The third deadliest air disaster in US history saw people reportedly being sucked out of the cabin after the plane exploded in mid-air
Just minutes after taking off from New York’s Kennedy International Airport with 230 people on board, the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 broke apart before its remains fell into the Atlantic Ocean on July 17 in 1996.
The Boeing 747 was headed for Paris but the plane only managed to make it to the coast of Long Island before disaster struck at around 8.30pm.
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There were many reports from witnesses who saw a fireball in the sky, resulting in many believing that the plane had been hit by a “missile” and theories it could have been a terrorist attack.
Although the source that led to the explosion remains a mystery, as it was never discovered, was never discovered, an investigation concluded the crash’s cause was an electrical failure that ignited a nearly empty centre wing fuel tank, according to History.com.
Witnesses reported seeing the fiery aircraft crashing into the ocean, leaving several people onboard unaccounted for after they were scattered across the sea.
According to the coroner's report, all 230 on board are believed to have had quick deaths, meaning they are thought to have not been alive during the free fall from the sky.
Suffolk County chief medical examiner Dr Charles Wetli also told county legislators at the time that he beleived all passengers died from "phenomenal whiplash" as the plane exploded.
According to the Irish Times, Dr Wetli said: "Most people died while still in the air. The most likely injury and I think that happened to everyone up there, is that they got a phenomenal whiplash.
"First of all, massive facial and head injuries from hitting the seat in front of them and then a secondary whiplash backwards which basically was going to sever all function of the brain stem."
Among the dead were 18 crew members and 212 passengers. Remarkably all of the bodies were found after extensive searches, believed to have been carried out over a ten-month period.
Rescuers were reportedly traumatised by what they had witnessed due to the conditions of many of the bodies.
A Long Island police officer Vincent Termine was particularly shaken by the accident with the body of a 13-year-old girl found in the wreckage.
Speaking to the Independent, he said: “We recovered some people that were in half at the torso, people that were missing limbs, or a part of their heads…. every imaginable configuration."
Even Dr Wetli said in his personal opinion that he felt a bomb had gone off, but admitted he was only an ordinary citizen compared to those specialists in the aviation industry.
With this and the witness's description of what they saw that day, the flight has been constantly the subject of conspiracy theories but no evidence was ever found of a terrorist attack.
Rescue teams managed to pull all pieces of the 170-ton jet, which was over 20 years old, were recovered from the ocean floor.
The National Transportation Safety Board reconstructed the aircraft as part of their investigation.
John Purvis, head of the accident investigation unit for the Boeing Company at the time said plane explosions are very rare but the tragedy of TWA 800, forced major changes in the industry.
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He said: “The explosion that occurred on TWA 800 was in the centre wing fuel tank and was not from anything external.
“The NTSB was never able to pin-point the precise cause, but it was clear that it was from within the tank.”
The plane was later used in training plane crash investigators and they also allowed families of the victims to visit.
It was never opened to the public but is due for decommissioning this year, following an announcement in 2021.
The tragic crash was one of the longest investigations of its kind, lasting a total of four years and costing over $40 million (around £33 million).
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