TWA Flight 841 (1974)

TWA Flight 841

Occurrence summary
Date	September 8, 1974
Type	Terrorist bombing
Site	Over the West Coast of Greece (Ionian Sea)
Passengers	79
Crew	9
Injuries	0
Fatalities	88
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 707-331B
Operator	Trans World Airlines
Tail number	N8734
Flight origin	Ben Gurion International Airport
2nd stopover	Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport
3rd stopover	Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport
Destination	John F. Kennedy International Airport

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. About 30 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the Ionian Sea. The out of control aircraft was observed by crew on the flight deck of Pan Am 110. They watched the aircraft execute a steep climb, the separation of an engine from the wing, and the death spiral. All 79 passengers and nine crew members were killed.

The airline's Tel Aviv office said 49 passengers boarded the plane there for Rome and the United States. They included 17 Americans (plus a baby) 13 Japanese, four Italians, four French, three Indians, two Iranians, two Israelis, two Sri Lankans, an Australian and a Canadian. The nationalities of 30 other passengers and the nine crew members were not immediately known at the time. Reuters reported a total of 37 Americans aboard.

In Beirut, it was reported that a Palestinian youth organization claimed it had put a guerrilla on the plane with a bomb. However, a spokesman for TWA said sabotage was "highly unlikely." Later, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the plane was indeed destroyed by a bomb hidden in the cargo hold, which caused structural failure resulting in uncontrollable flight.

Suspicion has fallen on Abu Nidal and his terror organization. This was the first known instance of a young Arab boarding an American plane in a suicide mission, predating the September 11 attacks by nearly three decades.

In January 2009, the Associated Press published an investigation saying that Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary, responsible for the 1973 New York City bomb plot, was linked to the bombing of TWA Flight 841.

Notes

• Barry Werth, 31 Days: Gerald Ford, The Nixon Pardon and a Government in Crisis (New York: Anchor Books). 2006. pp. 324–5 ISBN 978-1400078684

External references

• AAR 75-07 Boeing 707 Ionian Sea Crash