Twa 800 Essay

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Case Study Analysis Activity Title: Trans World Airline Flight 800 Name: Wee Wai Siong Date: 08 September 2012 Cause(s) of Accident On July 17, 1996, about 2031 eastern daylight time, Trans World Airlines, Inc. (TWA) Flight 800, a Boeing 747-131, N93119, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. TWA flight 800 was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, New York, to Charles DeGaulle International Airport, Paris, France. The flight departed JFK about 2019, with 2 pilots, 2 flight engineers, 14 flight attendants, and 212 passengers on board. All 230 people on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan (National Transportation Safety Board, 1996a). The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the TWA flight 800 accident was an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the CWT that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system (National Transportation Safety Board, 1996a). Structural and Mechanical Factors (Two to four paragraphs identifying the structural and mechanical factors involved in this accident.) Contributing Factors Contributing factors to the accident were the design and certification concept that fuel tank explosions could be prevented solely by precluding all ignition sources and the design and
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