a medical procedure that took an unexpected turn leaving her in a coma for 9 months. Donadio was left caring for his 2 young daughters during the ordeal. He stayed by his wife’s bedside for the entire 9 months until she died in April of 2014. It was during the worst time in his life that he worked on the book at his wife's hospital bedside.

Donadio’s book “TWA Flight 800 First Responder Witness Account” can be purchased on amazon.com

After a 6 year break, Donadio published his second book “That Day When Hell Froze Over” on August 17th, 2019. Donadio is expected to pick up the pace with his book publishing and release his next few books more quickly.

www.barrydonadio.com

Story by ERD