A Connecticut man shared his memories of the fateful day when TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island 25 years ago.

David Faile, from Fairfield, has decades of flying experience at Sikorsky Airport. He was actually flying on July 17, 1996 - when the plane exploded.

Investigators determined there was an explosion of flammable fuel vapors shortly after takeoff from Kennedy Airport ignited by a short circuit.

Most of the wreckage was recovered so that the National Transportation Safety Board could do a thorough investigation to avoid another catastrophe in the future.

"It was a terrible tragedy. It's probably one of the most investigated accidents. I think they learned how to manage fuel and they've changed a lot of the wiring on aircraft to make it safer," he says.

The captain of that flight, Steve Snyder, was from Stratford. Richard Campbell, one of the other crew members, was from Ridgefield. Officials say over a half dozen passengers on that flight were also from Connecticut.

A total of 230 souls were lost in the TWA disaster.