Crack Is Found Over Right Wing of TWA Jetliner
NEW YORK — Investigators trying to find out why a TWA jetliner aborted a takeoff and caught fire discovered a crack in a beam that holds up the right wing, a spokesman said Saturday.
The Lockheed-1011 veered about 100 feet off the runway Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport before coming to a stop. All 292 people aboard escaped without serious injury before flames engulfed the back half of the jet.
National Transportation Safety Board member John Lauber said investigators have ruled out engine failure and have concluded that the fire was the result of the aborted takeoff rather than the cause.
Investigators found a four-foot crack in a beam that holds up the wing next to a fuel tank, he said at a news conference Saturday night.
Lauber said the crack could have been caused by the plane’s hard landing. There was no evidence of metal fatigue.
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