RE: FAA issues emergency order to inspect 1,440 Boeing jets

It seems to me that although it is being denied that there was any link between this and TWA800 the circumstances sound suspiciously similar. That is only my opinion though. The problem is that in Boeings you run the center tank dry and then the engines start drawing automatically from the wing tanks. when the center tanks are dry the fumes remaining are technically the ‘chemically correct mixture’ for combustion (generally about 13 parts air to 1 part fuel) so a spark near an empty tank is even more risky than a full one.