The commercial Boeing 747 aircraft began its career in the seventies. Since that time, "there has never been an in-flight explosion in any Boeing built airliner of Jet-A kerosene fuel vapor/air mixture in any tank, caused by mechanical failure," wrote Donaldson. Yet, in congressional testimony and statements to the media, the NTSB "cited the loss of an Air Force 707 and 3 KC135 air to air tanker aircraft to fuel tank explosions as examples of mishaps similar to TWA FL800," wrote Donaldson, who was a flight instructor and Air-Wing Safety Officer in charge of crash investigation for mishaps ashore and afloat. Officials at the Air Force's safety center, out West stated "there is no record of a 707 loss, and all three KC135s were fueled with JP4, a fuel as volatile as automobile gasoline.". . .
the NTSB told the media that a CWT explosion had caused the Philippines Air 737 crashed in 1990. Donaldson, however, noted that video and still photography taken after the Philippines Air 737 fire was extinguished, "show the Center Wing Tank did not explode." The plane's "undercarriage, wheels and center wing box (tank) were structurally sound enough to carry the load of engines and fuel ... under tractor tow," he noted. "Had the Center Wing Tank actually exploded in the manner the NTSB leadership suggests, the aircraft would have dropped on the ramp ..."
The 707 is an entirely different aircraft and the apparently spurious report of one CWT explosion (if it happened) is much more explicable as the 707 had live wire fuel tank sensors; the 747 does not. As stated, the KC135s (essentially flying gas stations) were carrying JP4... and it was not the CWT that exploded.
The Philippines Air 737 was to have carried the Philippines President on its next flight when it exploded on the tarmac... Some evidence points the explosion being caused by a bomb. Terrorists claimed credit for bombing the plane.
Not ONE Boeing 747 before or since TWA-800 has experienced an explosion in the CW. That includes millions of flights in 38 years.
Your positive about this. Again, I do not disagree, I just remember seeing a show on television where an NTSB official was citing a crash in France due to the same circumstances.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060530X00642&key=1
Oh yeah and since when did the US send the NTSB to India to check out an accident which no one was hurt?
One of the victoms few people talk about of the NTSB's report is Boeing.