Flight 800 Probe Could Cost $100 Million

Investigation and recovery costs for TWA Flight 800 could reach the $100 million mark, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

Calling the reconstruction of the Boeing 747 at a Long Island, N.Y., hangar “the largest reconstruction effort” of plane wreckage in aviation history, Jim Hall told a group of emergency management experts Tuesday in Miami that costs would well exceed the $27 million the board had anticipated spending through the end of this summer.

The $100 million estimate includes personnel costs for both the FBI and NTSB investigators still working at the hangar, as well as costs for employees of Boeing, TWA and the Airline Pilots Association who are involved in the investigation, NTSB officials said.