Description Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA 800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31 p.m. EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport on a scheduled international passenger flight to Rome, with a stopover in Paris. All 230 people on board perished in the third-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. territory. Accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) traveled to the scene, arriving the following morning amid speculation that a terrorist attack was the cause of the crash. Consequently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a parallel criminal investigation. Sixteen months later, the FBI announced that no evidence had been found of a criminal act and closed its active investigation.
The four-year NTSB investigation concluded with the approval of the Aircraft Accident Report on August 23, 2000, ending the most extensive, complex, and costly air disaster investigation in U.S. history. The report's conclusion was that the probable cause of the accident was an explosion of flammable fuel/air vapors in a fuel tank, and although it could not be determined with certainty, the most likely cause of the explosion was a short circuit. :xvi Problems with the aircraft's wiring were found, including evidence of arcing in the Fuel Quantity Indication System (FQIS), a system that had been the ignition source in a fuel tank explosion that had previously destroyed another 747. The FQIS on Flight 800 is known to have been malfunctioning; the captain remarked on what he called "crazy" readings from the system approximately two minutes and thirty seconds before the aircraft exploded. As a result of the investigation, new requirements were developed for aircraft to prevent future fuel tank explosions.
TWA Flight 800 conspiracy theories exist, the most prevalent being that a missile strike from a terrorist or an accidental launch from a U.S. Navy vessel caused the crash, and is the subject of a government cover-up.
