Why Did It Explode? (TWA Flight 800) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN

What you heard was the last words transmitted on the radios of Trans World Airlines Flight 800. This is one of the highest profile aviation disasters to have ever occurred in the United States. It has been the subject of many conspiracies over the years that we won’t be entertaining today. But we will delve into this flight and with the help of the published report from those who conducted the investigation, unpack the events that led the devastation that took the lives of 230 people.
July 17th, 1996, was much like any other day. For those who worked at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, it was a normal summer Wednesday. JFK Airport was the hub for Trans World Airlines or TWA for short. TWA is now a long defunct airline but at one point they were one of the largest air carriers in the United States.

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[cutielexis]

Hearing the other pilot say “God Bless Him, ” is so sad and chilling.

[hayleyxyz]

What's so frightening about this accident is just imagining the passengers in the front of the plane near where the cockpit separated, seeing the sky as the plane pitches up and continues to "fly".

[iowasurvivor]

My uncle was a TWA pilot at the time. I remember my mom trying not to panic as she called my aunt to see if it was his flight. Thankfully, it wasn't, but I still remember watching all of the news coverage from the event.

[christymarovich]

The silence when the TWA doesn’t respond to ATC is just chilling!

[davidca]

"I think that was Bless him" that has always stuck with me since that happened. I was the same age as all those highschool kids on that flight, it always makes me so sad that they never got to experience all of life since then as I have, as well as for all the others onboard. This type of thing is so unfair and random.

[american]

My parents were good friends with the flight engineer, Oliver Krick. My dad told me a story in how just a week prior to the accident, he was in my parent’s driveway with a new car.

[jirkamares]

This accident was also the final nail in the coffin for TWA before they merged with American Airlines on December 1st, 2001. Interesting thing is, this happened a 2 months and 6 days after the crash of Valujet flight 592.

[ShaleNinja]

So many horrific touch points in this event, but the one that chilled me to the core the most was the other pilots radioing in to describe what they saw. Coupled with the silence from TWA 800...what a thing for those other pilots to come to realise they witnessed.

[AccidentallyOnPurpose]

I still can't imagine being the pilot that witnessed it and then had to radio in describing what they saw. It must have been traumatic, especially if any passengers in that plane saw too. The silence too after the ATC tried to contact is haunting.

[chelseawales]

I’m from Long Island, I was a kid when this happened. After the accident, I found a window gasket washed up on the beach, and after we called the cops, we had to meet with the FBI, who asked us a bunch of questions about exactly where and when we found it.

It was kinda crazy, to be honest. And I never really grasped the severity of it until I got older.

[masteronelew]

“God bless him.”

I imagine all they could think about was the people onboard TWA 800..

[dorian]

I exclaimed so many times during this, especially at the 53 C during the re-creation. There are some incidents when you hope there were survivors, and some incidents when all you can hope is that everyone went quickly.

[thebookwyrmslair]

I was Air Force aircrew for years, and I was always impressed with the professionalism of the ATC folks. Just listening to Center's verbal juggling of so many planes, hearing that pause as he absorbed the initial reporting, continuing his juggling routine on the radio while he was probably also flagging someone internally to begin researching, then the radio silence of everyone in his zone while he tries to reach TWA800... is both chilling and awe-inspiring. We were warned to always stay off the radio unless needed - but the silence in that busy of an area? That was coordinated. The simple fact that no one was passed to Center and checked in while he tried to reach TWA 800 shows the level of behind the curtain coordination that we rarely get to see. How he maintained his professionalism and didn't let this shake him, other than a minor quiver. Just... wow.

[nenblom]

Could you imagine what the passengers who had been on that plane from Athens, Greece must’ve felt when they heard on the radio that that very same plane exploded on the way to Paris?

[JoePez]

Out if all the aviation crashes, this one definitely stands out to me the most. Just the chilling though of the plane still flying even for a couple of seconds after the initial exposition with most of the passengers still conscious because they were still at an altitude with breathable air. The utter terror those poor people had to have expressed

[thomasdaniels]

I'll never forget, even as a kid, how old, smelly and decrepit the 747 that my family and I flew home from Greece was July 17 1996.Its scary to think that our flight, Twa 881 was the last flight that old 747 would make.

[Operngeist]

This must have been so terrifying for the passengers and crew in the fuselage that kept on going after the nose broke off, to suddenly see the sky where the front of the plane used to be and plane just kept going...

[nyxqueenofshadows]

that atc and cg recreation really make it clear just how frightening those last moments would have been to anyone who survived that initial explosion. great video, as always!

[mxkammb]

air traffic control waiting for twc to respond was the loudest silence I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine being there, hoping desperately for a reply. I can’t imagine seeing an explosion from another plane, and consequently knowing the fate of everyone on board.
I often feel somber when hearing of lives taken during the events you cover, but something about that damn silence really got to me. even without words spoken, you can tell that everyone was thinking the same thing. you can almost hear them realize how many people were lost.

[paullane]

Working for a significant UK 747 Classic operator at the time, the safety measures that were mandated following it were significant. As an operator, we had to fuel the centre tank to over 2.75 tonnes even if the fuel load distribution did not require the use of the centre tank - this was to minimise the ability of the air conditioning packs heating a small amount of fuel to flashpoint, the running of the air conditioning packs on ground was time limited. A minimum standard of modified part number of centre tank fuel pump (dash number controlled) was introduced and older pumps made inoperative until replaced. Additionally, SFAR88 mandated fuel tank safety training for anyone working on aircraft fuel systems, plus EWIIS (Electrical wiring in Interconnected Systems) training made mandatory for all aircraft engineers (to improve awareness to engineers that you actions in one part of the aircraft could have a detrimental effect on nearby wiring - the classic example being drilling some structure, and allowing the swarf to fall onto an rest on aircraft wiring - eventually cutting insulation and leading to arcing and worst case nyvin cable fires. Nitrogen inserting systems are now standard on all commercial aircraft above a certain weight class.