the fuselage because of the pressurization of the airplane itself. that crack ran around the portion of the lower fuselage. that caused the nose of the airplane to detach from the rest of the aircraft. it fell off. if you drop the weight off the front, the center of gravity goes back, the airplane s going to nose up. it s going to climb and go up. engines are still producing thrust. the aircraft enters a steep climb, ascending between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. 42 seconds after the initial explosion, the left wing separates, spraying unburned fuel and ignites a second fireball. the wreckage, with passengers inside, plunges to the surface of the ocean. the breakup of flight 800 provides explanation for one of the most confounding aspects of
july 17th, 1996, twa flight 800 explodes in flames shortly after takeoff. the fbi rules out a bomb or missile, but it will take a four-year investigation, the most costly and extensive in the ntsb s history, to determine the cause. after pulling debris from the ocean, investigators conclude that the airplane broke apart into three distinct sections. the front section including the cockpit and the first class areas broke off and that just fell to the ground, then much further away you had the rest of the airplane, which seems odd. it was clear that piece of the airplane had to continue some part of the flight for a lot longer. went back and started looking at all the pieces that came off first. they all came out of areas around the wing center fuel tank. so it started becoming apparent that whatever happened happened inside the wing center fuel tank.
across these openings it redirects fluid. in the days after the u.s. air accident, investigators recovered the flight 427 s pcu from the crash site. some is intact. some of the brackets broken. if something did malfunction inside this pcu, it left no evidence. the valves were not badly scarred. there were no marks. there wasn t an instant indication of what would have caused the power control unit to have problems. investigators run a battery of tests on the pcus from u.s. air 427 and eastwind airlines, trying to determine if the units can jam. what they find is even more alarming. not only can the pcu jam, but it
unlike gasoline, jet fuel isn t highly flammable. but as this faa test shows, when it s heated, the vapors that are produced can be explosive. as twa flight 800 prepares to take off from new york s jfk airport, the center wing fuel tank, about the size of a two-car garage, is nearly empty. all that was in that fuel tank was basically just residual fuel, just a small amount of fuel sloshing around the bottom of the tank. given the short duration of this particular flight, the operators don t usually use or put fuel into the center fuel tank because they don t need it. the wings hold a sufficient amount of fuel. you can save some money and get better performance by leaving the fuel out of it. with passengers waiting on board flight 800, a delay with baggage is keeping the plane at the gate. it was a hot day in new york, and they ve had the air conditioning packs running to keep the aircraft cool. the air conditioning packs are mounted in close proximity to the center fuel tan
u.s. air flight 427 smashes down outside of pittsburgh. it is the second boeing 737 in three years to suddenly roll for unknown reasons and then crash killing everyone on board. it s a mystery threatening to ground the most widely used jet in the world. investigators suspect a problem with the rudder, which controls the plane s movement to the left and right, but they find no evidence of a malfunction. nearly two years after the crash, a possible break in the case. the pilot of an eastwind airlines boeing 737 experiences a sudden roll as the jet approaches richmond, virginia. he quickly got on the rudder pedals. so you had two pilots shoving with all their might on a rudder pedal and all it s doing is