Recovery of a wing-box section from the belly of the Boeing 747 that crashed off Long Island last month could prove key to learning what caused the TWA jet to explode, investigators and independent analysts say.
More Top Picks Stealth Cam Deceptor Max 2 0
While they continue to search for other aircraft parts and pursue other theories, investigators confirmed that they are studying the possibility of a fuel tank explosion–and reviewing the long history of leaky fuel tanks in 747s–as a factor in the July 17 crash that killed all 230 on board.
The jet’s center fuel tank may have blown up as much as 20 seconds after an initial explosion elsewhere in the aircraft, a source told the Associated Press, citing radar and witnesses’ accounts. The timing of the tank’s explosion could help determine whether a bomb blew up the jet.
The source added that experts were puzzled by conflicting signs from the wreckage, with some saying there was an explosion in the forward part of the aircraft and others speculating that the tank may have been part of the initial blast.
Divers resumed looking for pieces of the TWA jet off the coast of Long Island Wednesday. Violent seas had forced the suspension of search operations Tuesday.
Meanwhile, authorities have turned their full attention to reconstructing the scorched and shredded pieces of the lower center fuselage section of the jet. They continue to say it’s unclear whether a terrorist’s action or mechanical failure destroyed Flight 800.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI have said little about what engineers and mechanics familiar with the 747’s design say is a distinct possibility given the emerging evidence: that a structural or systems failure knocked the jet out of the sky July 17 in a fiery explosion.
Sources familiar with the 747’s design say the extensive burns and torn metal found at the juncture of the right wing and lower fuselage all but confirm there were one or more fuel-fed blasts involving a right wing fuel tank as well as an adjacent tank formed by a 20-by-20 foot structure in the plane’s belly, called the wing box.
Records show Flight 800 took off July 17 with its four wing box fuel bays empty, save for some 100 gallons pooling on the bottom of the bays.
Meanwhile, authorities continue to say very little about whether the 747’s long history of leaky fuel tanks could be a factor in the accident.
In 1991, for instance, the Federal Aviation Administration gave airlines 30 months to inspect the wing box fuel tank for misapplied sealants.
FAA spokesman Kay Templeton Garvey declined to specify if and when the Flight 800 jet’s center tank sealants were last inspected and what mechanics found during the inspection. She deferred all specific questions about the TWA jet to the NTSB.
A veteran airline mechanic who has climbed inside the center tanks of 747s to apply the extra sealant noted that a poor sealant application could permit fuel vapors to leak through cabin floor beams that run atop the wing box into the cabin area.