Volume 47, Number 14 · September 21, 2000
Swissair 111, TWA 800, and Electromagnetic Interference
By Elaine Scarry
On the evening of July 17, 1996, TWA 800 fell into the ocean seven miles from the Long Island town of East Moriches. The plane had taken off from New York's JFK Airport and had been bound for Paris, France. All 230 people on board died. The inquiry into the crash, the most expensive and (in its attention to the plane's internal systems) the most rigorous inquiry in aviation history, has lasted for four years. A final hearing by the National Transportation Safety Board has been taking place on August 22 and 23, 2000, as this issue of The New York Review goes to press; neither the hearing nor the report that will follow it is expected (according to advance press reports) to 'pinpoint' the cause of the crash. The full written report will become available to the public in several months.[1]
Feature, 6601 words
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