Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash

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Source: Washington Post

Transportation

Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash

The jetliner was decommissioned this month and will be destroyed by the end of the year. The crash left 230 people dead.

For more than 20 years, the National Transportation Safety Board has kept a portion of the rebuilt Boeing 747 at its training center in Ashburn. This year it will destroy the plane. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)



By Lori Aratani
Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT

For nearly 20 years, a haunting relic of one of the worst aviation disasters in U.S. history has been tucked away in a cavernous warehouse in Northern Virginia.

The fuselage of the Boeing 747, painstakingly reassembled from nearly 1,600 pieces plucked from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, is a macabre jigsaw puzzle of wires and burned, twisted metal. But it is all that remains of Trans World Airline Flight 800, the Paris-bound jetliner that crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport 25 years ago Saturday killing all 230 people onboard.

The crash made headlines for years, the tragedy of the loss compounded by suspicions the plane may have been the target of a terrorist attack. Ultimately, after a four-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the cause was an explosion in the plane’s center fuel tank, the result of a flammable mix of fuel and air ignited by a spark. (1)

[Missile ruled out in TWA 800 crash] (2)

The NTSB is set to close another chapter in the story of TWA 800. The downed jetliner, one of a handful recovered and reconstructed, was decommissioned this month and will be destroyed by the end of the year.

Since 2003, when the wreckage was moved from New York to the agency’s training center in Ashburn, it has been used to help first responders and transportation safety investigators. But advances in technology for investigating crashes — coupled with the end of the lease on the hangar-like space where the 93-foot-long, 60,000-pound reconstructed hulk is housed — led the NTSB to conclude it is no longer practical to maintain.

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By Lori Aratani
Lori Aratani writes about transportation issues, including how people get around -- or don't. Her beat includes airlines and airports, as well as the agencies that oversee them. Twitter https://twitter.com/loriara

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/08/23/missile-ruled-out-in-twa-crash/4e50dd35-525c-49e7-8233-ab7566b55c23/

(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/08/23/missile-ruled-out-in-twa-crash/4e50dd35-525c-49e7-8233-ab7566b55c23/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/07/16/twa-flight-800-crash-anniversary/

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I guess it's not the sort of thing you'd want in a museum.

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Wreckage from TWA Flight 800 to be destroyed 25 years after crash

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