FINAL REPORT: TWA FLIGHT 800
August 22, 2000

After this background report, two experts discuss the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the National Transportation Safety Board's two-day meeting about the incident.

July 26, 2000: A report on the crash of the Concorde. Feb. 14, 2000: An update on the Alaska Air Flight 261 investigation Feb. 1, 2000: An Online NewsHour report on the Alaska Air crash. Nov. 19, 1999: The Egyptian Air Crash investigation Oct. 26, 1999: Jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashes. Sept. 7, 1998: The crash of SwissAir 111. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of transportation     Federal Aviation Administration National Transportation Safety Board John F. Kennedy International Airport	TERENCE SMITH: It's been one of the most baffling and controversial accidents in aviation history. TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded in midair and plunged into the ocean on July 17, 1996. It went down off the coast of Long Island 14 minutes after takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. All 230 people onboard were killed. Speculation about what caused the crash has ranged from a spark in electrical wiring to turbulence caused by another aircraft to bombs, even a missile. The wreckage of the shattered plane was dredged from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Some 90% of it was reassembled. Shortly after the crash, investigators determined that the aircraft's center wing fuel tank exploded. But after four years, and an exhaustive and expensive investigation that cost the government over $30 million, they have yet to find any physical evidence that definitively establishes the cause of the blast. In Washington today, the National Transportation Safety Board began a two-day final review of its report on the crash. Family members of the passengers and crew were in attendance at the public hearing. In his opening remarks, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the meeting would provide the public with a window into the decision-making process. Investigators said they had reached the inescapable conclusion that the plane was brought down by the center fuel tank explosion. NTSB Director of Aviation Safety Bernard Loeb summarized their findings. BERNARD LOEB: The bottom line is that our investigation confirmed that the fuel-air vapor in the center wing tank was flammable at the time of the accident, and that a fuel-air explosion with jet… fuel was more than capable of generating the pressures needed to break apart the center wing tank and destroy the airplane. TERENCE SMITH: Loeb said the most likely cause of the crash involved electrical wiring leading to the center-wing fuel tank. He said there was no evidence of explosives from either a bomb or a missile.
	Bomb or missile ruled out
	BERNARD LOEB: The injuries to the occupants and the damage to the airplane were fully consistent with an in-flight breakup and subsequent water impact. In light of all this evidence, a bomb or missile strike has been ruled out as an initiating event of the in-flight breakup. The FBI did find trace amount of explosive residue on three pieces of the wreckage. However, these three pieces contain no evidence of pitting, cratering, hot gas washing or pedaling, which would have been there had these trace amounts resulted from a bomb or missile. One ignition source that we could not deem unlikely was that a short circuit involving electrical wiring outside the center wing tank somehow transferred excess voltage to fuel quantity indication system wiring leading to the center wing tank. Although the voltage and the fuel quantity indication system wiring is limited by design to a very low level, a short circuit from higher voltage wires could allow excessive voltage to be transferred to the fuel quantity indication system wires and enter the fuel tank. We cannot be certain that this in fact occurred, but of all the ignition scenarios we considered, this scenario is the most likely. TERENCE SMITH: Chairman Jim Hall said that conclusion raced a question. JIM HALL: I've been on this Board six years and I have seen you know, a number of accidents in which we have had some sort of electrical problem or fire problem. And are we doing the type of job we should be? TERENCE SMITH: Chairman Hall is scheduled to meet with the victims' families tomorrow.