TWA Flight 800 crash

The Event A flight en route from New York to Paris crashes shortly after takeoff, killing all 230 people on board

Date July 17, 1996

Place Off the coast of Long Island, New York

Following several terrorist attacks on American targets at home and abroad, the crash of Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 was initially thought to be the result of terrorism as well. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a massive joint investigation to determine the cause of the crash. Despite the agencies’ final ruling that the crash was the result of a mechanical malfunction, many Americans continued to believe that the crash was either the result of a missile strike or a bomb onboard the aircraft.

TWA Flight 800 took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at approximately 8:19 p.m. eastern standard time. Shortly after takeoff, at roughly 13,000 feet above the ground, the plane exploded and broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean. The plane’s wreckage covered an area approximately twelve square miles off the coast of Long Island. The explosion was so spectacular that it was seen by hundreds of witnesses on the ground and several other airline pilots flying in the vicinity. Following the crash, both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were recovered in the rescue effort. Each abruptly stopped recording at the time of the explosion at approximately 8:31 p.m., only twelve minutes after takeoff.

Controversy

Only hours after the crash, many speculated that the crash had been the result of criminal activity. One popular theory at the time was that the plane was brought down by a missile, possibly even a U.S. Navy missile accidentally fired during a training exercise. This theory stemmed from the fact that nearly one-third of people who had witnessed the crash claimed to have seen a bright light headed toward the plane seconds before it exploded. Amateur video footage of the explosion, aired repeatedly on the cable news networks covering the story around-the-clock, seemed to corroborate and further this viewpoint. Another theory was that an onboard bomb had caused the catastrophic explosion. Only hours after the crash, James Kallstrom, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) assistant director in New York, claimed that only a bomb could have caused such a disastrous explosion. In addition, sound evidence from the cockpit voice recorder seconds before the explosion was also consistent with that of a bomb.

Following the crash, search and recovery efforts by federal, state, and local officials began immediately. Underwater robots called remotely operated underwater vehicles were used to locate wreckage, which was then recovered by scuba divers. The remains of all 230 passengers were eventually found and nearly 95 percent of the plane’s wreckage recovered. During the recovery efforts, the remains of the passengers were sent initially to the U.S. Coast Guard station in East Moriches, New York, before being sent to the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office in Hauppauge, New York. In the meantime, the plane’s wreckage was sent to an aircraft hangar in Calverton, New York, where they were stored and eventually reconstructed. This hangar, the Grumman Aircraft facility, would become the headquarters for the crash investigation.

After ten months of recovery efforts, investigators were able to piece together a ninety-foot section of the plane’s fuselage. Sixteen months after the crash, despite initial fears of terrorism, the FBI concluded its portion of the investigation after it found no credible evidence of any criminal activity. This left the rest of the investigation to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to find evidence of mechanical failure, the only other possible explanation for the crash. For the next two years, the NTSB continued investigating and, on August 23, 2000, released a report detailing its findings. The agency concluded that the probable cause of the crash was an explosion in the center wing fuel tank and also acknowledged that the source of ignition for the explosion was most likely the result of the mixture of flammable fuel and air in the fuel tank, although this could not be determined with absolute certainty.

Impact

Despite the findings by the FBI and NTSB that the disaster was not caused by criminal activity, rumors continued to persist throughout the late 1990’s that the crash of Flight 800 had to be the result of terrorism. Many people continued to believe that a bomb or missile caused the explosion. These rumors persisted because many people viewed the NTSB’s investigation as either insufficient or as a cover-up to hide the fact that the plane was brought down by a missile fired by the U.S. military. Nevertheless, the publication of the report effectively concluded the investigation into the mysterious crash.

Bibliography

Hosenball, Mark. “Piecing It All Together.” Newsweek, May 19, 1997, 56-57. Describes the investigation by the NTSB that concluded that TWA Flight 800 crashed as a result of a fuel tank explosion and not a criminal act.

Milton, Pat. In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800. New York: Random House, 1999. Details the FBI’s investigation into the cause of the crash. Milton was an Associated Press reporter who covered the crash from the day it occurred.

Negroni, Christine. Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again. New York: Cliff Street Books, 2000. Chronicles the investigation into the crash and provides personal stories of the passengers, crew, and their families.