Tragedy of TWA Flight 800 reaches final chapter
by
The Washington Post
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Today at 2:48 a.m.
The fuselage of the TWA Boeing 747, shown at its training center in Ashburn., Va., was painstakingly reassembled from nearly 1,600 pieces plucked from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
(The Washington Post/John McDonnell)
For nearly 20 years, a haunting relic of one of the worst aviation disasters in U.S. history has been tucked away in a warehouse in Northern Virginia.
The fuselage of the Boeing 747, painstakingly reassembled from nearly 1,600 pieces plucked from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, is a macabre jigsaw puzzle of wires and burned, twisted metal. But it is all that remains of Trans World Airline Flight 800, the Paris-bound jetliner that crashed shortly after takeoff from New York s John F. Kennedy International Airport 25 years ago, killing all 230 people onboard.
NTSB plans to destroy reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800 that has been used for training
Updated Feb 25, 2021;
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) plans to destroy the reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800 because it is no longer needed as an instructional tool.
It will be 25 years ago this July 17 when the Boeing 747 bound for Paris exploded off Long Island minutes after takeoff from JKK Airport in New York City, killing all 230 people on board.
The victims included 16 members of the French Club at Montoursville Area High School and five chaperones.
The reconstructed aircraft is in a 30,000-square-foot hangar at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia, and for nearly 20 years it has been used in accident investigation training courses.