FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 10, 1997 SB 97-23

NTSB INVESTIGATIVE HEARING ON TWA FLIGHT 800 TO BEGIN IN BALTIMORE ON DECEMBER 8

Washington, D.C. - The National Transportation Safety Board has announced that it will convene an investigative hearing into the crash of TWA flight 800 on December 8 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The hearing will convene at 9 a.m. on Monday, December 8 in Exhibition Hall A of the Baltimore Convention Center, One West Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201. The public is invited to observe the hearing, which is expected to last up to 5 days. The hearing will be chaired by NTSB Chairman Jim Hall.

At the hearing, Safety Board investigators are expected to provide reports on the progress of the investigation. In addition, a number of technical witnesses are likely to provide testimony under oath on safety issues that have arisen during the course of the Board's investigation. This will be a fact-finding hearing. No determination of cause will be rendered.

On July 17, 1996, at approximately 8:30 p.m., TWA flight 800, a Boeing 747-100 that had taken off 14 minutes earlier from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on its way to Paris, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 passengers and crew aboard.

Since that night, the Safety Board has led the largest transportation accident investigation in the nation's history. More than 95 percent of the aircraft was retrieved from the ocean floor and a 94-foot-long reconstruction of a large portion of the fuselage was completed in Calverton.

"The crash of flight 800 shocked the people of the United States, and, indeed, of the world," Hall said. "This hearing will provide the public with an opportunity to hear first hand about the exhaustive scientific testing the Safety Board and others have undertaken to find the cause of this tragedy."

Note to media: The Board will announce at a later date procedures for members of the news media to receive accreditation for the hearing.

Media contact: NTSB Public Affairs (202) 314-6100