The 14th anniversary of TWA 800 came and went this past July 17. Except for family members of the victims, few remember anniversaries of tragedies after the 10th year has passed. The media and general public might lose interest, but for those working to prevent a future disaster, the memory of the Boeing 747 midair explosion remains vivid and concerns about preventing a similar future disaster remain strong. While developing and mandating a fix has been agonizingly slow, here’s hoping that implementing it across aircraft types will not be.
To recap for those who may not remember, TWA 800 took off from JFK International Airport en route to Paris on a hot summer night. Not long after departure, the aircraft exploded off the south shore of Long Island, N.Y., killing all 230 people on board. Many initially believed the cause of the accident to be an explosive device of some kind, but after more than a year of intensive investigation, including the painstaking reconstruction of much of the aircraft fuselage, the NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident to be an explosion in the center wing fuel tank.
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