OK, as a firefighter, I can tell you that liquid fuels DO NOT EXPLODE. Only fuel vapour-oxidzer (O2 in this case) with the right molecular ratio/mixtures (and vapour pressures) will explode.
Jet fuel is sprayed into the compressed air section of a jet engine so that the droplets can sufficiently vapourize and BURN (not explode) in the presence of sufficient oxidizer (O2).
That center wing tank had been partially fueled for quite a while. I *seriously* doubt the air-fuel-vapour mixture above the liquid fuel in that tank was an explosive mixture.
I cannot rationally support the static discharge/explosion in a fuel tank theory.
The flash point of Jet-A is 100.4F. This means that all the vapor inside the tank would have had to be at 100.4F, at sea level pressure, for a simple electric spark to ignite it and cause it to burn explosively. The autoignition point of Jet-A is 410F. This means that all the vapor inside the tank would have had to reach 410F in order for spontaneous combustion to occur. Both of these temperatures assume sea level pressure and oxygen content. Neither of these things happened on TWA 800's center fuel tank and even if they did, as you say, there wasn't enough oxidizer to allow for explosive combustion. It just didn't happen that way.
Hi,
I read Commander Donaldson’s Report. Yes, I agree with you. I know a couple of commercial pilots and they said the same thing you just said. They were told to keep quiet, but they did tell me that most if not all pilots believe that the plane was brought down purposely.
They can’t tell me the means, but in no way did that center fuel tank exploded like that.