No “fuel leaks”...center tank fuel vapor explosion caused by a spark. High voltage got into the the tank via the fuel quantity indication system wiring {normally low voltage}...insulation chafing caused a short to high voltage.
Page 308:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR0003.pdf
So they were just leaving for a long flight (requiring lots of fuel), and a tank is mostly vapor at that early point in the flight?
When I was a kid, my dad used to put a coffee can, with about a 1/2 inch of gas in the bottom, under the engine oil pan of our family car on extremely cold days. He’d toss a match in the can, and the gas would burn slowly because it couldn’t get enough oxygen to burn fast, let alone explode.
He emphasized that just putting a 1/16 of an inch or less could be explosive. He said he could put 2 inches in the can and it would still burn slowly, because the fumes dominate the rest of the space in the can.
So the center tank was practically empty right after takeoff?
You can't ignite jet fuel with a spark. The stuff is d@mn hard to ignite. It's pretty much like diesel or kerosene.
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR0003.pdf
This might be the report I read some years back, and if it is, when you look at their references for how many joules of energy were required to ignite that fuel, it is clearly impossible. There just wasn't enough power in the wiring to accomplish it.
Jet fuel is hard to ignite. Here, let me show you.
https://youtu.be/7nL10C7FSbE?si=otth9anWJrqezd8W
Now you watch that section on the guy trying to light jet fuel on fire with a torch, and then come back and tell me it ignited with a spark.
I'll wait. :)