Flight 800 Plane Research Paper

Words: 427
Pages: 2

When any shocking event occurs so does the split between opinions as to what actually happened. The same runs true to the events that occurred on July 17, 1996, when a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 plane travelling from John F. Kennedy Airport to Charles De Gaulle International Airport in France, never arrived. This standard international passenger flight was scheduled to depart from JFK at around 8:19pm with 230 passengers and crewmembers on board. At 8:31pm the contact with the plane was lost. Approximately eleven minutes into the flight, the 800 was flying at an altitude of 13,700 feet above sea level. Seen as though the aircraft should normally be at 15,000 feet above sea level by this time, flight 800 had delayed climbing to make room for another jetliner descending into Rhode Island. As the plane was over the Atlantic ocean, south of Long Island, New York, the plane exploded killing all 230 passengers: 2 pilots, 2 flight engineers, 14 flight …show more content…
The faulty circuit was positioned outside of the CWT. Before the explosion, damaged wiring transports high voltage electric current, and when the current gets to the fuel tank it "jumped" to another metal, forming a short circuit. If the short circuit caused a electric voltage and this excessive voltage triggered a surge in the electrical wiring near the fuel tank, then that would sparked ignition of the inflammable fuel and air mixture. However, the certification and design concept of the fuel tank should have design qualifications based on the prevention of explosions resulting from fuel tanks. Additionally, there is no proof of a specific location or cord that was blown for the explosion to have happened. Fuel tank explosion is low velocity, and there is not enough energy to launch significant pieces of wreckage ¼-½ miles as it