Five days of commemoration for the victims of the TWA 800 explosion began yesterday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, the day before the anniversary of the crash that killed all 230 people on board. TWA began the commemorations with a ceremony in the hangar of the airport from which the Boeing 747 left on July 17th last year on its ill-fated trip to Paris. The jet exploded over Long island 11 minutes after take-off.
Meanwhile, the investigation into what caused the mid-air explosion last year continues. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Monday started a series of nine test flights to simulate conditions on TWA flight 800.
A Boeing 747 cargo aircraft chartered by the NTSB remained for several hours on the tarmac at the airport, just as Flight 800 did. With temperature at 33 and humidity at 50 per cent, conditions were similar to those on the fatal day last year. The 747, equipped with a number of measuring instruments, took off in the afternoon for a circular flight that would last several hours, an airport spokesman said.
Although the cause of the blast that brought down TWA 800 has not yet been determined, investigators are convinced the explosion came from the central fuel tank. The test plane's tank was virtually empty, as was the case with the doomed TWA 800.
The NTSB recommended in February that airlines keep more fuel in the centre wing tank of their planes to prevent oxygen in the tank from igniting an explosion. An Indian investigation into the world's worst mid-air disaster, in which 349 people were killed last year, has blamed a Kazakh airliner for the collision, the Press Trust of India said yesterday.
The agency said the inquiry blamed the crew of the Kazakh Ilyushin-76 for crashing into a Saudi Boeing 747 on November 12th near New Delhi. There were no survivors.
Judge R. C. Lahoti, who headed the investigation, handed in his report to the Indian government yesterday after the flight data recorders of both planes were examined.
Both aircraft exploded in a fireball over the town of Charkhi Dadri, 80 km west of New Delhi.