Even after 25 years of the harrowing TWA Flight 800 crash, the horror and grief of one of the worst aviation disasters in US history are still fresh in the hearts of families of the victims and others who were affected by the happenings.

To mark the tragic event and remember the lost souls, About 150 mourners gathered Saturday night at Smith Point County Park, which is the closest public access point to where the crash’s debris field was found.

The Boeing 747 took off from Kennedy Airport on July 17, 1996, bound for Paris with 230 people on board but 12 minutes later there was a mid-air explosion and the plane’s wreckage fell into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the shores of Long Island. All the passengers and crew died in the explosion, making the crash the third-deadliest aviation accident in US history.  

Friends and family of the victims have been gathering at the memorial site every year on the anniversary of the crash, with the exception of last year, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Even this year, they gathered in numbers, left roses, wreaths and bouquets as they searched for names of loved ones on the granite memorial wall and paused to touch it.

They stood on the nearby shoreline as the names of the 230 onboard were read near sunset, around the same time the jet crashed about 10 miles offshore.

While some lost their husband, some lost their sons, daughters, or their best friends, all of them returned to laugh and cry together and share the pain.

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The victims were from 14 different countries and included 16 students from Pennsylvania high school and their chaperones. Initially, the official feared that the airline had been attacked by terrorists but after a four-year investigation, the team concluded that the cause of the explosion was an electrical failure that exploded the fuel tank.

Meanwhile, this year’s memorial has gained noticeable attention, after investigators, earlier, announced that the reconstructed pieces of the plane pulled from the Atlantic would finally be destroyed after the plane had been reassembled.