Divers Recover Remains Of Twa Flight 800 Victim

Divers recovered the remains of another TWA Flight 800 victim, the first one found in six weeks, officials said Friday.

The remains of Eric Harkness, of Norwalk, Ohio, were recovered on Wednesday and have been identified through dental records, the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office said in a statement.

The crash killed 230 people. The medical examiner said the remains of 214 have been recovered, and 213 identified. The 213th body was found Sept. 11.

The discovery was made as news came of progress in the investigation. Two fuel-measuring rods believed by some investigators to be capable of touching off the explosion that brought down the plane were being analyzed by aviation specialists in Washington, sources say.

One of the fuel probes showed signs of “petaling,” characteristic of metal which was damaged by a violent explosion, a National Transportation Safety Board source told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Further analysis by aviation specialists at the NTSB’s laboratories in Washington is expected to indicate whether the probes might have short-circuited and sparked the explosion inside the nearly empty fuel tank.

“We are very interested in these components,” the source said. “They could prove to be very significant pieces to the puzzle.”

The two probes, discovered late last week, were the first meaningful pieces of wreckage collected from the ocean floor in weeks.

The probes measure the volume of fuel remaining in the plane’s tanks.