TWA 800 fuselage to finally be destroyed, 25 years after crash

It’s been 25 years since this plane suddenly exploded, killing 230 people in a tragedy that shocked the world. Now it will meet its final fate.

For 25 years this mangled fuselage has sat in a warehouse, a harrowing reminder of one of America’s worst aviation disasters.

It was shortly after taking off from New York’s JFK airport, bound for Paris, on July 17, 1996 that TWA flight 800 suddenly exploded into a fireball and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people on board.

The cause of the Boeing 747’s explosion — the third deadliest aviation incident in United States history — was determined to be an accident, most likely caused by sparks from a short circuit igniting the central fuel tank. Despite this, the disaster sparked years of conspiracy theories about the cause, from a terrorist attack to a wayward military missile.

The remains of TWA flight 800 will finally be destroyed, 25 years after its fatal crash. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

The NTSB determined using the reconstruction as a training tool was no longer necessary due to advances in digital 3D imagery and LIDAR laser scanning. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

Since the incident, a reconstructed 28 metre-long piece of the jet’s double decker fuselage that was pulled from the ocean has sat in storage in a university warehouse in Virginia, used by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a learning tool for aviation crash investigators.

But now, with modern technology surpassing the need for actual plane wrecks for crash research, the NTSB has finally determined TWA 800’s fate: “Certified destruction.”

Inside the mangled fuselage. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

The partially reconstructed shell of the remains of TWA 800 in the hangar of the National Transportation and Safety Board training centre. Picture: AFP/Paul J. Richards

In other words, the remains of the deadly plane crash — including seats, which were painstakingly put back in place by investigators — will be cut down and melted into scrap, USA Today and NorthJersey.com said in a joint report.

Before it is finally put to rest, loved ones of those killed on TWA 800 have been invited to see the plane wreck one last time, although most have declined the offer.

“I saw it once. It was more than enough in my lifetime,” John Seaman, whose 19-year-old niece Michele was killed in the tragedy, told the outlets.

“If you had someone sitting in these seats, when you see that plane it’s a very horrible experience.”

A CIA animation of the disintegration of the Paris-bound plane. Picture: AP/Central Intelligence Agency

The plane then plummeted into the ocean. Picture: CIA

A piece of the wreckage from TWA 800 is pulled from the water after crashing off Long Island. Picture: AP/Mark Lennihan

The dismantling of the plane, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of its crash, has been marred by an extra tragedy — the death this week of the chief FBI investigator into the crash.

Former FBI assistant director James Kallstrom, who died on July 3 aged 78, led a team of about 100 agents who probed the crash and concluded, like the NTSB, that it was not caused by terrorism but a fuel tank explosion.

Once those who wish to see the plane a final time do so, the dismantling of TWA 800 will be a highly secretive process, USA Today reports.

The recovered part of the plane had been used as a training aid for the thousands of investigators since 2003. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

The plane will be broken down and destroyed. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

The NTSB workers will need to completely break down the fuselage and all its features, including seats, into such unrecognisable pieces so they can’t be sold off by people hoping to make a profit off the tragedy.

Loved ones have also been concerned about parts winding up in a museum.

“We don’t want any of this turning up on eBay,” NTSB spokesman Christopher T O’Neil said. “When all is said and done, there will be nothing that can be used as an artefact of TWA 800.”