Trans-World Airlines Flight 840

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Trans-World Airlines Flight 840
Boeing 727-231-Adv, Trans World Airlines - TWA AN1121365.jpg

The affected machine in 1997
Accident summary
Accident type Bomb attack
place via Argos , GreeceGreeceGreece 
date April 2, 1986
Fatalities 4th
Survivors 118
Injured 7th
Aircraft
Aircraft type United StatesUnited States Boeing 727-231
operator United StatesUnited States Trans World Airlines
Mark United StatesUnited States N54340
Departure airport Los Angeles International Airport , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
1. Stopover John F. Kennedy International Airport , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
2. Stopover Rome Fiumicino Airport , ItalyItalyItaly 
3. Stopover Athens-Ellinikon Airport , GreeceGreeceGreece 
Destination airport Cairo International Airport , EgyptEgyptEgypt 
Passengers 115
crew 7th
Lists of aviation accidents

On April 2, 1986, on Trans-World Airlines flight 840 , a serious incident occurred on board a Boeing 727-231 operated by Trans World Airlines when a bomb exploded 20 minutes before the stopover in Athens, killing four passengers and seven others were injured. The badly damaged machine was safely landed at Athens-Ellinikon Airport . The attack was later attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization .

machine

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 727-231, which was 11 years and 7 months old at the time of the accident. The machine was the work of Boeing on the Boeing Field in the state of Washington assembled and completed on August 29, 1974 its first flight before it was re-delivered on 10 September 1974 to the Trans World Airlines. The aircraft had the factory number 20845, it was the 1066. Boeing 727 from ongoing production. The machine was certified with the aircraft registration N54340 . The three-engine medium range - narrow-body aircraft was with 134 seats and three Turbojettriebwerken type Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A equipped.

Flight plan

The transatlantic intercontinental flight TW840 was to run from Los Angeles International Airport to Cairo International Airport . Scheduled stopovers at John F. Kennedy International Airport , Rome-Fiumicino Airport and Athens-Ellinikon Airport were planned along the route .

Passengers and crew

On the flight segment from Rome to Athens 115 passengers had taken place in the plane. There was a crew of seven on board. The captain of the aircraft, Peter "Pete" Petersen, was the pilot Flying.

Course of the flight and course of the accident

The first two flight segments from Los Angeles to New York City and from New York City to Rome were flown without incident. The flight from Rome to Athens was also inconspicuous until the approach phase. While the machine was descending 20 minutes before landing over Argos at an altitude of around 11,000 feet (approx. 3350 meters), a bomb exploded in the passenger compartment, tearing a hole 1.40 by 1.60 meters in the fuselage of the machine on the right side of the cabin near seat 10F. This resulted in an explosive decompression of the pressurized cabin , during which four passengers were sucked through the hole in the aircraft fuselage. Seven other passengers were injured by bomb and wreckage flying around. The machine was able to make an emergency landing safely in Athens.

Victim

Four US passengers were killed in the incident, including a man of Colombian roots, a woman, her daughter and her eight-month-old granddaughter. The bodies of three of the victims were recovered from the site of a disused base of the Greek Air Force , and a fourth was recovered from the sea.

After the incident

An organization called the Arab Revolutionary Cells, which had not yet appeared, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group named retribution for American imperialism and the Operation Attain Document in the Great Syrte as motifs .

Accident investigation

Investigators concluded that the detonated bomb contained about a pound of plastic explosives . It was believed that the bomb was brought on board on an earlier segment of the flight by a Lebanese woman belonging to the Abu Nidal organization . The suspect was arrested in connection with the incident but was never charged.

The fact that the machine was not torn apart in the explosion, the investigators attributed to the fact that the bomb had detonated at a relatively low altitude.

The whereabouts of the machine

The heavily damaged aircraft was repaired after the incident and put back into service. The machine remained in service with the airline until October 28, 2001, when it was retired and scrapped in May 2002 at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville , California .

See also

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