26 Years Ago Today, TWA Flight 800 Exploded Over the Atlantic, Killing 230 – Frequent Business Traveler

Interior of the TWA Terminal at JFK, from which Flight 800 departed

Twenty-six years ago, TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. It was the fourth deadliest aircraft accident in the history of U.S. airlines after Pan Am Flight 1736 in Tenerife, American Airlines Flight 191 in Chicago, and American Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor.

On July 17, 1996, 12 minutes after taking off from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Boeing 747-100 disappeared from radar. All 230 people onboard perished.

Subsequent investigations revealed that a fuel tank explosion was the cause of the crash.

Last year, a private memorial service for the families of those lost on the flight was held. The service took place that evening in Smith Point Park, a beachfront park overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the east end of Fire Island along the central south shore of Long Island.

At precisely 8:31 p.m. local time on that fateful day, an explosion that was ultimately determined to have been caused by a spark from fuel gauge wiring, inside the center wing fuel tank of the 747, which in turn caused a huge explosion that split the plane in two about 15,000 feet over the Atlantic, some 8 miles (13 kilometers) south of the beaches that flank the East Moriches inlet.

The reconstructed Boeing 747 wreckage sat some 260 miles (419 kilometers) away at the National Transportation Safety Boards training center in Ashburn, Virginia for almost a quarter of a century. The agency, until last year, had been using the salvaged wreckage in accident investigation training courses and, with the ascent of most family members, decommissioned and destroyed the remains of the wreckage.

The Jumbo Jet had 212 passengers and 18 crew members on board at the time of the crash. The roster included 16 students and five chaperones from the Montoursville Area High School French Club in Pennsylvania; Jed Johnson, an interior designer who was Andy Warhols partner of 12 years; Rico Puhlmann, a German fashion photographer; and David Hogan, an American composer.

One passenger who was supposed to be on board, Eileen Rence of Appleton, Wisconsin, missed the flight by minutes thanks to weather delays in the Midwest. She did not immediately realize the significance of her late arrival until she telephoned a friend who then informed her of the news. I cant rejoice while others are feeling so terrible, she told the New York Times at the time, speaking from the Ramada Inn near JFK where relatives of the victims were gathering.

The passenger, just an hour earlier, had been waiting to board in the TWA Flight Center, the storied airlines Eero Saarinen-designed terminal at JFK, perhaps sitting in the airlines lounge, the Ambassador Club, or one of its three restaurants, the Constellation Club, the Lisbon Lounge, and the Paris Caf.

FBT Editorial Director Jonathan Spira remembers the night of the crash as if it were yesterday.

I was driving home and since it was the pre-Internet radio days was listening to WCBS Newsradio 88 when the news broke and the network preempted local programming. I pulled over to listen to the report and had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

I didnt know it at the time, but a friend and neighbor of mine as well as of my brother, the late Greg Spira, this magazines co-founder, was on the flight. Eric Holst and his wife were on their way to Paris for the wedding of his brother Troy, another friend.

The in-air disaster prompted the largest investigation of an aviation crash in U.S. history, and the findings led federal officials to require airlines to pump inert gas into empty fuel tanks, making them less likely to ignite.

The warehouse containing the reconstructed aircraft was closed to the public but families of the victims were allowed to visit over the years. Before the massive 747 was dismantled, the agency documented the reconstructionusing 3-D scanning.

The move comes as the lease on the warehouse nears its end and the destruction of the wreckage is in accordance with an agreement it made with survivors of the victims of the explosion, one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history, albeit one that resulted in safer flying as a result of the investigation.

The investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800 is a seminal moment in aviation safety history, said Sharon Bryson, the safety boards managing director, in a statement. From that investigation we issued safety recommendations that fundamentally changed the way aircraft are designed.

Kurt Stolz contributed reporting to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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26 Years Ago Today, TWA Flight 800 Exploded Over the Atlantic, Killing 230 - Frequent Business Traveler