What happened
TWA Flight 400 was operating a scheduled service from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Newark, New Jersey, with intermediate stops in Harrisburg, Reading, and Allentown. The flight departed Pittsburgh at approximately 19:19 under an IFR flight plan. Shortly after the initial climb following takeoff from runway 23, the aircraft entered a left-hand descending turn and struck the ground just past the southwest boundary of the airport, immediately catching fire.
During the accident, passengers attempted to escape the wreckage through openings in the fuselage before the fire intensified. Although emergency responders were dispatched, the distance and winding local roads delayed their arrival at the crash site by approximately 20 minutes. The accident resulted in 22 fatalities (including one crew member) and 14 injuries. The aircraft was completely destroyed.
Findings
The investigation determined that the primary cause was uncoordinated emergency actions performed by the flight crew during a critical period of flight. When a fire warning light illuminated in the left engine zone, the first officer reduced power to a level that deactivated the autofeathering system. The captain, unaware that the automatic system was no longer functional, attempted to manage the situation by pulling the left mixture to idle cutoff rather than utilizing manual feathering.
This sequence of events led to several contributing factors:
- The failure to properly feather the left propeller resulted in a windmilling engine.
- The combination of the windmilling propeller, extended landing gear, and takeoff flaps created excessive drag.
- This high level of drag caused the aircraft to lose sufficient altitude to impact the ground.
- The initial fire warning was triggered by a failed exhaust connector clamp in the left engine.