- Thread starter
- #21
mikegriffith1;13998009 said:In 2009, the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) in New Mexico conducted an experiment with a center fuel tank in an attempt to validate the FBI-NTSB theory that a spark from faulty wiring ignited vapors in TWA 800’s center fuel tank, caused the fuel tank to explode, and blew up the airliner. . . .[SNIP]
-- The EMRTC experiment heated the fuel tank to 112 degrees because the FBI-NTSB theory is that running the A/C units under TWA 800’s center fuel tank while the plane was delayed caused the tank to heat up to 112 degrees, which in turn produced enough explosive vapors to cause the alleged spark-induced explosion. . . . [SNIP]
-- The video narrator says that the engineers sought to set the conditions “to mimic that hot summer day in 1996.” “Hot summer day”? TWA 800 took off at 8:19 p.m. When TWA 800’s delay began at 7:00 p.m., the temperature at JFK International Airport was 82 degrees. 51 minutes later, 20 minutes before takeoff, the temperature had dropped to 80 degrees.
One clarification and one revision.
Clarification: The EMRTC engineers chose the temperature of 112 degrees apparently because they viewed it as the approximate median point of the NTSB's temperature range of 101 to 127 degrees for the temperature inside the center fuel tank. The NTSB reported that in their 7/14/1997 flight test, the temperature inside the center fuel tank of an identical Boeing 747 got as high as 127 degrees (NTSB report, p. 261). (The report fails to mention, however, that this flight test was done when the outside temperature was 87 degrees, which was at least 13 degrees warmer than the outside temperature when TWA 800 was delayed for 74 minutes.)
Revision: It turns out that the historical weather website that I used when I wrote my post on the EMRTC experiment provided incorrect data. It was not 80-82 degrees at JFK Airport at the time in question. It was 70-74 degrees. The Weather Underground database says it was 74 degrees (New York City, NY Weather History | Weather Underground). Investigative journalist Pat Milton, who supports the FBI-NTSB version, says the temperature was 70 degrees (In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800, Random House, 1999, p. 328).
This means the NTSB flight test was done when the outside temperature was at least 13 degrees warmer than it was when TWA 800 was waiting on the tarmac. Just about everyone would agree that a temperature difference of 13 degrees is quite significant, and that a difference of 17 degrees is even more significant.