On July 17, 1996, at 8:31 p.m., a Boeing 747 exploded over Long Island, N.Y., just minutes after takeoff. All 230 people aboard TWA Flight 800 were killed.
Controversy immediately surrounded the tragedy, with many eyewitnesses claiming to have seen a bright “flare” that some believed to be a missile rising toward the aircraft. The FBI and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began a large-scale investigation. The FBI interviewed hundreds of witnesses as the NTSB gathered thousands of parts from Flight 800 and pieced them together in a warehouse.
The investigation did not conclude until August of 2000 when the NTSB released its final report, which stated that the disaster was caused by “an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank.” Although the cause of that ignition could not be determined with certainty, investigators believed it to be the result of a short circuit that caused an unusually high amount of electricity in the fuel tank.
By the time the final report was released, the public already believed that foul play caused the disaster. Thus many people thought that the NTSB and FBI investigation was a cover-up. The main theories were that Flight 800 was shot down by a Navy missile, bombed by terrorists, or shot down by a shoulder-fired stinger missile.
Regardless of the cause, in 2002 a memorial was opened in Smith Point Park, N.Y. to honor those who died in the crash.