TWA Flight 800

Introduction
TWA Flight 800 was a passenger aircraft carrying 230 people which would fly from New York to Rome, with a stop in Paris. The aircraft exploded 12 minutes after take-off, resulting the nose to fall off and the rest of the aircraft to fall into the sea.

Pilots
Capt. Steven Synder was in charge of the flight, with First Officer Ralph G. Kevorkian by his side. They also had a Flight Engineer behind them, Richard G. Campbell. Synder has over 4,700 flight hours on the 747, making him one of TWA's most experienced pilots. Kevorkian is also an experienced pilot.

Before Take-off
The first thing to note is that at the time of the crash and whilst the plane was on the ground, terrorist Ramzi Yousef is in court for attempting to blow up the World Trade Centre. It is believed that some members of Ramzi's gang have planted bombs on 12 US airplanes. This makes everyone very suspicious when the plane crashes. Especially because the aircraft exploded, showing that people even today think the answer to why it happened is just a cover-up.

The 25-year old plane that has covered over 16,000 flights lands at JFK, and is re-fueled. The centre wing tank (the tank that exploded) is not refuelled, as it does not need too. The tank is nearly empty.

There is a bag in the plane's hold, and yet the owner of the bag has not boarded. Due to a previous event (Pan Am Flight 103) the person who owns the bag must get on the flight, as it could be a bomb. This is because a terrorist could check a bomb into the hold, not get on, and have the plane explode (which is exactly what happened aboard Flight 103). This results in the plane being delayed.

The people on board the flight are kept cool on this hot summers day by the Air Conditioning systems on board the aircraft. Now it just so happens that the air con unit is right next to the centre wing tank, the one that wasn't filled. The air con has to create heat in order to keep others cool, which then heats up the nearly empty fuel tank, turning the remaining fuel into Nitrogen. Nitrogen is explosive, but can only explode when exposed to fire or a spark, meaning the Nitrogen can not do any harm unless the plane catches on fire, or a spark goes off. There are wires running through the tank, although they cannot create enough heat or energy to create a spark, as they carry low-voltage electricity.

50 minutes after the delay began, they found the passenger was on the plane the whole time. The plane takes off at 8:19 pm.

After Take-off
The plane takes off 1 hour and 20 minutes late, due to the passenger finding dilemma. Its flight path takes it at the edge of a US Military zone, which then gives people more evidence that it was a bomb. Nearby, a 737 is flying into New Jersey. The pilot has sight of Flight 800. The plane is cleared to climb to its next level, but before it can, the plane explodes.

The Crash
The 737 pilot sees the plane go from a Boeing 747 to a flying fireball. Everything is pointing to a bomb. It soon disappears from air traffic control. The 737 pilot reports the explosion, and after a few trys on calling the aircraft, it is clear that the plane is down. Report after report of the crash comes out, and nearly every one of them say that the aircraft crashed due to a bomb. But what they don't know, is that is far from what happened.

What Really Happened
A signal inside the aircraft went through the system, as it should. But then, due to damaged wiring, the signal created another signal, that lead directly to the nitrogen-filled tank. Once it reaches the end of the wire, it creates a short circuit, igniting the nitrogen. It explodes, sending one of the inner panels of the tank into the bottom of the plane, exploding the bottom of the fuselage. A crack is created, which moves around the aircraft and rips the nose of the plane off the 747 (see right). The aircraft then moves upward at a fast rate. The nose is too high and the plane stalls. It then enters a nosedive (without the nose), in which the 747 moves faster than it was ever built to, disintegrating the aircraft.

The answer I just gave you was fully proven 4 years after the accident. An animation can be seen on the right, showing what happened.

Please observe the body count and victims of the crash here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/twa800/list01.htm

May the people who died in this crash rest in peace.