TWA Flight 800

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The explosion and ultimate fate of TWA Flight 800 is one of the most controversial air accidents in U.S. History. It involved perhaps the most expensive and longest investigation in U.S. aviation history, and was fraught with problems and suspiscion from the moment it exploded off the coast of Long Island, New York.

Contents 1 The Last Flight of TWA Flight 800 1.1 Ground Witnesses 1.2 Radar Data 1.3 Flight 217 Witness 2 Offical Investigation 3 Related Discussion Threads

The Last Flight of TWA Flight 800

On the night of July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747-133 jumbo jet took off from JFK Airport at 8:19 P.M. EDT. It was bound for Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, and had 230 people on board. The weather conditions were warm and calm, and there was still light as the sun had just set.

At 8:30 P.M., the plane was over the water off the coast of Long Island. The pilot was instructed to climb to 15,000 feet. The pilot acknowledged the instruction and began to climb. At 8:31 P.M., all contact with the aircraft ceased, and the plane dropped off the radar. A nearby weather tracking station caught the explosion on its radar. The technicians thought at first it was a cloud, so large was the explosion.

The front nose section of the aircraft was the first to break off and plummet to the ocean below. The rear continued to climb a bit more, but eventually dropped as well.

Ground Witnesses

Along various points around Long Island and neighboring areas, several witnesses, over 700 of them, saw Flight 800 explode over the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the witnesses, however, saw prior to the craft exploding, a streak of orange light shoot up from the surface of the water and hit the plane. There were also varied reports of strange or military looking boats in the area.

Radar Data

Radar on the ground had picked up 5 separate targets in the vicinity of Flight 800 before it exploded. One Target was Flight 800, one was USAir Flight 217, and one was a Navy NAVY P-3 Submarine hunter craft. Two of the targets were boats on the water, both unidentified. The radars also picked up the various pieces of Flight 800 as it fell apart after the explosion.

The three ground radars also picked up an anomaly on the radar: a high speed object that struck the side of the aircraft right before it exploded.

Flight 217 Witness

Navy Chief Petty Officer Dwight Brumley was on Flight 217 and saw a streak of light shoot past outside the window towards the other plane, Flight 800. He missed the fireball, however, because it was blocked from view by his plane's wing.

Offical Investigation

The offical investigation began almost immediately. Terrorism was the suspected cause, because of the mutiple witness reports and radar data of a projectile.

Related Discussion Threads

• TWA flight 800
• TWA 800 Downed By Probable Sea Launched Missile