Why Did It Explode? (TWA Flight 800) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN
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- Опубликовано: 3 июн 2022
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What you heard was the last words transmitted on the radios of Trans World Airlines Flight 800. This is one of the highest profile aviation disasters to have ever occurred in the United States. It has been the subject of many conspiracies over the years that we won’t be entertaining today. But we will delve into this flight and with the help of the published report from those who conducted the investigation, unpack the events that led the devastation that took the lives of 230 people.
July 17th, 1996, was much like any other day. For those who worked at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, it was a normal summer Wednesday. JFK Airport was the hub for Trans World Airlines or TWA for short. TWA is now a long defunct airline but at one point they were one of the largest air carriers in the United States.
sources:
www.ntsb.gov/investigations/A...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...
apnews.com/article/d39d0105e5...
tailstrike.com/database/17-ju...
• ATC - Trans World 800 ...
watch/?v=159...
www.nycbar.org/member-and-car...
www.congress.gov/bill/104th-c...
• TWA Flight 800 Salvage
• 25 years after TWA Fli...
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If you found this video to be interesting, be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons on Patreon 48 hours before going out publicly. Consider joining here from £1 per month: www.patreon.com/DisasterBreakdown
This is now my favourite video on this channel
@@birgenair301 mine too :)
The reason that a N2 system was not fitted initially was probably weight and cost both inital cost and the cost of lugging those extra kgs in fuel over time. Having a purge system also means that the N2 bottle has to be continually be refilled at each stop and smaller airports may not have the compressed nitrogen available at the right pressure.
Can you do a breakdown on the Malaysia airlines 17 shoot down ?
Hey! Missed this! Either I was working, my country was becoming more insane, or both. Whee!😬
You're awesome, as always. ❤️
Edit: very good video. ATC recording was poignant.
Hearing the other pilot say “God Bless Him,” is so sad and chilling.
That part hit me hard. It's at that point you know all the people listening to that FTC knew many people had just died.
@@lunayoshiyeah 😔 I got teary eyed just imagining it. Being the person on the call or the other pilots in the area…the sorrow that must’ve flooded their system but they have to remain professional for the sake of their respective tasks. That’s a lot to ask of anyone.
The "i think that was him" 😥 😔
Sad and chilling? Are you a child? Grow up.
@@guccidan2026 Maybe you should consider the value of human life and the meaning of the word sympathy before you act like an idiot online
The silence when the TWA doesn’t respond to ATC is just chilling!
It’s just the call of TWA 800 again and again as the chatter over the radio start to go quiet. I can’t imagine what the other pilots were thinking either. Seeing something like that?
can't imagine being the other pilots who reported the explosion, probably hoping they didn't see what they saw and trying to find a plausible explanation that wasn't another plane so close to them going down, the sinking feeling they must have got as ATC failed to raise the TWA.
It's just heartbreaking when the other pilots and ATC realize that the explosion was the TWA flight.
@@CherriNight "That was just a bit of dry lighting, right? ...Right?"
"TWA 800, Center."
What's so frightening about this accident is just imagining the passengers in the front of the plane near where the cockpit separated, seeing the sky as the plane pitches up and continues to "fly".
I wonder if, and hope they were already gone
@@Tyrannosaurus_Wrexx Quite possibly. Depends on the pressure of the shockwave I guess. Those further up the plane would've definitely survived the initial blast though I reckon.
There was a huge whiplash at the explosion which internally decapitated all but 19 people
@@divestdreamer Well it snapped their spines in half, actually.
@@divestdreamer I hope so. It’s terrifying to imagine being conscious and fully aware you’re about to die and there’s nothing you can do about it.
"I think that was him.....God Bless him" that has always stuck with me since that happened. I was the same age as all those highschool kids on that flight, it always makes me so sad that they never got to experience all of life since then as I have, as well as for all the others onboard. This type of thing is so unfair and random.
💖
"This type of thing is so unfair and random." The universe doesn't care about what we think is fair or right. It just is.
You get unlucky and it can be over like that. Sad but true...
I was the same age as them too when this happened too. Just heartbreaking
It's the community of aviation - when Alaska Airlines 261 crashed off the CA coast, a pilot who was watching and reporting its condition to ATC said the same thing when it went in, "God bless him." I don't feel as much when I listen to CVR recordings because their troubles are over, and all we can do is learn from them. But the other pilots we hear on the ATC radios who just witnessed the tragedy have to keep their attention on their own flight responsibilities. They don't have the luxury of an emotional compromise. They have to save it until they're parked at the gate.
The ATC controllers who have just lived their worst nightmare still have airborne planes in their sectors who rely on their critical services. I know the controllers have relief personnel if this happens (supervisors maybe), but even they have to work with the knowledge of what just happened and how emotionally messed up the person they just relieved, their friend, surely is. They're all just people. (Imagine this on the scale of 9/11! No relief for anyone, one after another, sustained for hours! My heart goes out.)
My uncle was a TWA pilot at the time. I remember my mom trying not to panic as she called my aunt to see if it was his flight. Thankfully, it wasn't, but I still remember watching all of the news coverage from the event.
That’s was probably so scary for you
Proof?
@@ianrossiter4446 The person is probably middle aged or old rn
@@ianrossiter4446 Look at the age of the account. It's not some teenager.
Man that's heavy
My parents were good friends with the flight engineer, Oliver Krick. My dad told me a story in how just a week prior to the accident, he was in my parent’s driveway with a new car.
ooof...
Rip
So many horrific touch points in this event, but the one that chilled me to the core the most was the other pilots radioing in to describe what they saw. Coupled with the silence from TWA 800...what a thing for those other pilots to come to realise they witnessed.
And to think a lot of them were probably about to head over the Atlantic, plenty of time to think about what happened...
@@RayHikes I can't imagine how are you supposed to focus on doing your job after seeing/hearing something like this. I love motorsports, and I've seen a guy die on track in TV couple of years ago (RIP Anthoine Hubert). I was completely crashed for a few days, and couldn't focus on anything. It must feel terrible to see probably hundreds die before your eyes.
@@tomaszw2729 Yet they do carry on safely with their flights. Pilots give up themselves in a way for the folks behind them. They don't have to think about it - it just happens that way. I spoke with a couple pilots from my airline who had to return from their destination without landing because while they were on final another plane crashed in front of them. When they got back to the ops area they were able to stop and feel what had just happened. It was painful to see them go through that (made me tear up too the way they described it), but I knew them well, and there's no doubt in my mind their only concern during the flight home was for their passengers. Pilots are like that. I think it's automatic.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😮😮😮😮😮😮❤❤❤❤😮😢😢😢
This accident was also the final nail in the coffin for TWA before they merged with American Airlines on December 1st, 2001. Interesting thing is, this happened a 2 months and 6 days after the crash of Valujet flight 592.
And a day after TWA announced they will be restructuring the company and rebranding their logo and livery.
@@user-e-idk i forgot about that. thanks for telling me.
im surprised American Airlines lasted after 2001 with 2 hijackings and an incident that caused an aircraft to crash just after takeoff in queens ny
What an excellent video. I thought I knew most of what surrounded this tragic accident, but you taught me some new information. Have a great day and thank you for the video!
@@kristita_888 no problem
I was Air Force aircrew for years, and I was always impressed with the professionalism of the ATC folks. Just listening to Center's verbal juggling of so many planes, hearing that pause as he absorbed the initial reporting, continuing his juggling routine on the radio while he was probably also flagging someone internally to begin researching, then the radio silence of everyone in his zone while he tries to reach TWA800... is both chilling and awe-inspiring. We were warned to always stay off the radio unless needed - but the silence in that busy of an area? That was coordinated. The simple fact that no one was passed to Center and checked in while he tried to reach TWA 800 shows the level of behind the curtain coordination that we rarely get to see. How he maintained his professionalism and didn't let this shake him, other than a minor quiver. Just... wow.
I often wonder about people like this. I hope ATCs believe in therapy. I’m not sure how you cope after something like this.
@@mayneeyuh8713 I remember in school taking an aptitude test. It said I should be ATC. The closest I ever got was working in a call center, but you know what? I bet I could do it. Maybe I should. I've kept my hat in high stress and high pressure situations over the phone before, worked over 10,000 tickets in the call center. Maybe I ought to be ATC.
Yup, top professionalism among ATC and all aircrews on frequency, who were surely also emotionally stunned, yet they had planeloads full of breathing humans they were responsible for. Not a fun day at work for any of them, but they all stepped up.
@@thearchivalist8179 Quit talking the talk and go walk the walk. These are competitive jobs to get. If you have the stuff to make it, you should go for it.
I'll never forget, even as a kid, how old, smelly and decrepit the 747 that my family and I flew home from Greece was July 17 1996.Its scary to think that our flight, Twa 881 was the last flight that old 747 would make.
So you were on the final flight of this plane before the incident? Wow, how incredibly lucky you must be.
@@MrHav1k 5 yrs later I was in NYC with my uncle , taking pictures of the Wtc for a school project. A few people have asked me if I ever considered talking to a publisher but I think being on flight 881 and about 200 ft from the lobby of the south tower on 9/11 is like exploiting 2 tragedies where lots of people died and I lived. My senior year of high-school, an editor from the timesleader wrote an article in the newspaper. The real story is The men, women and children who died, not people like me. Anyway, yes we were on it and believe me, it was the worst aircraft I was ever on.
@@thomasdaniels6824 Thank you for sharing your story, Thomas. That’s fascinating. You’re very modest and respectful about it, too. Glad you were okay.
May I ask-did you see or hear the planes coming in on 9/11? I’ve met a few people who did, including family, and just can’t even imagine.
@@molly9582 I heard AA Flight 11 approaching 5-10 seconds before it crashed Into the north tower. I didn't look up until after it had crashed and the windows on the lobby blew out, but I will never forget what I witnessed 2 people go through that were sitting on a bench outside the lobby. One poor man died almost instantly when he was dowsed with jet fuel and a lady with the initials J.A.M Initially survived for weeks before succumbing to her horrific injuries. I was 15 and I wish I could say that I acted bravely that day, but my uncle grabbed me and we got on one of the first boats going to New Jersey. Something that irks me is when people compare things to 9/11. Another thing that bothers me is that it took a terrorist attack to bring Americans together after the 2000 election between Gore and Bush and I sadly believe it will take another one to reunite us. I hope I'm wrong. Anyway thanks for the question. What would we do with youtube channels like disaster breakdown, right? It's nice to "converse" with people about something other then political views :)
@@thomasdaniels6824 Wow! Thank you. Sorry for making you relive such bad memories. I had heard that about the jet fuel and people waiting outside Tower 2 to catch the bus-very saddening, such a cruel fate.
Out if all the aviation crashes, this one definitely stands out to me the most. Just the chilling though of the plane still flying even for a couple of seconds after the initial exposition with most of the passengers still conscious because they were still at an altitude with breathable air. The utter terror those poor people had to have expressed
Exactly. I hope you, me, or anybody reading this never has to experience the level of visceral horror the people on that flight went through.
From what I've read the whiplash from the explosion instantly killed all but 7 people on the flight.
@@LunaticTheCat Still terrible
@@amazedtenthousand4873 Absolutely
@@LunaticTheCat I’d love to know how they worked that out. It seems impossible to know for sure at what point the poor people died.
I still can't imagine being the pilot that witnessed it and then had to radio in describing what they saw. It must have been traumatic, especially if any passengers in that plane saw too. The silence too after the ATC tried to contact is haunting.
Imagine the pilot of the plane when the missle hit. Wild.
@@willemgijs3803 Ah yes, the missile fired by globebusters so the plane won't fly over the edge.
@@willemgijs3803 there was no missile what people say was the object heading towards it was actually the fuselage going up
@frozenuruguayball6436 total and complete bullshit. The full radar plots have since been released and there is no way it did what it said because of physics and math. Not to mention the radar returns after the fact show where the pieces actually fell, which in NO way lines up with the actual theory they put forth. Then you would have to ignore hundreds of people that saw the streak, some who were actual active military that flying at the time who saw rhe streak cover a large distance from the ground up. One was in the air and saw this. Not to mention factoring in the actual speed and the fact it didn't fly straight, as they said it did as backed up from their own radar, it didn't climb anywhere near as high, as quickly as they said. But sure, if we ignore the evidence of the actual radar, math, physics, and everyone that saw it then I guess it's possible. Release the actual data and CVR and we can be the judge. Likely a very good reason they won't do that.
@@jeffhaggarty9879 Physics and math say that? Which are you then, a physicist or a mathematician? Or just someone who listens to others and believes what they say about math and physics when they know about as much as you do? You'll believe whomever you want to believe, but the FBI and the NTSB had huge teams of actual scientists and engineers working this case, and their collective conclusion (which is not a theory), based on massive amounts of converging evidence, was that the plane suffered the failures described in this video and in their report. You can keep doing your own research, but your own conclusions might get a little closer to the truth if you first learned how to do research effectively. Right now you don't know how to be the judge.
FYI, pilots unions have contracts that prohibit airlines from releasing CVR recordings. Yes, they are property of the airlines, and the airlines have that authority. Did you know that?
I’m from Long Island, I was a kid when this happened. After the accident, I found a window gasket washed up on the beach, and after we called the cops, we had to meet with the FBI, who asked us a bunch of questions about exactly where and when we found it.
It was kinda crazy, to be honest. And I never really grasped the severity of it until I got older.
I use to love going to the beach and swimming at Smith Point. It felt strange, almost inappropriate to do so after the crash.
@@JustPlaneNutzRC By that logic you can't visit amusement parks, shopping malls, schools, etc. were tragic things happened.
@@JustPlaneNutzRC I take my family down there about once a year, I live on the north shore coast. I'm sure you have seen the nice memorial they have there with flags of all the nations of the citizens on that flight represented. It is eerie to look out at the ocean there realizing you are scanning an area where the flight came down. At the time of the disaster, I was helping my father-in-law (a real estate broker) with a deal in Center Moriches. I happened to be at that property the very next morning, literally several hours after the event. I had not looked at news before leaving my home, just got up dressed, brushed my teeth, and headed down as I was running late as it was. You can imagine my terror and confusion at all of the commotion, emergency services, etc. as I tried to dial in an AM station for news (if I only knew even FM would have constant discussion with music stopped!!! I recall as it was such a strange area it being hard to get a clear AM signal such as770CBS, 880ABC etc) 88kal ) At the dead end of the street on which the property was located I could look out over the bay and see all of the helicopters and people in the short distance. Cellphones, although I had one, were not smart or gave any news. It was one of the more surreal experiences of my life for a few confusing moments. Then 9/11 a few years later, so......
@@BiggaNigga69 lmao okay pal
@@BiggaNigga69 internet points?? in a comment section about a niche topic??
like, what are you 12?
Could you imagine what the passengers who had been on that plane from Athens, Greece must’ve felt when they heard on the radio that that very same plane exploded on the way to Paris?
Existential crisis
I’m sure they felt extremely lucky. I know I would.
They were probably thinking “Θεέ μου τι στο διάολο, ω σκατά, θεέ μου, θα πεθάνουμε, ω θεέ μου, πες στη μαμά μου την αγαπώ, θεέ μου, ο Τζέφρι Έπσταϊν δεν αυτοκτόνησε”
There's a post from @thomasdaniels6824 above who was on that flight as a kid with his family.
“God bless him.”
I imagine all they could think about was the people onboard TWA 800..
I exclaimed so many times during this, especially at the 53 C during the re-creation. There are some incidents when you hope there were survivors, and some incidents when all you can hope is that everyone went quickly.
This must have been so terrifying for the passengers and crew in the fuselage that kept on going after the nose broke off, to suddenly see the sky where the front of the plane used to be and plane just kept going...
Doubt they could see the sky with the amount of damaged fuselage and dangling cables all being blown in at 230mph after an explosion that was powerful enough to split a plane in half.
Please watch "SILENCED: Flight 800 and the Subversion of Justice"
@@dieseldan420ca If they were lucky they would've been knocked unconscious by the blast of 300mph wind. The strongest hurricanes have about 200mph winds and those can rip the roof off of a house and toss small cars around like toys.
The NTSB determined all but 19 suffered near instant death from the G forces of the explosion.
As to the 19 souls in the back of the plane who were not so fortunate, one can only hope for the most merciful ends possible.
They all died instantaneously, autopsies revealed. The whiplash at 400mph on the breaking point spared them the agony of witnessing the free fall..
TWA 800 was also the influence for Flight 180 from the first 'Final Destination' movie.
Even though the script for FD1 when it was a X files episode was made in 1994
@@railfandepotproductionsthough this technically wasn’t the sole inspiration for FD1, there were some details about the crash that did have an influence on the movie, like the high school French class, and the fact that the Plane was heading to Paris. Also they used real footage of TWA 800s wreckage in the scene where Alex was watching news coverage on Flight 180s crash.
I will NEVER forget this day. It was my 14th birthday and I happened to be flying back home from Orlando FL-to Newark being that I lived in NYC at the time. The panic that overcame my plane because we had just been informed of a delay to land because of THIS EXACT ACCIDENT. Needless to say I have NEVER flown since.
Why is it needless to say? Makes absolutely zero sense that you have never flown.
You were 14 years old... why would you Never fly again???
He will near surely not die in an aircrash. Makes sense to me. @@arkamukhopadhyay9111
Imagine looking out your passenger window and seeing a fellow plane plummeting to the ground in a ball of fire… terrifying, those people who witnessed it were probably scared to fly for the rest of their lives
This happened frequently among war pilots, they saw their fellow pilots crash here and there all around them sometimes. Yes sounds traumatizing and they flew through fire
that atc and cg recreation really make it clear just how frightening those last moments would have been to anyone who survived that initial explosion. great video, as always!
This video was hard to watch because a friend of mine her husband and two boys were on TWA 800. She was a fellow United F/A they were on passes and seated in FC. they were going to Paris to ride in the Tour de France 😔.
This video confirmed what we’d heard about the nose separating from the fuselage and kept flying. I really can’t imagine the terror...they were still at a breathable altitude.
I learned so much from your video...I never really knew the actual cause. 🙏
You don't just go and ride in the tour de France 😂. That's like me saying I'm travelling to the U.S to take part in the superbowl, I can't just turn up and play ffs.
And they can't have been very good friends, considering their 2 boys were at home with their grandparents, and not on the flight. Why did you just make your story up? You didn't know anybody.
air traffic control waiting for twc to respond was the loudest silence I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine being there, hoping desperately for a reply. I can’t imagine seeing an explosion from another plane, and consequently knowing the fate of everyone on board.
I often feel somber when hearing of lives taken during the events you cover, but something about that damn silence really got to me. even without words spoken, you can tell that everyone was thinking the same thing. you can almost hear them realize how many people were lost.
The realisation at 19:32 that it was them really got me. RIP and God bless.
That got me crying, just that horrid realisation as everything was going silent, the “god bless him” just got me so much
Working for a significant UK 747 Classic operator at the time, the safety measures that were mandated following it were significant. As an operator, we had to fuel the centre tank to over 2.75 tonnes even if the fuel load distribution did not require the use of the centre tank - this was to minimise the ability of the air conditioning packs heating a small amount of fuel to flashpoint, the running of the air conditioning packs on ground was time limited. A minimum standard of modified part number of centre tank fuel pump (dash number controlled) was introduced and older pumps made inoperative until replaced. Additionally, SFAR88 mandated fuel tank safety training for anyone working on aircraft fuel systems, plus EWIIS (Electrical wiring in Interconnected Systems) training made mandatory for all aircraft engineers (to improve awareness to engineers that you actions in one part of the aircraft could have a detrimental effect on nearby wiring - the classic example being drilling some structure, and allowing the swarf to fall onto an rest on aircraft wiring - eventually cutting insulation and leading to arcing and worst case nyvin cable fires. Nitrogen inserting systems are now standard on all commercial aircraft above a certain weight class.
All that expense, simply because they didn't want to admit someone fucked up. I mean basic math and physics, mapped to the actual released radar plot proves the math and numbers they have us believe are impossible. I certainly have never believed in a conspiracy theory, but this is one where the actual known trajectory, known returns of the break up, does not in any way match the math they want us to believe. It simply doesn't.
Before FAA's wiring programm it was a total mess. "Don't touch the wiring!!!"
My highschool computer science teacher was on TWA 800. Really cool guy, ran our robotics club and we missed him a lot. I remember the moment one of our friends came up running to tell us he and his wife had been on the flight on his way to Paris.
you must mean Arthur Benjamin
@@sean2015 that's right.
@@MrLcd1980 I didn’t know anyone on the flight, but I’m still haunted by it to this day…just the circumstances…and I’ve memorized many of the names and faces of the passengers
@@sean2015 I just pray that they died instantly. Because if they didn't, they would've burned alive, because the falling plane was seen as a fireball falling.
@@alvexok5523 most of the passengers did die instantly, during the initial explosion.
Man, this was a tough one. I vividly remember the TWA Flight 800 disaster from my childhood. Outside of 9/11, as far as news coverage goes, it was one of the biggest reported airplane disasters that I remember here in the United States. I think a big reason why was due to how many people died on the flight and where the disaster happened (just outside of New York).
Listening to the ATC conversations with the nearby pilots was downright horrifying. I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the pilot that witnessed the explosion and the ATC that sent out unresponsive callouts. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Thank you for putting out this video. I was only 10 years old at the time of this disaster and wasn’t aware of what “actually” happened with this flight.
I was only in 6th grade, but I distinctly remember the news for weeks showing the recovery of the debris. The red and white bits and then the reassembly in the hanger.
And that it was the 90s
This one, 9/11, Flight 447 and MH370 are the crashes that made me scared of planes, still to this day. I can't board a plane without sweating or sleeping through the whole trip. I really despise them
A whistle blower,
U.S. Navy sailor aboard the USS Carr confirmed
He was part of the crew
that tracked the flight
and fired the missile.
September, 2022.
@@BiggaNigga69 Uh what? Not sure how I can be a liar while conveying personal experience. Are you saying you know my own childhood better than I know myself?
As familiar as I was with this particular disaster already, this was my first time hearing the ATC recording of the other pilots describing the explosion...it's a bit chilling. You did a lovely job with this video.
@Bigga Nigga If you're going to troll, at least be good at it.
One of my earliest childhood memories was hearing news stories about TWA 800. I enjoy flying now, but the first time I remember, I was pretty apprehensive because we were on a TWA jet. My parents reassured me that everything would be okay, and as far as I remember, it was a perfect flight. I watched a documentary about the disaster back in college, and I was kind of disappointed that they leaned heavily on the conspiracy stuff. So, I appreciate the approach you took in this video. This was my first time hearing the ATC recordings, and it's pretty sad stuff.
Imagine being that ATC at the time… must have felt horrible…
Great Video thanks for your effort
Especially i never heard about the abnormalities with the fuel capacity indicator going wild moments before great video.
It really unsettled me listening through and subtitling the atc recording. You can really hear the controllers tone of voice change and its heartbreaking.
the "I think so" really hit me
Well that, and imagine the pilots that might have just seen the fireball of the plane.
@@nekomasteryoutube3232 Most other crashes happened away from everything else, or happened so quickly it was hard to tell what happened. Here, you had at least three other pilots watch this plane blow up in the air and crash, and that's gotta be hard as hell to continue your route at that point.
That and the witnesses that saw it happened. From both positions it had to have been very traumatic. Not to mention if any of the passengers in those planes saw it too.
This crash always seemed so scary to me in the fact that faulty wiring made an airliner to explode, sadly killing all those people, it really shows how in aviation there’s no room for shortcuts
Was no wiring that brought down a 747. I’m still convinced this was sabotage.
Most definitely a missile, fbi interference from day one ! Total coverup
IMHO, it was a missile. Just too much evidence, and too many oddities happening after with FBI etc.
Yes, they checked other planes and found frayed wires just in time. Then they re-engineered the whole thing.
@@fluxerflixer1 it most likely was a missile I mean based on hundreds of eye witness reports. Fuck the government they do this shit now all the time.
I can’t imagine the pilots and controllers on that frequency all coming to the same conclusion as TWA 800 failed to report in. Incredibly tragic and I hope that those passengers were lucky enough to have passed out before dying. It would’ve been the only kindness in a cruel fate
Edit: I’ve since read that it’s believed most passengers died of whiplash fairly quickly. Once again, probably the only good thing to happen in such a terrible tragedy
What’s beautiful about this horrific disaster is it really shows you how much aviators care about each other. Everyone does their best to help out - the moment they realised it was TWA 800: “god bless him” 💔
RIP all the souls on TWA Flight 800
I remember this so well. I was in Connecticut at a two-week international educators’ conference at UConn. This broke on the 11PM news and many of us were in the dorm lounge watching, some having heard about it on the radio and spreading the word. Because the fire trail had been seen, there were theories that someone had shot the plane down, but those were considered pretty unreasonable since a rocket missile would have been seen by the military. But after what had happened to ValuJet just two months earlier, that killed singer/songwriter Walter Hyatt and NFL player Rodney Culver along with his wife, I can tell you that many of us weren’t exactly excited to get on planes to head home that Saturday.
I think one of the saddest stories that was reported in the following months involved a suitcase that was recovered as debris and fuselage was found and identified. The suitcase had remained intact and the tag readable, identifying the victim. Inside the suitcase, in a case with toiletries and other small items for convenience/safekeeping, was a box with an engagement ring. The owner of the suitcase had been on his way to Paris to meet up with his girlfriend and to propose. I seem to remember his family giving the ring to her because that was their son’s plan. It was absolutely heartbreaking when they talked to the family and her on the news as they shared that they considered her family even though they never had the chance to marry. I hope she was able to find happiness again and found a partner who understood and accepted that another had had her heart too.
WOW. What a story, but I'd never check-in jewellery. Surely the ring was in hand-baggage?
@@oldmanc2, I don’t remember. I just remember that the bag had been found intact, with identifying tags. There was other intact luggage too, but that family’s story was just especially poignant because of the reason for the man’s trip and that the ring intended for his fiancée was inside.
@@ItsJustLisa No worries. Indeed a terrible story
@@oldmanc2 most likely considering how it stayed intact
I saw 800 take off that night. I was visiting my aunt who lived near JFK in South Ozone Park, Queens. Stepped out to go to buy a bottle of wine, and watched a TWA 747 take off practically over the house. By the time I got back from the store the news was already breaking on TV. I'll never forget seeing what was a doomed flight only minutes before it was lost. 😢
Catastrophic incidents such as TWA 800, Pan Am 103 and Aloha 243 were nails in the coffins of those iconic airlines. They're gone, but not forgotten. Good job on this episode. Thank you for staying focused on the science.
Aloha ceased operations in 2008, 20 years after the flight 243. Bankruptcy brought on by competition from other airlines.
Aloha lasted like 20 years or something after 243, but still sad to see them gone.
Pan Am continued on for nearly three years after Lockerbie dude.
Aloha 243 was not even that bad as compared to the other 2.
@@nigelmurphy6761 And kept making losses.
Even though you have an idea what this video is about and heard what happened, just hearing that ATC calling for TWA 800 and hearing the other pilot “I think that was them, God bless him” just gives me the chills and deeply saddens me. You can almost hear the controller almost breaking down.
You can hear the realisation of what happened in that ATC's voice. It just slightly drops a pitch. And then the other pilot saying "I think that was him"....that gave me chills.
yea he said I think that was him, god bless him. that was heartbreaking.
It's the other pilots that get me. They understand the gravity of what they've just seen.
55th anniversary of the Stockport crash yesterday, be good to see that one covered soon. Weird to think that something like that happened in my home town.
Its tragic that some of the passengers would have been conscious after the cockpit separated from the aircraft. I cant even imagine what the poor souls must have been thinking.
I’m sure many died of fright with a heart attack plus the cabin would’ve lost airflow , oxygen, and that would’ve killed them and all lights gone off, too! Terrible! I went to my friends funeral after they found her body a week later in the fuselage area in her seat!
Most passengers if not all died of whiplash exactly when the explosion happened @@judithscobee8102
my neighbor was suppose to be one of the pilots on this exact flight and he caught a cold! passed it off to someone else. never really thought about the person that died in his place, and how he must have terrible regret for the substitute pilot and their family.
The heaviness in the exchange of "I think that was him" and "I think it was" made me sick to my stomach.
Any air traffic controllers / pilots out there: is there specific training for how to continue a flight / shift after witnessing an accident like that? I would imagine you'd go into shock or at least be so emotionally disturbed it would be impossible to continue working, but the job demands that you do.
ATCOs get pulled off shift. Same as any Engineers who've touched an accident aircraft.
They sound like they're talking about a small news event at the office cooler lmao
@@samaw5112unfortunately as sad and devastating as an accident like that would be, they have to make sure all the other flights are safe. Do the job then think about it later, I would guess. However, “God bless him”- I’m sure that was said through tears. The ATC was no doubt just praying he would hear something, anything, even as he might have suspected the truth. A very very bad day at the office for all.
From the very beginning of primary training, pilots are taught that their first responsibility is to fly the plane.
No matter what else is going on, fly the plane.
There's plenty of time later to fall apart if you need to but, right now, fly the plane.
indeed I did find this one interesting. I've seen most of these - quality has been outstanding, and constantly increases too.
I remember this one (was born in '78),have seen a couple of documentaries on it; a classic case of several different circumstances coming together in an unforseen disaster (in fact they are often the worst). top marks to all concerned in this production, many thanks for posting.
"TWA 800 Center?"
"I think that was him."
"I think so."
"God bless him."
That is haunting
looks like god didn't bless him enough
That moment when everyone realizes there's one plane failing to respond... oof.
@@ffdv7458 But God has chosen him
Everyone on the frequency just sitting there waiting for him to come in... and then realizing. Absolutely heartbreaking.
@@jeovanythomas3106 how kind of him
The Moment where Eastwinds Flight Crew Said " GOD BLESS HIM" to the Now Fallen TWA 800 Pilots at that time is incredible
Out of every aviation disaster case that I have heard about, this one not only saddens me, it gives me nightmares. I can’t imagine the pure terror and likely shock those poor people must’ve felt in those moments of the whole front simply snapped off like a toothpick exposing the back section to the sky as it kept climbing into the dark sky before plummeting back down. 😣
They did not know. The aircraft came to a sudden stop in the air. Torn clothing and bras with only the straps and no cups were found in the landing gears. One of the team was very effected when told that the momentum of soft flesh tore the garments. We were told to never ask him about Calverton. It was proven that the damage happened in the air. Our fellows called it The Train Wreck in the Sky. That included shearing the main wing spar in the wheel well. The top cap of the spar looked like a beam from a bridge. No Boeing destructive testing predicted a load that could fail the spar.
None of what was published was fully believed. The TWA team included degreed engineers in Aeronautical, Electrical and Civil Engineering. They could not figure it out. I asked the engineer working the nose separation about the crack origin. "No material was found from a three foot area of the crack origin." Many strange things happened at Calverton. A few weeks after their return from Calverton most no longer wanted to talk much.
I love the animations and graphics. Excellent. What program is used to make these videos? I just want to make a Cessna take off, but you are doing 747’s!
The simulator is called X-plane. It has a very strong community of 3rd party developers who make all kinds of planes work in it.
ohhhh my god, THANK YOU for doing this. this is probably the one aviation incident that unsettles me the most
Air India 182 is very unsettling to me too for the same reasons. Both planes were brought down by an explosion that initially separated the plane into multiple parts, then plunged into the ocean. I was in middle school when TWA800 went down and the news footage that followed has been etched in my memory since then.
Bit of a sad fact, but for comic fans, DC's Stargirl, was based off of and named after Geoff Johns' sister, Courtney, who was a passenger on this flight.
She was going to visit a friend in Paris who was hosted by her family a year prior and it was Courtney's turn to visit her friend in Paris
If I’m not mistaken, Andy Warhol’s ex and muse was also on this flight.
One of my college professors was a helicopter pilot for the Nassau County Police Department. He was one of the first rescue aircraft to be dispatched to the scene. While he was enroute to the site he was told to turn back because the mission went from a rescue mission to a recovery mission.
No that was because the feds covered up the fact that they shot it down with a missile. How do you not know this?
@@MM12684 I'm saying what he was told when he was enroute. He was tole there were no survivors so he was not needed on scene. I have no idea what point you are trying to make, but it's completely irrelevant to what I was talking about.
@@MM12684 Yes, the globebusters shot that plane down because it was flying over the edge. It's common knowledge. Alex jones newspaper wrote about it in great detail.
@@MM12684 is this conspiracy? Or do u have facts backing your claims
@@MM12684 show your evidence for the missile strike
Thanks for covering this. It was the first major plane crash I knew about as a kid. I think at the time we were on a trip and were in a hotel, we saw the news on the TV in the hotel room. I'd always wondered what had happened. As an adult I've watched many plane crash, dam failure, bridge collapse, etc. shows, always trying to understand what went wrong so I can know how things work and what weak points to look at if I ever have a chance in the future, but this is the first time I remember seeing this one covered.
Man listening to the pilot and ATC talk about the flight, ending it with God Bless Him hit me so hard. Remember watching the news coverage all day. RIP to the Victims.
This is one of your best ones yet! Well detailed and excellently told without giving to melodrama. You do good work here.
Been waiting for this one! Thanks for the work you do!
you’re actually the most underrated channel on youtube, i always look forward to your videos. keep up the great content!!
Thanks for doing this one. It haunts. All those kids on there, just heartbreaking. Love this channel ❤️
"God bless him"- nothing more poignant than that, the moment ATC and the pilot of another plane realise that a 747 has just exploded and crashed into the ocean. RIP all those on board, I hope the end was swift when it came
Been looking forward to this one for a while, amazing video as always!
Thanks!
I think this is the first time I've been so early to one of your videos. Awesome stuff as usual. Nicely done. 👍🏾
That coment from ATC to the Eastwinds 507 pilot who saw the whole event unfold:
ATC: "TWA 800 center?"
EW: "I think that was him"
ATC: "I think so"
EW: "God bless them"
That gave me the chills...
They left out the fact that the NTSB didn't conclude that this fuel tank yarn was actually the cause. The accident is officially still unsolved.
Yeah they did. They had two precedents prior to flight 800 that exploded and crashed due to the same reason.
This is one of my earliest memories growing up in New York. I don't remember a lot about it, but we were on Fire Island for the summer break and my mother wouldn't let us go to the south beaches for the rest of the trip
Also that same day I got a deer tick on me while running in the grass, which I remember because the news was on TV when my mother was pulling it off my scalp with tweezer
I’m sure you understand why she did that
@@shahirnabi7991 took me years to put 2 and 2 together honestly, because she had told us it was punishment for not wearing our helmets on our bikes...
@@bassett_green smart on her part lol
I really appreciate all the work you do Chloe! Another excellent video and I really loved the length of this and as always your work never disappoints. This was very sobering, those on the frequency coming to terms with what they had witnessed was chilling.
I wonder if you would have a look into a video about Saudia Flight 163, it’s an accident I can’t get out of my head.
Thanks again.
This Crash is very Devastating The fact that the plane exploded should have been unbearable for the passengers and Pilots.This is a nice video Chloe
who the fuck is chloe
@@dontspikemydrink9382 the disaster breakdown person.
@Perth Aviation Connections i see
@@dontspikemydrink9382 its the one who makes all the videos but its not them narrating its there brother or a family member I believe (in the first video in the desc it said narrated by anthony howie)
I just retired from working on aircraft Avionics(including wiring). I cannot stress enough how important that is for safety. Airframes and engines rarely fail. The electrical and hydraulic systems are the most important to make sure are at their best. Everything depends on those 2 systems, and in most cases they have back up redundancies. I can honestly say with pride that no aircraft I repaired had bad results afterward, including combat damage repairs. I've grounded a fleet of Blackhawks for messed up wiring(done by a mod team who failed to read the instructions) and ended up having my entire crew rewire everything after watching smoke pour out of the cockpits.
That being said, human error is still the #1 cause of accidents.
I agree with this whole post...because for one...how can you forget to put jet fuel in the tank...aircrafts should be thoroughly examined after wiring installation.
@@ronishakinder6065 as a Technical Inspector, I concur with your assessment.
Watching your channel I still get the itch to travel and to fly like I did in the days before COVID, despite seeing all of these horrible disasters.
As always a great video and especially before going to bed. I hope you keep doing what your doing for a long time and keep us updated in these tragic crashes. 😁
Sorry friend but that smiley face at the end seems slightly inappropriate. I have the same morbid fascination but come on mate.
@@leon6777 Yea I get your point
Great breakdown as always, and awesome ambient music and/or sound throughout (foreboding and powerful).
There was a group of high school students from PA that belong to their high school French club. They were on that flight to visit Paris.
1996 was indeed a bad year, not just for American aviation, but aviation in general. In fact, TWA Flight 800 was not the only 747 lost that year. Just under four months later, Saudia Flight 763 crashed after colliding with Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907. It's chilling to lose one Boeing 747 with hundreds on board, but to lose another just months later is indescribable.
ATC/CV Recordings are all uniquely harrowing in their own ways. It's...interesting (?) to hear an example here of different pilots reporting on seeing the incident take place in real time. I guess I've gotten so used to incidents in remote locations. There's also something comforting yet heartbreaking hearing all of the pilots report their view of events.
I have vague memories of seeing news about this when I was younger, so it's very fascinating to learn the full story. Thank you for another excellent video!
Can’t wait for your next train video bro! Keep up the amazing work you do
Finally, I'm happy you covered this and I knew you'd make it a great production. You never mentioned that it was this flight that inspired the film(s) 'Final Destination'. In fact TWA remastered does a great video mixing the film and the documentary. It's so eiry and frightening.
I was looking for this comment and whether or not anyone else noticed that this inspired Final Destination
I really appreciate you eschewing the conspiracy theories right from the getgo and just focusing on the event, great channel
Completely agree!
I've never heard that atc exchange post crash, that was truly heartbreaking, I'm really glad you added that
Enough people actually saw, with their own eyes, a missile go up and hit the plane. The only 'conspiracy theory' here is the official narrative. This plane WAS shot down by the americans - we have witnesses who saw it happen. You can believe what you want, but I'll be believing the people who where actually there at the time, not the cover up official line by people who weren't.
is there a vid somewhere where someone with experience or knowledge about aviation talks about the conspiracies and not just some randos
Please watch "SILENCED: Flight 800 and the Subversion of Justice"
I should also point out that in audition to high voltage currant from damaged wiring for the CVR, it's believed that wiring for the cabin lights were also damaged and they all lined up neatly with the low voltage wiring for the FQI.
Also, whether or not the passengers and crew survived the initial explosion and the breakup is up for debate as some sources suggest that all but a few people were killed instantly by the whiplash effect from the explosion. But if they did survive both the explosion and the breakup, then they would've been in for an utterly terrifying and gruesome final few moments of their lives. Those in the front third of the aircraft would likely have been pulled downwards by G forces while feeling white hot heat behind them. Those in the rest of the plane would've been pushed back into their seats until the aircraft reached a certain height and stalled. As the destroyed jumbo jet plunged towards the Atlantic Ocean, the passengers and crew inside would also have been pulled towards the front, and either died from smoke inhalation or been burned alive by the fire when the left wing separated.
I knew one of the few EMT'S that was standing by on a nearby dock for survivors. He knew only that a plane had crashed. He said security was ridiculously tight. My friend and a few waited and waited. After over 2 hours the first Coast Guard boat arrived with some of the bodies of the victims. Eventually all were recovered. My friend saw the bodies. He said most died from severe trauma or drowning. According to my friend not a single body was burned.
@@gingermiller436 there were no drownings, because no one would survive the initial impact with the water. if there was water in the lungs, it went in there after the impact and death.
@@pmarreck Yeah, you're right. I don't imagine anyone survived to hit the water.
Wonderfully done video and haven't heard any ATC audio before. Thank you!
I’ll never forget this. I’m from Long Island (KISP is my home town airport and location of my main FBO) and this was an enormous deal in the mid 90’s. So much contentious debate about conspiracies regarding naval weapons ops in the area. It was an extremely hot day, they had all the packs running on high flow while sitting on the ramp, vaporization of the fuel at essentially a stoichiometric mixture… in a confined volume the size of the center tank, that’s basically a massive fuel-air explosive.
Because of the JFK.BETTE/SHIPP SID’s and the ROBER arrival this corridor along the south shore is a heavily trafficked area… many of us would hang out on the bay or off the coast of the fire island inlets to fish and watch the departing/arriving traffic from KJFK… and it was a beautiful summer night as I recall so there was quite a large population of witnesses out on the water…
I remember the cost guard and SCPD pulling bodies out of the water off the coast of fire island for weeks, and the salvage operation to reconstruct the airframe… as I recall it’s still intact at an NTSB warehouse or something along those lines.
Fellow Long Islander here as well. Unfortunately the NTSB will be disposing the wreckage this year.
@@giustinosuarez8711 that’s a shame. I know it was used for instructional purposes for quite a while, among other things. I believe it was originally housed out in Calverton, no idea if that’s where it still is though, haven’t kept up with the story in ages.
Wow, those pilot reports at the end were devastating.
Then after witnessing the horror these same professionals had to focus on operating their own marvels of aviation so the don’t wind up becoming another statistic😞
Your channel is brilliant and i luv listening 2 it so thankyou and looking forward 2 more of ur videos 😃😃
I still remember this like it was yesterday. My 10th birthday was coming up the following week, so I was in the kitchen talking with my Mom about what we were going to do for my party. The breaking news banner came on the TV in the other room; so I walked out of the kitchen, turned left, and saw that helicopter shot of the burning wreckage floating in the ocean. I remember staring at the screen from the other side of the room with a sinking feeling in my gut. I grew up 15 minutes outside of Oklahoma City, so the 1995 bombing was still a pretty fresh memory. It pained me to think of all the friends/families of those on board who were now going through the same sudden, devastating loss that so many people in my community had experienced 2 years earlier. God bless them.
24 minutes long video, holy! Thank you so much for your efforts! Can't wait to hear about this one
No problem! It's so nice to get a few big videos out once in a while.
@@DisasterBreakdown Nearly done watching it, thank you so much for the video. I really enjoy watching your videos, your voice is very calm as well. I already learned a lot from this.
There was an earlier TWA 800 crash as well, I'm surprised they didn't retire the number after the first TWA 800 crash however.
From what i know it happened in November 1964 and the cause was failure in one of the engines.
Good Lord, those poor people continued to climb in a plane with no cockpit while it was on fire? Its more than a mind can bear to think about. Most crashes have quick and dramatic ending where the poor passengers at least die quickly, not this. No wonder this flight is infamous.
I loved your cinematog with the "Looming Tower" while the CTG recordings played!!!
This is an incredibly horrifiing disaster. I feel like it deserves more credit. I’ve seen it only two times, first being a documentary and the second one here. Thanks for telling the story of TWA - 800 in an amazing video!
Please watch "SILENCED: Flight 800 and the Subversion of Justice"
I feel bad for the Air Traffic Control recieving the information for the first time, He seems calm but deep down hes probably scared to his bone
I happened to be awake and channel surfing that night. It might seem idd but back before streaming video and even DVR, we would sit down in front of a TV with no plan, then flip through the channels looking for something of interest. Anyway, I ended up watching coverage of this event for hours into the night. It was very memorable and I must admit that I have never been fully relaxed on an airplane since.
Very well made. Thank you. Such a sad story. May God bless their memory.
Caught this vid early. You’re the best, Chloe.
I do remember this event very well because on the day right after it crashed I was set to fly from CDG (not TWA's terminal which was T1 but T3) to ATH, and we had been left behind as flight on our charter airline (Apollo Airlines) was overbooked, quite common at the time in Europe. I freaked out seeing the TV reports showing debris on the sea. Needless to say I was absolutely not reassured during our flight.
I remember the news showing this crash and the events. Scared the hell out of me considering we were flying to Orlando the next weekend.
I worked at Boeing just outside the conference room where this was investigated. There were pictures of parts, very large, all over the room. The fbi came in and out quite often. They were working on it almost constantly. People came in even while I was leaving for the day. Such a terrible crash.
Yea, the FBI was stealing all the evidence that showed a missile strike.
Thanks for the great vid Chloe
I just saw another one of my disaster channels do a video on this crash today, but had to come and see yours because I knew you would have the CVR recording. Bless you
Imagine, you are the flight engineer, pursuing your dream to be an experienced pilot in the plane, you are training on your 6th flight. Then, your life was cut short...
As always, God bless all souls on TWA Flight 800...
I remember this accident from NatGeo's Air Crash Investigation far long ago, probably during my middle school years....
Good job on covering this accident with the complete ATC radio transcript, now I can fully understand the severity of this accident after all these years only knowing about the flight itself....
LIES!!!!
IT WAS A MISSLE ATTACK!!!!!!
Another GREAT upload! Thanks Again 👍👍
🦋🍂 I'm a Southern Californian native born & bred. I recall this tragedy well, as I had just stopped by Mom & Dad' house on my way home from work. The news broke quickly after the downing & we were riveted to the incoming reports. Even though I had no relations in NYC, nor TWA' Flight 800 it was devastating to me as I listened carefully to the ongoing broadcasts.
I remain as traumatized today, as when it occurred oh, these many 2 in a half decades ago. My God, RIP sweet innocent souls 🙏
TWA 800 is probably one of my earliest childhood memories. I remember seeing an image depicting the explosion in the newspaper. I was 5.