Abstract
TWA flight 800 still instills debate among conspiracy theorists about the cause of the accident. However, the engineering community generally accepts the cause released by the NTSB. This accident was the result of a center wing tank exploding shortly after takeoff. The wing tank was almost empty of liquid fuel, and therefore filled with fuel vapor. The tank had a significant thermal load increasing its ambient temperature from the operation of the nearby Air Management System. Finally, the investigators surmise that a chafed wire within the tank provided enough ignition energy to destroy the tank and the entire aircraft.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19850623-2 retrieved 10/23/18
Nederlands Aviation Safety Board, AAR 92011 El Al 1962, Oct. 4, 1992
NTSB/ AAR-00/03 TWA Flight 800, Adopted 8/23/2000
Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee, Fuel Tank Inerting Task Group 3, Report June 28, 1998
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Filburn, T. (2020). Fuel System Failure. In: Commercial Aviation in the Jet Era and the Systems that Make it Possible. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20111-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20111-1_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20110-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20111-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)