Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City, NY to Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO) in Rome, Italy, via Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) in Paris, France. On July 17, 1996, at about 20:31 EDT (00:31 on July 18 UTC), the Boeing 747-131 flying the route (tail number N93119) exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. All 230 people on board (two pilots, two flight engineers, 14 flight attendants, 212 passengers) were killed and the aircraft was destroyed. The incident caused the third-highest number of fatalities of single-aircraft aviation accidents within U.S. territory, surpassed only by American Airlines Flight 191 and American Airlines Flight 587.
While investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) traveled to the scene, arriving the following day, much initial speculation centered on the crash being a terrorist attack. Consequently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a parallel investigation into the crash. On November 18, 1997, it announced that no evidence had been found of a criminal act and the NTSB assumed sole control of the investigation.
The NTSB investigation ended with the adoption of its final report on August 23, 2000. In it they concluded that the probable cause of the accident was an explosion of the center wing fuel tank, most likely as a result of faulty wiring.
TWA Flight 800 alternative theories exist, suggesting that an external missile strike by a U.S. Navy vessel or terrorist, or, alternatively, an on-board bomb, caused the crash. The NTSB investigation considered the possibility that a bomb or missile caused the mishap, but found no evidence to support such a hypothesis.
Accident flight
On the day of the crash the airplane departed Athens, Greece, as TWA Flight 881, and arrived at the gate at JFK about 4:38 PM. Upon arrival at JFK, there was a crew change, and the aircraft was refueled. In charge of the crew that evening was Captain Steven Snyder, a veteran of more than 17,000 flying hours.
TWA Flight 800 was scheduled to depart JFK for France around 7:00 PM, but the flight was delayed for just over an hour due to a disabled piece of ground equipment and a passenger/baggage mismatch. After it was confirmed the owner of the baggage in question was on board, the flight crew prepared for departure, and the aircraft pushed back from gate 27 in Terminal 5 at JFK about 8:02 PM, and took off from JFK's runway 22R at 8:19.
Data recovered from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) indicated a normal departure from JFK about 20:19. TWA 800 then received a series of generally increasing altitude assignments and heading changes as it climbed to its intended cruising altitude. The last radio transmission from the airplane occurred at 20:30 after the flight crew received and then acknowledged instructions from Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) to climb to 15,000 feet (4,600 m). TWA 800 was in the process of climbing when the CVR and FDR both abruptly stopped recording data at 20:31:12. This was the same time as the last recorded radar transponder return from the airplane was recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar site at Trevose, Pennsylvania.
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 (4,900 m) or something like that, it just went down into the water." 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.
Family members of Flight 800 victims, investigators, media members, and TWA employees gathered at the Ramada Inn at JFK Airport, whereupon the hotel became known as "Crash Central".
Nationalities
Initial investigation
Wreckage recovery
Search and recovery operations were conducted by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as government contractors. The first priority of the early search and recovery efforts was the recovery of the victims; wreckage recovery was the second priority. Remote-operated vehicles (ROV), side-scan sonar, and laser line-scanning equipment were used to search for and investigate underwater debris fields. Victims and wreckage were recovered by Scuba divers and ROVs; later scallop trawlers were used to recover wreckage embedded in the ocean floor. Numerous recovery divers required hyperbaric oxygen treatments for decompression sickness.
As the wreckage recovery progressed, three main debris fields emerged. The yellow zone, red zone, and green zone contained wreckage from front, center and rear sections of the airplane, respectively. The red zone was the most widespread and contained primarily fuselage structure from stations 840 to 1000. It also contained most of the wing center section Front Spar, Span Wise Beam 3 and the forward portion of the keel beam and cabin floor from above the forward center section. Some pieces of wreckage from the red zone had light soot deposits—none contained either moderate or heavy soot deposits. There was no evidence of other exposure to fire on wreckage recovered from the red zone. The yellow zone contained the nose of the airplane forward of station 840, including the cockpit. This structure hit the water basically intact and showed extensive crushing damage. Wreckage recovered from the yellow zone showed no evidence of soot, fire or heat. The green zone with the aft portion of the fuselage, wings and engines, was located the furthest along the flight path. Wreckage from the green zone showed varying amounts of soot, fire and heat damage, much of it extensive, depending upon location and when they separated from the rest of the structure.
The pattern of fire damage upon the wreckage shows that the wreckage resulting from the initial breakup (red zone) had only slight indications of combustion, the nose section which fell further along the flight path had none, and all major evidence of fire occurred upon the wreckage of the aft fuselage and wings which were furthest down the flight course. This shows that aside from the initial explosion inside the Center Wing Tank all fire happened after the aircraft broke up.
Remains of all 230 victims and over 95% of the airplane wreckage were eventually recovered. A temporary morgue facility at the United States Coast Guard station at East Moriches initially documented the human remains which were then transported to a permanent morgue facility at the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office in Hauppauge, New York.
Pieces of wreckage were transported by boat to shore and then by trucks to leased hangar space at the former Grumman Aircraft facility in Calverton, New York for storage, examination and reconstruction (this facility became the command center and headquarters for the investigation). NTSB and FBI personnel were present to observe all wreckage transfers to preserve the evidentiary value of the wreckage.
Initial examination of the wreckage revealed potential explosive residue on three samples of material from separate locations in the airplane wreckage; further testing determined that one contained traces of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), another nitroglycerin, and the third a combination of RDX and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). None of the sample locations correlated to the source of the explosion in the center wing tank. There was none of the readily apparent damage caused by a high-explosive detonation in an aircraft found on any of the structure or contents.
The wreckage is now permanently stored in a facility in a NTSB facility in Ashburn, Loudoun County, Virginia which was custom built for the purpose. The reconstructed aircraft is used to train accident investigators.
Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder evidence
There was nothing unusual on the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) tape until 20:29:15 when the Captain stated: “"Look at that crazy fuel flow indicator there on number four. . . see that?" Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center cleared TWA 800 to climb to and maintain 15,000 feet (4,600 m) at 20:30:15, followed by the Captain ordering "climb thrust" and acknowledging the ATC clearance in the next few seconds. At 20:30:35 the Flight Engine
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