A private memorial service for the families of the victims of the 1996 TWA Flight 800 explosion was held on Saturday, 25 years after a catastrophic 230 crash and just before the provincial government began destroying the rebuilt wreckage of the now obsolete aircraft.
The service will take place in Long Island, New York, more than 260 miles from the 30,000-square-foot hangar at the National Transportation Safety Board training center in Ashburn, Virginia, where the Boeing 747 was rebuilt more than two decades ago . The organization, which had until last week used the saved debris in accident study studies, is expected to dispose of it and dispose of it in the coming months.
"It has been very helpful, but I think we have come to the point now as it is time to get over it, but in a different way," said Frank Hilldrup, an NTSB official who was part of the Flight 800 Investigation Team.
The Paris plane crashed a few minutes after it left New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board. The plane crashed into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island. With the help of the Navy and contracted small-scale fishing fishermen, investigators were able to recover more than 95% of the aircraft, and, for about a year, the remains of all the dead were recovered.
After a thorough four-year investigation, Hilldrup's team determined that the cause of the explosion was an explosion in the wing fuel tank, although they have not yet clearly identified the source of the original spark.
But while the NTSB is planning to demolish the rebuilt wreckage by removing or melting or burning nearly 1,600 pieces, some people close to the disaster say the process will not work.
"You will never close the door on this. You will never really close it," said John Seaman, his niece, Michelle Becker, who died in the crash.
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