TWA Flight 841
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Two separate incidents have occurred on two separate airliners operating as TWA Flight 841.
1974 bombing
On September 8, 1974, a Boeing 707-331B (tail number N8734) operating as TWA Flight 841 took off from Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv en route to JFK International Airport, New York City. It was scheduled to land in Athens, followed by Rome, and then proceed to New York. After stopping for 68 minutes in Athens, it departed for Rome. However, 18 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the Ionian Sea. All 79 passengers and 9 crew members were killed.Although the idea of terrorism was initially scoffed at, the National Transportation Safety Board determined later that the plane was destroyed by a bomb hidden in the cargo hold, which caused structural failure resulting in uncontrollable flight. A youth organization in Beirut claimed responsibility for the blast, and suspicion has fallen on Abu Nidal and his terror organization.
1979 dive
On April 4, 1979, a Boeing 727-31 (tail number N840TW) operating as TWA Flight 841 took off from JFK International Airport, New York City en route to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Over Saginaw, Michigan, while the plane was cruising at 39,000 feet, its #7 slat extended, initiating a sharp roll to the right. The roll continued irrespective of the corrective measures taken by the autopilot and the human pilot. The aircraft went into a spiral dive, losing about 34,000 feet in 63 seconds. During the course of the dive, the plane rolled through 360 degrees twice, and crossed the Mach limit for the 727 airframe. It was later estimated from the flight data recorder that the plane was momentarily supersonic. Control was regained at about 5,000 feet, following the #7 slat being torn off from the aircraft and symmetry of lift being re-established. The plane suffered substantial damage, but made an emergency landing at Detroit without more trouble. No fatalities occurred among the 82 passengers and 7 crew. 8 passengers reported minor injuries relating to high G forces.The NTSB investigated the incident and established after eliminating all individual and combined sources of mechanical failure, that the extension of the slats was due to the flight crew manipulating the flap/slat controls in an inappropriate manner.
External references
[AAR 75-07 Boeing 707 Ionian Sea Crash] [AAR 81-08 Boeing 727 Saginaw Michigan Dive]
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