Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash
Source: Washington Post
Transportation
Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash
The jetliner was decommissioned this month and will be destroyed by the end of the year. The crash left 230 people dead.
For more than 20 years, the National Transportation Safety Board has kept a portion of the rebuilt Boeing 747 at its training center in Ashburn. This year it will destroy the plane. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
By Lori Aratani
Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT
For nearly 20 years, a haunting relic of one of the worst aviation disasters in U.S. history has been tucked away in a cavernous warehouse in Northern Virginia.
The fuselage of the Boeing 747, painstakingly reassembled from nearly 1,600 pieces plucked from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, is a macabre jigsaw puzzle of wires and burned, twisted metal. But it is all that remains of Trans World Airline Flight 800, the Paris-bound jetliner that crashed shortly after takeoff from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport 25 years ago Saturday killing all 230 people onboard.
The crash made headlines for years, the tragedy of the loss compounded by suspicions the plane may have been the target of a terrorist attack. Ultimately, after a four-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the cause was an explosion in the planes center fuel tank, the result of a flammable mix of fuel and air ignited by a spark. (1)
[Missile ruled out in TWA 800 crash] (2)
The NTSB is set to close another chapter in the story of TWA 800. The downed jetliner, one of a handful recovered and reconstructed, was decommissioned this month and will be destroyed by the end of the year.
Since 2003, when the wreckage was moved from New York to the agencys training center in Ashburn, it has been used to help first responders and transportation safety investigators. But advances in technology for investigating crashes coupled with the end of the lease on the hangar-like space where the 93-foot-long, 60,000-pound reconstructed hulk is housed led the NTSB to conclude it is no longer practical to maintain.
{snip}
By Lori Aratani
Lori Aratani writes about transportation issues, including how people get around -- or don't. Her beat includes airlines and airports, as well as the agencies that oversee them. Twitter https://twitter.com/loriara
(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/08/23/missile-ruled-out-in-twa-crash/4e50dd35-525c-49e7-8233-ab7566b55c23/
(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/08/23/missile-ruled-out-in-twa-crash/4e50dd35-525c-49e7-8233-ab7566b55c23/
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/07/16/twa-flight-800-crash-anniversary/
I guess it's not the sort of thing you'd want in a museum.
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Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash
Link to tweet
apnu
(8,756 posts)The NTSBs lease on the warehouse and its adjoining classrooms is expiring. So the fuselage, which had been used as a training tool for NTSB aviation crash investigators, had to go, too.
Relatives of victims are currently being told they can take a final peek in the coming weeks at the jetliners remains. But so far only a handful have requested a final goodbye.
Throck
(2,520 posts)apnu
(8,756 posts)NTSB used it for training. But their lease is up and they have nowhere to take it.
twodogsbarking
(9,739 posts)JFK, Jr. on July 16.
Different years.
Polybius
(15,398 posts)Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on 17 July 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.
Shot down exactly 18 years after Flight 800.
twodogsbarking
(9,739 posts)Thanks.
Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)
Post removed
Tarc
(10,476 posts)Yes, we topple statues erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy less than a century ago, as they attempted to prop up the racist "Lost Cause" narrative.
Yes, we demand sports teams stop using racist names, the majority of which derive from Native American stereotypes.
And so on.
This is a plane that crashed. Tragic, but not monument-worthy.
.
Have a nice day
W
marble falls
(57,080 posts)... of even worthy of being boat anchors.
obamanut2012
(26,068 posts)appmanga
(571 posts)...this aircraft was just "decommissioned"? I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I wouldn't have expected that term to be associated with this aircraft.
BumRushDaShow
(128,911 posts)who literally lived 1 block from us, and who was on that flight. Me and my sisters used to play with his kids when we were younger.
I didn't realize they still had the reconstructed fuselage in storage but I can see how the end of the lease for the space would prompt what would be a hard decision. But then the tweet does mention others that the NTSB still have for training so...
RobinA
(9,888 posts)they had come up with a definitive cause. I followed that story for quite some time.
EX500rider
(10,842 posts)Air Disasters Season 12, eps 1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07HJRWK4W/ref=atv_dp_season_select_s11
LudwigPastorius
(9,139 posts)seemed weird to me, given that big airliners had been flying around with near-empty center tanks for almost 40 years with no other similar mid-air explosion ever occurring.
The multiple witnesses who saw something streaking up from the water before the explosion also give me pause.
hack89
(39,171 posts)is that only the US Navy has the capability to shoot down an aircraft that high. And there were no navy ships in the area. And if it was a US Navy ship, how do you keep 350 sailors quiet?
Besides, if it was hit by a missile, why is there no evidence of a warhead detonation?
Polybius
(15,398 posts)As someone who never believes any conspiracies, this one has always intrigued me.
hack89
(39,171 posts)First, it is well beyond the range of a Stinger. Secondly, a MANPAD is such a small missile with such a small rocket motor that it would not have been visible at that height and distance. Remember that the motor burns out quickly and it would be coasting for most of the flight - there would not have been a visible streak of light. And finally, they are heat seeking with very small warheads. At best it would have destroyed one engine- a 747 can fly fine with 2, much less 3.
EX500rider
(10,842 posts)MANPADS (ie Man-portable air-defense systems or shoulder launched missiles) are heat seeking and would have gone for one of the engines and knocked one of them out but a inflight break up would be extremely unlikely, especially right away with no time for a Mayday.
Plus 15,000ft is beyond the slant range for manpads.
Looking thru the wikki on civilian planes shot down by manpads, looks like a Tupolev Tu-154 is the biggest that was caused to crash but it was on approach and had survivors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-portable_air-defense_system
imavoter
(646 posts)it is easy for me to believe that a spark and fumes caused the crash.
Shit happens. At least I'm here to tell about it.
I feel for the families.
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)It is the 25th anniversary of MSNBC and back then the graphic dept was not up and going so they used a regular map from a guy's car to show where the explosion occurred.
PlanetBev
(4,104 posts)I was working at a synagogue in Los Angeles at that time. An entire family named Silverman who were members were killed. Gene, Etta, Candace and Jamie. It haunted me for a long time. Always reminds me how unpredictable life is.
RicROC
(1,204 posts)along with most of her family. Only the father and a brother not on board remain from that family. Not too long ago I saw their names on gravestones at the local cemetery.
LudwigPastorius
(9,139 posts)They were going to Italy to meet up with him while he was on tour.
Here's a cover version of a song he wrote for her.
Rhiannon12866
(205,315 posts)ABC News Gio Benitez reports on the 25th anniversary of the explosion of TWA Flight 800, and takes a look at the way investigators have utilized the wreckage as a training tool for two decades.