TWA 800 then received a series of heading changes and generally increasing altitude assignments as it climbed to its intended cruising altitude. At the time of the crash, 49 CFR 831.5 specified that the NTSB's aviation accident investigations have priority over all other federal investigations. [44]:5 Included in some of the witness summaries were drawings or diagrams of what the witness observed. [59], The wreckage was moved to an NTSB facility in Ashburn, Virginia, that was custom-built for the purpose. Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was carrying 230 people, including four cockpit crew members and 14 flight attendants. The NTSB concluded, "the ignition energy for the CWT explosion most likely entered the CWT through the FQIS wiring. In this case, the victim was a Long Island dentist who had assisted forensic dentists in the medical examiner's office. The NTSB's conclusions about the cause of the TWA 800 disaster took four years and one month to be published. [1]:123 Because the research data regarding quenching were limited, a complete understanding of quenching behavior was not possible, and the issue of quenching remained unresolved. A safety board investigator later reviewed FBI interview notes and briefed other board investigators on their contents. First autopsy report released from TWA 800 crash - January 3, 1997. [1]:93 All the reviewed radar data showed no radar returns consistent with a missile or other projectile traveling toward TWA 800. They ask about shoe size and even type of shoes, since some victims were found with shoes still on. A 3-D scan of the reconstruction will be made for historical record. [40]:2[41]:7[39]:12, Much anger and political pressure was also directed at Suffolk County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles V. Wetli, as recovered bodies backlogged at the morgue. Flight 800 lawsuit puts focus on fuel pump - Dec . [1]:3 At 8:29:15pm, Captain Kevorkian was heard to say, "Look at that crazy fuel flow indicator there on number four see that? 22c, p. 68, Recovery locations of the wreckage from the ocean (the red, yellow, and green zones) clearly indicated: (1) the red area pieces (from the forward portion of the wing center section and a ring of fuselage directly in front) were the earliest pieces to separate from the airplane; (2) the forward fuselage section departed simultaneously with or shortly after the red area pieces, landing relatively intact in the yellow zone; (3) the green area pieces (wings and the aft portion of the fuselage) remained intact for a period after the separation of the forward fuselage, and impacted the water in the green zone. Captain Kevorkian had over 18,800 flight hours, including 5,490 hours on the Boeing 747. From Coast Guard crews who became physically ill as waves tossed their search boat to doctors performing autopsies and X-rays in an atmosphere described by one as "a horror movie turned real," the toll of the Flight 800 disaster became increasingly vivid today on its behind-the-scenes players. At Dr. Wetli's request, State Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco issued an opinion on Tuesday saying the families were legally entitled to the documents. [1]:4 The last radio transmission from the airplane occurred at 8:30pm, when the flight crew received and then acknowledged instructions from Boston Center to climb to 15,000 feet (4,600m). [1]:274, The NTSB also investigated whether the fuel-air mixture in the CWT could have been ignited by lightning strike, meteor strike, auto ignition or hot surface ignition, a fire migrating to the CWT from another fuel tank via the vent system, an uncontained engine failure, a turbine burst in the air conditioning packs beneath the CWT, a malfunctioning CWT jettison/override pump, a malfunctioning CWT scavenger pump, or static electricity. CNN's traffic quadrupled to 3.9 million views per day. The report on passenger Susan Hill, a homicide. Below is a list of those on board, according to family, friends or officials . [63] The NTSB had first recommended such a rule just five months after the incident and 33 years after a similar recommendation issued by the Civil Aeronautics Board Bureau of Safety on December 17, 1963, nine days after the crash of Pan Am Flight 214. [1]:258259 Testing conducted by the FAA's Technical Center indicated that residues of the type of explosives found on the wreckage would dissipate completely after two days of immersion in sea water (almost all recovered wreckage was immersed longer than two days). "There's a process called onioning,' where you can keep covering up the levels of trauma one on top of the other," said Louis Gallagher, coordinator of Suffolk County's community mental health response team who has been working 20-hour days counseling victims' families. "[1]:259, To evaluate the sequence of structural breakup of the airplane, the NTSB formed the Sequencing Group,[1]:100 which examined individual pieces of the recovered structure, two-dimensional reconstructions or layouts of sections of the airplane, and various-sized three-dimensional reconstructions of portions of the airplane. [1]:230 Despite the two and a half years that had elapsed since the accident, the witness group did interview the captain of Eastwind Airlines Flight 507, who was the first to report the explosion of TWA 800, because of his vantage point and experience as an airline pilot. Two Coast Guard crew members who spent two days and nights pulling bodies from the ocean were so traumatized by what they had seen and touched that they were in serious emotional distress, according to local watermen who know them. "[1]:265 In addition, 18 witnesses reported seeing a streak of light that originated at the surface, or the horizon, which did not "appear to be consistent with the airplane's calculated flightpath and other known aspects of the accident sequence. [1]:87 Instead, the NTSB conducted a series of computer simulations to examine the flightpath of the main portion of the fuselage. Dale Russakoff is the author of "The Prize," published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Evidence of arcing was found in a wire bundle that included FQIS wiring connecting to the center wing tank. "As physicians, part of our training is being able to separate -- to empathize without sympathizing," said Wetli, who was deputy medical examiner in Dade County, Fla., during Hurricane Andrew. [1]:289 This might well be the signature of an arc on cockpit wiring adjacent to the FQIS wiring. [1]:266 The NTSB concluded that given the large number of witnesses in this case, they "did not expect all of the documented witness observations to be consistent with one another"[1]:269 and "did not view these apparently anomalous witness reports as persuasive evidence that some witnesses might have observed a missile. [7][8] The report's conclusion was that the probable cause of the accident was explosion of flammable fuel vapors in the center fuel tank. New York's Pataki asks feds to help pay for TWA recovery - December 27, 1996. [1]:363365 An HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter of the New York Air National Guard saw the explosion from about 8 miles away; it arrived at the scene of the explosion while debris was still in the process of falling into the water, forcing the crew to pull away. Head, thoracic, and abdominal injuries were multiple and severe, contributing to the mortality of the occupants. The website of The New York Times had its traffic increase to 1.5 million views per day, 50% higher than its previous rate. HAUPPAUGE, New York (CNN) -- The Suffolk County medical examiner has released the first autopsy report on the victims from TWA Flight 800. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. [1]:118, Further examination of the airplane structure, seats, and other interior components found no damage typically associated with a high-energy explosion of a bomb or missile warhead ("severe pitting, cratering, petalling, or hot-gas washing"). [1]:293294 This was not considered proof of a source of ignition. [1]:273274 Since none of the recovered CWT wreckage exhibited these damage characteristics, and none of the areas of missing wreckage was large enough to encompass all the expected damage, the investigation concluded that this scenario was "very unlikely". I spent a fair amount of time examining the wreckage, looking for signs of missile/projectile entry. July 22, 1996 12 AM PT. According to Purvis, the safety board addressed the missile idea in its report. The close-up view of N93119's front fuselage, showing the seven plugged windows on the upper deck. [1]:256, Investigators considered several possible causes for the structural breakup - structural failure and decompression, detonation of a high-energy explosive device, such as a missile warhead exploding either upon impact with the airplane, or just before impact, a bomb exploding inside the airplane, or a fuel-air explosion in the center wing fuel tank. [31]:3[41]:5[39]:12 Under constant and considerable pressure to identify victims with minimal delay,[32]:3 pathologists worked nonstop. Vacationer Joanne Bechhoff canceled a birthday party she had booked for tonight on the sandy volleyball court at the water's edge because she said she simply could not bear to be in a place so closely linked to such a huge tragedy. "[1]:63, Map showing the locations of the red, yellow, and green zones[1]:fig. [1]:109,263 Shortly after, the left wing separated from what remained of the main fuselage, which resulted in further development of the fuel-fed fireballs as the pieces of wreckage fell to the ocean. [1]:363365 NTSB and FBI personnel were present to observe all transfers to preserve the evidentiary value of the wreckage. On July 24, 2012, this FOIA release was re-uploaded to address technical issues. "[55] Speculation was fueled in part by early descriptions, visuals, and eyewitness accounts of the disaster that indicated a sudden explosion and trails of fire moving in an upward direction. [62], On July 18, 2008, the U.S secretary of transportation visited the facility and announced a final rule designed to prevent accidents caused by fuel-tank explosions. ")[1]:230 The NTSB witness group concluded that the streak of light reported by witnesses might have been the actual airplane during some stage of its flight before the fireball developed, noting that most of the 258 streak-of-light accounts were generally consistent with the calculated flightpath of the accident airplane after the CWT explosion. First autopsy report released from TWA 800 crash - January 3, 1997. January 3, 1997. [26][27][28] Since the NTSB does not investigate criminal activity, the United States Attorney General is empowered to declare an investigation to be linked to a criminal act, and require the NTSB to relinquish control of the investigation to the FBI. Dr. Wetli said he had delayed releasing the documents because the crash was potentially a criminal case and he did not want to do anything to jeopardize the investigation. To me, it is impossible for secrets like this to be kept secret very long.. [1]:261 While the NTSB acknowledged that the test conditions at Bruntingthorpe were not fully comparable to the conditions that existed on TWA 800 at the time of the accident,[1]:261 previous fuel explosions in the CWTs of commercial airliners such as Avianca Flight 203 and Philippine Airlines Flight 143 confirmed that a CWT explosion could break apart the fuel tank and lead to the destruction of an airplane. 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