[null and void]

There have been a number of accidents where novel mechanical failures and/or pilot-induced mechanical failures of aircraft-type with robust operational histories resulted in catastrophic failures. Alaska Airlines FL-261, AA FL-587 both come to mind immediately.

As aircraft age, the stress and wear of operation can reveal design or operational defects that can, if not remedied, lead to catastrophic failure. In both the aforementioned incidents, maintenance or training corrections needed to be implemented in order to avoid subsequent catastrophic failures...just as it was with TWA 800.

Which is precisely why all 747s were grounded until the center fuel tank problem could be fixed, right?

[ScubaDiver]

I’m not sure if it was all generations of 747s. Some of the later variants may have not had that design flaw (I’m not sure). But yes, I believe the other 747s of the same generation of TWA 800 were grounded pending inspections and maybe even modifications.

[Hulka]

“Which is precisely why all 747s were grounded until the center fuel tank problem could be fixed, right?”

And years previous grounding of KC-135s due to same internal issue.