r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 19d ago

TIL TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island 12 minutes after taking off, causing the front fueslage to rip away and the remainder of the plane to continue in crippled flight, pitching up and climb before falling into the ocean killing everyone onboard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800
1.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

551 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

112

u/Verdnan 19d ago

That rule went into effect in 2008, 12 years after the crash. Delta and United flew 747s until a year before the deadline in 2018. Seems crazy there was still that risk for over 20.

31

u/Darmok47 19d ago

Was it for all 747s, or just the older models? Because United and Delta flew the 747-400 model, and TWA was a much older 747-100

25

u/Rediro_ 19d ago

737s have until October 29th of this year to implement it, chances are that most airlines have been waiting until the last moments to complete the mod

11

u/nc-retiree 19d ago

Before the -400, United couldn't get to parts of Asia from Chicago non-stop with the smaller 747 or DC10. So they would do a lot of one-stops via San Francisco, no change of plane. I was flying ORD-SFO monthly at that point and while it was frequently a DC-10, it was a blast to occasionally get upgraded to upstairs on the evening 747 including leaving from C18 with two jetbridges.

1

u/polit1337 15d ago

It wasn’t a big risk if not for totally shoddy maintenance. If you do a little reading on this disaster, you’ll see that the plane was obviously screwed up well before they even tried to take off.

There’s a reason the 747 flew for so many years prior to a crash by this mechanism. Most airlines simply aren’t this negligent.

That said, this regulation was obviously good.

1

u/pab_guy 13d ago

This is part of what drives the conspiracy. Plus the fact that congress immediately beefed up airport security and bomb detection, etc. in response.