Joan Lunden is reflecting on the TWA Flight 800 crash that left all 230 people aboard the plane dead.

The journalist, 75, took to Instagram on Friday, July 17, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragic crash, which occurred in 1996 after TWA Flight 800 departed from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Rome.

Just 12 minutes after the flight’s departure, an explosion occurred in the center wing fuel tank, causing the Boeing 747 to explode over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of East Moriches on Long Island, per ABC News, killing the plane’s 212 passengers and 18 crew members.

Remembering that difficult day, the Good Morning America alum recalled how the crash touched her life both personally and professionally, as she shared a photo of her friend, Jed Johnson.

Lunden detailed reporting on the tragic crash of TWA Flight 800 before learning that her longtime friend was among its victims.

“Thirty years ago today, Charlie Gibson and I were reporting live on the tragic TWA Flight 800 disaster when I learned that my childhood friend, Jed Johnson, was among those on board. It’s a moment I’ll never forget,” Lunden wrote.

“This heartbreaking anniversary has remained on my calendar ever since,” she continued. “Today I’m remembering Jed and the 229 lives lost, while holding all of the families and loved ones affected by this tragedy in my thoughts.”

Lunden wrote more about the crash in a newsletter posted on the Aircraft Casualty Emotional Support Services’ website, explaining how the TWA Flight 800 crash was particularly impactful for her after losing her own father in a plane crash at the age of 14, on a flight she was supposed to be on.

“On July 17, 1996, while I was reporting on the TWA Flight 800 disaster as host of Good Morning America, I was called into the control room. They had someone on the phone frantically trying to see if his twin brother Jed was in the crash. Jed was scheduled to be on the later flight to Paris. The producers of the show contacted TWA and confirmed our worst fear: that Jed, my childhood best friend and first boyfriend, was on that plane,” Lunden wrote.

She continued, “Never before in my twenty years on Good Morning America had I gone on the air unable to speak, but that morning my co-host, Charlie Gibson, explained to the viewers that I needed a few moments to regain my composure.”

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, fueling widespread speculation about everything from foul play to foreign interference. Investigators ultimately recovered about 95 percent of the aircraft’s wreckage, but it took 16 months for federal officials to determine there was no evidence of criminal activity. Years later, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that an explosion caused by a failure within the aircraft was responsible for the disaster.

After the investigation, the reconstructed plane was moved from a Long Island hangar to a specially built NTSB facility in Ashburn, Virginia, where it served as a training tool for accident investigators. The aircraft was retired in 2021, with the NTSB digitally archiving every piece before it was dismantled.

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