Posted on 07/17/2026 6:10:41 PM PDT by PghBaldy
Friday marks as sad milestone.
It was 30 years ago that TWA Flight 800 exploded in midair off of Long Island minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Paris
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
By the way, there isn’t much oxygen in a fuel tank. Rarely enough to support combustion inside the tank.
“ The fuel quantity measuring system on that 100 model did not have intrinsically safe barriers. It was built in 1971.”
Every car built since the mid 1990’s has an electric fuel pump sitting in the bottom of the tank with 12vdc and a 20-30 amp fuse going to it. Often there are cracks in the insulation or sometimes chunks missing yet how many car fires do we see that begin in the tank?
Gasoline is a lot more volatile than Jet-A.
You bet or you know?
What exactly goes into the tank when the fuel is consumed or transferred then? It’s not under a vacuum.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
Would there be enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic to the UK with an empty center fuel tank? Inquiring minds wants to know.
So you’re saying that because it doesn’t happen frequently then it can’t happen at all? Is that what you’re going with?
Rarely. Hmm...
CBS......
When you begin to see pink goo, stop beating a dead horse
Fuel fumes and air, at the atmospheric pressure of flight. Not a favorable mix to support combustion.
Many sensors for fuel do not have the electrical elements in the tank.
Most large aircraft do not measure volume in the tank. They meter the volume that has been consumed in a fashion similar the way fuel is metered when you purchase it for your car; and, that is mechanically subtracted from the amount of fuel that was loaded.
Another matter: TWA 800 was fueled with JP4, which is not a particularly volatile fluid.
Do you people actually believe that the engineers never thought of these problems when designing the instruments?
I know. I design instruments.
Clay Moore's reasoning is sound. Especially when you compare the 45,000 flights a day to 1.1 BILLION car trips per day in the USA.
If you'd like another example, pour out an orange sized puddle of diesel fuel or kerosene on the hottest sidewalk you can find this afternoon. Give it a moment and try to light it with a match. It isn't easy.
So was the CWT explosion on Thai Airways 114 also a missile or bomb or something other than nearly the exact same thing as the official explanation of TWO 800?
PS there are a lot of things engineers don’t think about or think about incorrectly when designing their products, including instrumentation. I mean, just look at the 737 Max disasters. A single stuck AoA sensor (among other things) led to the planes driving themselves right into the ground.
Harry tells me you’re quite the instrumentation wiz. You know, I’m something of an instrumentation specialist myself.
The NTSB literally recreated the exact conditions in another CWT, and it exploded.
Again, just because something doesn’t happen frequently doesn’t mean it can’t happen at all.
Oh and ever compare the temperature of a match to an electrical arc? Like, do you think the match is burning as hot as plasma?
The both of you should look up Thai Airways 114.
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