By: Chris Kilroy

Reports of missile sitings began to surface almost immediately following the TWA 800 crash, as seen on this French magazine cover.

It took nearly fifteen months to piece together the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Boeing 747 that had exploded in a fireball on July 17, 1996 minutes after taking off from John. F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was the most extensive and thorough in their history, costing in excess of $50 million, but no amount of money could ever bring back the 230 unfortunate people who died that July evening.

Eighteen months after the tragedy there remained considerable uncertainty over the cause of the accident. Early indications suggested that the airliner had been blown out of the sky by a bomb or a ground to air missile. But as the investigation progressed, this theory, for which clear evidence was lacking, receded.

Another theory, with serious ramifications for the entire Boeing 747 fleet of more than 1000 aircraft, focused on the possiblity that fuel vapor in the center fuel tank ignited after it had become overheated. If this was indeed what happened, it meant that the tragedy could be repeated.

TWA Flight 800, on a scheduled service to Paris was delayed at JFK for nearly 3 hours due to mechanical problems. The center tank was virtually empty for the trans-Atlantic flight, most of the fuel having been pumped into the wing tanks. In the sweltering July temperatures, fuel vapor would have built up above the Kerosene to a temperature of above 100° f, the temperature at which this volatile fuel would ignite with the slightest spark.

The wreckage of TWA 800 burns on the Atlantic, as seen in this photo taken from a U.S. Coast Guard rescue boat.

The aircraft finally took off and began to climb to its cruising height as it flew east over Long Island. Weather conditions were near perfect. Passengers were just settling down for the long flight when, as the aircraft ascended through 13,700ft, a huge explosion blew away a large part of the fuselage below the leading edge of the wings. The stricken 747 plunged 5000ft before a second explosion sealed its fate. The aircraft disintigrated, and less than 15 minutes after they had left New York, all 230 people on board were dead.

U.S. Coast Guard, naval, and fishing vessels rushed to the scene, and for days plied the North Atlantic off Long Island recovering shattered remains of the aircraft. Wreckage sank into the deep offshore waters over and area of 6 miles. It took until May 1997 to recover most of it.

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NTSB investigators were in no doubt that it was the explosion of the fuel air mixture that caused the disaster. What remained unclear was what actually triggered the explosion in the first place.

On earlier models of the 747, this one itself being nearly 25 years old, thick bundles of electrical wires run aft from the flight deck. They are thickly covered in aluminium cloth and Kevlar and investigators found no evidence that they were split or worn. A possible answer may have been that faulty wiring in the proximity of the wing tanks triggered a flame, which then entered the center tank via a vent hole.

However, a theory that most senior NTSB officials supported was that jet fuel sloshing around in the central fuel tank caused a build up in static electricity, which then ignited the overheated fuel vapor. Like many air disasters, the search for the answer may drag on for years, but if this last theory was found to be true, it would place many thousands of aircraft besides the 747 at risk.