I’ve been an aviation tech writer and analyst for close to five years now, but I’ve worked as an aircraft electrical and avionics technician for 26 of the 31 years I’ve spent in the aerospace field. I’ve worked on more than 50 types of military and civilian aircraft in that time.
Hell, I even did work on a TWA 747 in early 1996-they bought it used from Qantas and were doing mods to it where I was working in Texas-it wasn’t the same one that went down in July, BTW.
Anyway, I know a few things about wire, fuel tanks, capacitance type fuel quantity indicating systems, etc. and I don’t believe the official story-if aircraft fuel system electrical wire installed in fuel tanks and immersed in fuel did that, I’d be walking around with a crash helmet on—because planes would be dropping out of the sky every other day.
One thing I’ve learned in this field is anything can happen, but from merely a technical experience point of view this seems VERY, VERY improbable (in fact the industry did dog and pony show wire inspections after this and I didn’t find or hear about ANY other aircraft that was a disaster waiting to happen).
Then, factor in all of the other non-tecnical stuff, suspicious circumstances, etc., and......
In 1991 a Lauda Air 767 was torn apart over Thailand when the thrust reverse on the Number 1 engine deployed. Why aren't 767s dropping out of the air on a daily basis? In 1989 an electrical short caused the forward lower lobe cargo door on a United 747 to open. The explosive decompression caused the side of the fuselage to blow out and 9 people were sucked out. Why aren't 747 passengers raining down on us on a regular basis? In 1998 electrical arcing from an onboard entertainment system caused a fire that brought down a Swissair DC-11 off Nova Scotia. Why don't we have flaming DC-11s crashing down upon us on a regular basis?
The answer is, of course, because airliners are built to high standards of quality and well maintained. But even then, things happen. Fortunately they tend to happen only once because the cause is identified and corrections taken. Why is it so hard to believe that the same isn't true with TWA 800?
That the media would never bring up such an obvious point simply proves what we've believed about them for 30 years.