The Forgotten Crash Of TWA 800

this is the story of twa 800 no not the twa 800 that most of you are familiar with but the 1964 crash of a twa 707 on the 23rd of november 1964 a twa 707 was flying from rome's fu mencino airport to elenicon airport in greece captain lovell went over the pre-flight briefing the weather was good there was some choppy weather over northern italy but other than that all of europe was great after having lunch with a friend captain lovell decided to perform the visual inspection of the plane everything seemed to be in order they decided that the first officer would be the one flying the plane out of rome that day as they studied their departure they did their pre-flight checklist atc came on and gave them permission to start their engines as they taxied they got their takeoff clearance this meant that they wouldn't have to hold short or pause at the runway they could just turn onto the runway open up the throttles and go even though the first officer would be the one flying captain lovell was the one who had access to the no steering wheel so he would hand the plane off to the first officer when they were at 80 knots they got onto the runway and started their takeoff role as they reached 80 knots the data coming in from engine number four showed that they had an issue two seconds later a reverse thrust light came on for engine number two something was wrong instantly captain level decided to reject the takeoff as it would not be safe to continue it and since they were well below their v1 speed it was the right call captain level now in control of the plane pulled back the engines to idle he then used the speed brakes and the brakes to slow the plane down he'd then engage the reverse thrusters reverse thrust is a mechanism by which planes can use the thrust from their engines to slow down the concept is really simple the thrust from an engine pushes the plane forward now if you were to redirect that thrust forward it would help slow the plane down that's basically what a reverse thruster does it redirects the thrust in the opposite direction of motion so that the plane slows down on the 707 this was done using clam shells or buckets when the reverse thrust was activated the buckets moved into the jet exhaust and they redirected it forwards as the crew rejected the takeoff the plane yawed violently to the right something was wrong the plane was not slowing down as expected a crew member let the captain know that the tires on the right side of his plane had blown but there was a problem the last two thousand feet of the runway was closed for maintenance captain lovell struggled to keep his plane under control and he saw a steamroller traverse the runway he tried to turn the plane to the left in order to avoid hitting the steamroller but he failed engine number four slammed into the steamroller tipping it over 800 feet beyond that the plane came to a halt minus engine number four the crew flew through the checklist for a rejected takeoff the first officer now alerted captain lovell to the fact that there was a fire on the right side of the plane immediately captain level shuts the engines down he cuts the fuel and hydraulic lines to the engine and activated the fire suppressors as he did this a violent explosion rocked the plane quote as of that instant and from then on we my passengers my crew and i descended into the deepest pit of hell end quote their ordeal was far from over as captain lovell made his way out of the cockpit he went into the cabin to help in any way that he could he found that the flight attendants were having a hard time with the emergency shoots in addition to all of this the aisles of the cabin were full of people he made his way back to the cockpit he opened the cockpit window and threw the escape rope out he thought he would be able to help the passengers from the outside but as he hit the ground he saw that the entire bottom portion of the plane was on fire fuel pulled in puddles in a cruel test of fate the worst of the inferno was near the passenger door the explosion had ruptured the fuel tank captain lovell was in a state of shock he tried to help as many people as he could he tackled people to the ground in order to put out their flaming clothes he dragged people to safety even though the fire trucks responded in minutes for him and everyone on board it felt like an eternity but unfortunately of the 73 people on board 50 did not make it as he was being driven to the first aid terminal he realized that he too had been burned at the hospital they found that he had a broken finger as he escaped the plane there captain lovell talked to other twa pilots as a nurse sedated him after he had been released from the hospital he was interviewed by the italian authorities about what had happened he told them that he suspected thrust asymmetry he said that he recalled increasing the reverse thrust on engines one and two the engines on the left side of the plane after hours of questioning captain lovell was escorted back to his hotel he recollected that that night was one of the worst nights of his life the loss of the people who he knew on that plane weighed heavily on him by morning he had come to the conclusion that he did the best he could have under the circumstances what followed were hours and hours of questioning and testimonials before the italian authorities after 15 months of investigating the italians had their final report they found that the thrust reverser on engine number two had malfunctioned engine number two was the inborn engine on the left wing they found that the reverser on engine number two was broken a duct in the hydraulic system was disconnected which meant that the clamshells on engine number two did not work so when the pilot engaged the reverse thrusters to slow the plane down engines 1 3 and 4 started to slow the plane down but since the clam shells on engine number 2 did not move into place due to the disconnected duct engine number 2 kept on pushing the plane forward this created the thrust asymmetry that captain lovell talked about the forward thrust produced by engine number two is what caused the plane to yar right the trouble is that there was no way for the crew to know that the reverser on engine number two was malfunctioning if you remember in the cockpit they had a yellow light telling them that something was wrong moreover they got signals that the thrust reverser had deployed when in reality it had not the reverser was still stowed so the crew thought that the reverser on engine number two was working this is why captain lovell increased the reverse thrust on engines one and two to turn the plane away from the steamroller if the reverser on engine number two were working then increasing the reverse thrust on the left-hand engines would have turned the plane to the left away from the steamroller but since the reverser was not working it just made matters worse taking the plane right into the path of the steamroller now you might be wondering what a steamroller was doing on an active runway the maintenance was in accordance with all icao rules and the runway was long enough for a 707 to take off and if needed to reject that takeoff at the moment of impact a fuel line and engine number four ruptured and that started a fire the surge tank at the tip of the wing was also ruptured and that provided a point of ingress for the flames and then the flame spread quickly within a minute the whole plane was ablaze the danger here was not from the impact but from the fire many people didn't even feel the initial impact the flammability of the plane was once again traced to the fumes a few months ago i talked about a pan am 707 that exploded after it was struck by lightning in that case fumes in the fuel tank were ignited by a spark and since all of the fuel tanks were connected they all exploded you can find the video on your screen right now here as well the same thing happened the plane had just flown across the atlantic and so the tanks were full of volatile fumes it's those fumes that ignited first on flight 800 quote in my rome accident nobody had been injured up to the time the plane stopped the explosions in the fume-filled tanks were the major contributing factor to the loss of 51 lives another thing that made matters worse for flight 800 were the fuel tanks in the fuselage of the plane the pilots were against placing fuel tanks in the belly of the plane but the plane just couldn't carry the needed fuel in the wings alone twa at the time of the accident was working on a way to neutralize the fumes and snuff out sparks in the tanks but at the time of the accident these technologies were not implemented into the planes another thing that caused lives that day were the evacuation procedures in the case of twa flight 800 a few of the exits were not viable due to the fire and that severely limited the number of ways in which people could escape also the need for better emergency lighting was shown especially on the floors as people got lost in the smoke inside the plane ultimately the investigators put up a few recommendations after the crash they included suggestions like a way for pilots to see the position of the thrust reversers a way to reduce the likelihood of fuel tank explosions a way to reduce the buildup of fuel in surge tanks and redesigned over wing and exit slides so that people could exit the plane much faster in the event of an emergency after this the captain of twa 800 captain vernon william lovell became a passionate advocate of aviation safety he wrote a book called aviation safety is a myth and that's what i used as the source material for this video the book is raw and emotional and it gives you insight into the mind of a pilot after an accident like this if you have some time on your hands i highly recommend that you read it you can pick up a used copy for three dollars on amazon a brand new copy is 850 dollars for some reason there's also a digital copy that you can read for free when reading the book something hit me i'm reading this book 56 years after it was written and i realized that the book no longer holds true sure aviation safety might have been a questionable thing back then but things have improved so much now take the last recommendation for example redesigned overwing exits and slides so that evacuations could be more effective in 2005 an airbus a340 overshot a runway in canada they were able to evacuate 305 people from a badly damaged airplane in the case of asiana 214 they were able to evacuate 304 of 307 people in the case of emirates 521 they were able to evacuate all 300 people in the case of china airlines flight 120 they were able to evacuate all 165 people aviation has gotten a lot safer and that's thanks to the industry learning from its mistake and due to the diligent work of people like captain lovell he unfortunately passed away in the year 2000 and i hope that he got to see aviation safety go from a myth to reality thank you for watching this episode of mini air crash investigation if you like the videos that i make do consider liking and subscribing it'll really help the channel grow i'll catch you guys next time stay safe

Channel: Mini Air Crash Investigation

Views: 118,710

Keywords: air crash investigation, air crash confidential, mayday, ACI, TWA, TWA crash, TWA airlines, the forgotten crash of TWA 800, rome, rome funmincino airport, rome airport crash, runway, avaition safety, aviation safety video, educational aviation video, aviation history, historical, educational documentary, TWA 800 crash, twa 800 1964, 194, twa boeing 707 crash, captain vernon lovell, avgeek, aviation geek, history, 707 safety, improving aviation safety

Id: v6g4gkiXeJs

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020