TWA Flight 800
Sign in to saveAlso known as TW800, TWA800
Flight that exploded and crashed in 1996 off the coast of New York
Key facts
- Date
- July 17, 1996 ( 1996-07-17 )
- Summary
- In-flight breakup due to explosion in center wing fuel tank caused by short circuit
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747-131
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Iata flight no
- TW800
- Icao flight no
- TWA800
- Call sign
- TWA 800
- Registration
- N93119
- Flight origin
- John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport , New York City, United States
- Stopover
- Charles de Gaulle Airport , Paris, France
- Destination
- Leonardo da Vinci Airport , Rome, Italy
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
TWA Flight 800 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, with a stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. On July 17, 1996, at approximately 8:31 p.m. EDT, twelve minutes after takeoff, the Boeing 747 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.
All 230 people on board were killed in the crash; it is the third-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history. Accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) traveled to the scene, arriving the following morning amid speculation that a terrorist attack was the cause of the crash. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and New York Police Department Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) initiated a parallel criminal investigation. Sixteen months later, the JTTF announced that no evidence of a criminal act had been found and closed its active investigation.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “TWA Flight 800” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.