Date:	Sunday 8 September 1974
Time:	09:40
Type:	Boeing 707-331B
Owner/operator:	Trans World Airlines - TWA
Registration:	N8734
MSN:	20063/789
Year of manufacture:	1969
Total airframe hrs:	21733 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 88 / Occupants: 88
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Unlawful Interference
Location:	93 km W off Cephalonia, Greece -   Mediterranean Sea
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Athens-Ellinikon International Airport (ATH/LGAT)
Destination airport:	Roma-Fiumicino Airport (FCO/LIRF)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Flight TW841 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Rome-New York) left Athens at 09:12 GMT for a 1 hour and 48 minute flight to Rome. The flight was cruising at FL280 when to suddenly enter a steep climb attitude. The captain of PanAm flight 110 who witnessed the event, said the aircraft then rolled to the left into a steep descent. The Boeing 707 disintegrated and crashed into the sea. It was determined that the detonation of an explosive device in the aft cargo compartment buckled and damaged the cabin floor in such a manner that one or more of the elevator and rudder system control cables was stretched and, perhaps, broken. The resultant displacement of control surfaces caused a violent pitch up and yaw and made the aircraft uncontrollable.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The detonation of an explosive device within the aft cargo compartment of the aircraft which rendered the aircraft uncontrollable".

Aircraft hijackings and other criminal acts against civil aviation : statistics and narrative reports / FAA
NTSB-AAR-75-7

• 7^th worst accident in 1974
• 12^th worst accident of this aircraft type
• 8^th worst accident of this aircraft type at the time

Date/time	Contributor	Updates