1996 — July 17, TWA Flight 800 from JFK to Paris Explodes off East Moriches NY — 230
— 230 Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). New York.
— 230 Aviation Safety Network. TWA Flight 800; NTSB 2000
— 230 Haine, Edgar A. Disaster in the Air. New York: Cornwall Books, 2000, pp. 41, 46-47.
— 230 NationMaster.com. Encyclopedia, “TWA Flight 800.”
— 230 NTSB. AIR. In-flight Breakup Over the Atlantic Ocean…TWA…July 17, 1996.
— 230 Oosthuizen, P.. “The Other New York Crashes: Their Use in a CDIO Program.” 2007.
Narrative Information
NTSB: “Abstract: On July 17, 1996, about 2031 eastern daylight time, Trans World Airlines, Inc. (TWA) flight 800, a Boeing 747-131, N93119, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. TWA flight 800 was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, New York, to Charles DeGaulle International Airport, Paris, France. The flight departed JFK about 2019, with 2 pilots, 2 flight engineers, 14 flight attendants, and 212 passengers on board. All 230 people on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan.
“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the TWA flight 800 accident was an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the CWT that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system.
“Contributing factors to the accident were the design and certification concept that fuel tank explosions could be prevented solely by precluding all ignition sources and the design and certification of the Boeing 747 with heat sources located beneath the CWT with no means to reduce the heat transferred into the CWT or to render the fuel vapor in the tank nonflammable. The safety issues in this report focus on fuel tank flammability, fuel tank ignition sources, design and certification standards, and the maintenance and aging of aircraft systems. Safety recommendations concerning these issues are addressed to the Federal Aviation Administration.” (NTSB. AIR. In-flight Breakup Over the Atlantic Ocean…TWA…July 17, 1996.)
Cobb and Primo: “Safety Vs. Security in the Wake of September 11. In the 1990s only TWA flight 800 prompted some movement on security, but most of the recommendations made by the Gore Commission after that crash were never implemented until after September 11.” (p. 25) (Cobb, Roger W. and David M. Primo. “The Crash of TWA Flight 800.” Chapter 6, pp. 102-119, in: The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy. Brookings, 2003.)
Haine: “At 13,500 feet, on a Boeing 747-131, on TWA flight 800 from New York to Paris, an event occurred that tore off the plane’s nose, which fell into the ocean. The balance of the aircraft continued down to about 9,500 feet where it exploded into a fireball and all wreckage dropped into 120 feet of Atlantic waters located about forty miles east of New York….There were no radio calls from the crew to the ground. There were no survivors…” (p. 46)
NationMaster.com: “….At 20:31:50 the captain of an Eastwind Airlines Boeing 737 first reported to Boston ARTCC that he “saw an explosion out here”, adding “ahead of us here…about 16,000 feet or something like that, it just went down into the water.”[1] Subsequently, many Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities in the New York/Long Island area received reports of an explosion from other pilots operating in the area. Other witnesses on land and sea later stated that they saw and/or heard explosions, accompanied by a large fireball over the ocean, and observed debris, some of which was burning, falling into the water. About one-third of these witnesses reported that they observed a streak of light moving upward in the sky to the point where a large fireball appeared.
“Individuals in various civilian, military, and police vessels reached the crash site and initiated a search within minutes of the initial water impact. They did not find survivors…
“While investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived on scene the following day, much initial speculation centered on a terrorist attack,[2] and consequently the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a parallel investigation into the crash. On November 18, 1997, the FBI announced that no evidence had been found of a criminal act,[3]and the NTSB assumed sole control on the investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. … F.B.I. and FBI redirect here. …
“The NTSB investigation ended with the adoption of their final report on August 23, 2000.[4] In it they concluded that the probable cause of the accident was “an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the CWT that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system.”[5]
“Many alternative theories exist as to the cause of this crash, most of which propose that evidence may exist that points to an external missile strike[6] or on-board bomb, either as a terrorist act,[7] or an unintentional shootdown by a U.S. Navy vessel.[8] The NTSB investigation considered the possibility that a bomb or missile caused the mishap, but “none of the damage characteristics typically associated with a high-energy explosion of a bomb or missile warhead (such as severe pitting, cratering, petalling, or hot gas washing) were found on any portion of the recovered airplane structure”.[9]”
“…38 witnesses described a streak of light that ascended vertically, or nearly so, and these accounts “seem[ed] to be inconsistent with the accident airplane’s flightpath.” In addition, 18 witnesses reported seeing a streak of light that originated at the surface, or the horizon, which was “not consistent with the airplane’s flightpath.” With regard to these differing accounts, the NTSB noted that in previous investigations witness data was “often inconsistent with the known facts or other witnesses’ reports of the same events.” The interviews conducted by the FBI focused on the possibility of a missile attack (some suggested interview questions given to FBI agents were “Where was the sun in relation to the missile launch point?” and “How long did the missile fly?”), and as a consequence there was possible interviewer/interviewee bias. The NTSB concluded that given the large number of witnesses in this case, they “did not expect all of the documented witness observations to be consistent with one another”, and “did not view the apparent anomalous accounts as being persuasive evidence that some witnesses might have observed a missile.”[10]
“The investigation determined that if witnesses had observed a missile attack they would have seen the following: (1) a light from the burning missile motor ascending very rapidly and steeply for about 8 seconds; (2) the light disappearing for up to 7 seconds; (3) upon the missile striking the aircraft and igniting the CWT another light, moving considerably slower and more laterally than the first, for about 30 seconds; (4) this light descending while simultaneously developing into a fireball falling toward the ocean. None of the witness documents provided to the NTSB described such a scenario, and the investigation concluded that “the witness observations of a streak of light were not related to a missile and that the streak of light reported by most of these witnesses was the burning fuel from the accident airplane in crippled flight during some portion of the post-explosion, pre-impact breakup sequence.”[11]
“….During the course of their investigation, and in their final report, the NTSB issued 15 safety recommendations, mostly covering fuel tank and wiring-related issues. Among the recommendations was that significant consideration should be given to the development of modifications such as nitrogen-inerting systems for new airplane designs and, where feasible, to existing airplanes (such an inerting system prevents fuel tank explosions by pumping nitrogen into fuel tanks to displace oxygen).”[12] (NationMaster.com. Encyclopedia, “TWA Flight 800.”)
Sources
Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). New York. Accessed 3-9-2009 at: http://www.baaa-acro.com/Pays/Etats-Unis/New%20York.htm
AviationSafetyNetwork (Flight Safety Foundation). Wednesday 17 July 1996, 20:31, Boeing 747-131, Trans World Airlines – TWA. Accessed 2-3-2016 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19960717-0
Cobb, Roger W. and David M. Primo. “The Crash of TWA Flight 800.” Chapter 6, pp. 102-119, in: The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy. Brookings Institution Press, 2003.
Haine, Edgar A. Disaster in the Air. New York: Cornwall Books, 2000, 394 pages.
National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. In-Flight Breakup Over the Atlantic Ocean, Trans World Airlines Flight 800, Boeing 747-131, N93119, Near East Moriches, New York, July 17, 1996 (NTSB/AAR-00/03). Washington, DC: NTSB, August 23, 2000, 341 pages. Accessed at: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2000/AAR0003.pdf
Oosthuizen, Patrick H. “The Other New York Crashes: Their Use in a CDIO Program.” Proceedings of the 3rd International CDIO Conference, MIT, Cambridge, MA. June 11-14, 2007, 14 pages. Accessed at: http://www.cdio.org/meetings/jun07mit/papers/t4a4oosthuizen.pdf
[1] Air Traffic Control Group Chairman’s Factual Report
[2] Cites: TIME Magazine: “Who wishes us ill?” July 29, 1996 and, CNN: “Bomb still leading theory in TWA crash” August 1, 1996.
[3] CNN: “FBI concludes no criminal evidence in TWA 800 crash”, November 18, 1997
[4] Four years and one month after the event.
[5] NTSB AAR-00/03 Abstract
[6] TWA Flight 800: Charles Basset and the Red Residue; Association of Retired Airline Professionals
[7] See: Peter Lance. Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror. 2005
[8] Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization (FIRO)
[9] NTSB Report pgs 257-8
[10] NTSB AAR-00/03 Final Report
[11] NTSB AAR-00/03 Final Report
[12] NTSB AAR-00/03 Final Report