TWA flight 800

TWA flight 800, flight of a Trans World Airlines (TWA) jumbo jet airliner that broke up over the Atlantic Ocean and went down about 8 miles (13 km) off the coast of Long Island, near East Moriches, New York, on the evening of July 17, 1996. All 230 people on board died in the crash. A U.S. government inquiry determined that a mixture of fuel and air had ignited accidentally within a fuel tank, but some independent investigators maintained that the flight had fallen victim to a missile.

Crash and recovery

The ill-fated flight 800 was a scheduled overnight flight from New York City to Paris of a Boeing 747-131 airliner, registration number N93119. The plane took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport at 8:19 pm. The cockpit voice recorder ceased to function 12 minutes later, just before the aircraft explosion occurred at an altitude of about 13,700 feet (4,200 meters). The center section of the airplane fell first, then the forward fuselage, and finally the wings and the remainder of the fuselage.

Because the event took place close to the shoreline of heavily populated Long Island, there were many witnesses. In an investigation of possible criminal activity, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed 736 people who claimed to have seen or heard the crash from the ground, from watercraft, or from other aircraft. Meanwhile, divers worked for more than 10 months, in water about 120 feet (37 meters) deep, until remains of all 230 victims—212 passengers and 18 crew—had been recovered. More than 95 percent of the aircraft was recovered as well. Investigators pieced the center portion of the fuselage back together in a hangar in Calverton, New York.

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Disasters of Historic Proportion

Cause of crash and conspiracy theories

The National Transportation Safety Board inquiry determined that the cause of the crash was an explosion of a combustible mixture of fuel and air in the center wing fuel tank. The investigators believed that the explosion was caused by an electrical short circuit that affected fuel gauge wiring within the tank. Traces of explosives were found in the cabin, but it was suggested that they were residue from an explosive detection training exercise that had recently been staged on the airplane. Among the FBI’s witnesses were 258 people who claimed to have seen a streak of light approaching the airplane just before the crash. According to investigators, these witnesses actually saw a stream of burning fuel leaking from the crippled craft.

Nevertheless, some people continued to believe that flight 800 had been shot down, either by terrorists or by the U.S. military in a disastrous mistake. Skeptics stated their cases in the documentary feature film TWA Flight 800 (2013). Other claims included a bomb on the plane and a meteorite strike. These alternate theories proved popular online, leading some to consider the crash the first major conspiracy on the Internet.

The TWA Flight 800 International Memorial and Gardens is in Shirley, New York.