TWA 800 brought down by "external ordnance explosions"

[SA Friday]

When it originally occurred, over a dozen witnesses on the ground stated they saw a "red streak" similar to a missile shooting up towards the plane immediately prior to the explosion. An early leaked/bogus news story stated that traces of PETN were found on the wreckage. LOTS of Stinger missiles were unaccounted for after the Afghan rebels we were covertly supporting finally convinced the Soviets to pull out. It is not implausible that it might have been one of those.

Really? and just how old are all those lost stingers? Seriously old and stored in conditions that would suck ass for anything much less a stinger. Additionally, smuggling a stinger in from Afghanistan? It would be easier to try and steal one from US or Canadian forces. Good luck with that.

Here's the deal. Counter-intel's main concern in a warzone is to find and eliminate any SAMs near an airbase. I did it for a living and I'm here to tell you we didn't sweat the cheap ones. Ya, we bought them off the streets, but it was damn near impossible to hit an aircraft with the right stand-off, even if it's taking off or landing. Ever wonder what dictates the paramter around an airfield? I don't. Bottom line, short of a very high end SAM like a stinger or SA-16 or above, you are NOT hitting one plane with one shot in one try. No way no how. Don't care how badass you are. And you better be a serious badass if your are going to steal a stinger or smuggle in an SA-16 or better from some ex-soviet country.

I'm simply not believing this plane was brought down by a SAM until I see some serious evidence to support it, and a couple of guys saying, " Oh ya, it's true, it's true" isn't evidence.

[Clint45]

Really? and just how old are all those lost stingers? Seriously old and stored in conditions that would suck ass for anything much less a stinger. Additionally, smuggling a stinger in from Afghanistan? It would be easier to try and steal one from US or Canadian forces. Good luck with that.

Back in the mid-80s when they were still fresh in their sealed crates, I'm sure more than a few were diverted to a few interests with the cash to buy them. I heard that they were asking an even million dollars apiece for them on the black market, and the CIA tried to buy back all they could. The Saudis could certainly afford a few, and they were probably very well stored. Getting them into the US 20 years later wouldn't be a problem. They are not radioactive and were not equipped with GPS. The Chinese smuggle all sorts of stuff across our borders in CONEX containers loaded onto freighters. Easier to smuggle it in on a Saudi yacht with diplomatic privilege. But maybe it really was a defective fuel pump. I dunno. Actually, I'm more concerned about the Soviet nuclear warheads that allegedly went missing shortly after the Soviet union broke up . . . or the alleged NATO tacnuke remote mines (AKA "suitcase nukes") that allegedly disappeared. No-one seems to have any idea where they went (if they actually existed). Of course, it's a lot more complicated to detonate a nuke than fire a Stinger. IIRC those Stingers even came with a cartoon instruction manual in Arabic and several other languages so the mujahideen could shoot down Mi-24s with minimal training.

[buckeye4rnr]

Back in the mid-80s when they were still fresh in their sealed crates, I'm sure more than a few were diverted to a few interests with the cash to buy them. I heard that they were asking an even million dollars apiece for them on the black market, and the CIA tried to buy back all they could. The Saudis could certainly afford a few, and they were probably very well stored. Getting them into the US 20 years later wouldn't be a problem. They are not radioactive and were not equipped with GPS. The Chinese smuggle all sorts of stuff across our borders in CONEX containers loaded onto freighters. Easier to smuggle it in on a Saudi yacht with diplomatic privilege. But maybe it really was a defective fuel pump. I dunno. Actually, I'm more concerned about the Soviet nuclear warheads that allegedly went missing shortly after the Soviet union broke up . . . or the alleged NATO tacnuke remote mines (AKA "suitcase nukes") that allegedly disappeared. No-one seems to have any idea where they went (if they actually existed). Of course, it's a lot more complicated to detonate a nuke than fire a Stinger. IIRC those Stingers even came with a cartoon instruction manual in Arabic and several other languages so the mujahideen could shoot down Mi-24s with minimal training.

Well there are rumors that JSOC has rendered safe WMDs in the last 10 years so I'm sure someone knows where a few are.

[Bailey Guns]

Really? and just how old are all those lost stingers? Seriously old and stored in conditions that would suck ass for anything much less a stinger. Additionally, smuggling a stinger in from Afghanistan? It would be easier to try and steal one from US or Canadian forces. Good luck with that.

Here's the deal. Counter-intel's main concern in a warzone is to find and eliminate any SAMs near an airbase. I did it for a living and I'm here to tell you we didn't sweat the cheap ones. Ya, we bought them off the streets, but it was damn near impossible to hit an aircraft with the right stand-off, even if it's taking off or landing. Ever wonder what dictates the paramter around an airfield? I don't. Bottom line, short of a very high end SAM like a stinger or SA-16 or above, you are NOT hitting one plane with one shot in one try. No way no how. Don't care how badass you are. And you better be a serious badass if your are going to steal a stinger or smuggle in an SA-16 or better from some ex-soviet country.

I'm simply not believing this plane was brought down by a SAM until I see some serious evidence to support it, and a couple of guys saying, " Oh ya, it's true, it's true" isn't evidence.

I'm not buying the missile theory for a lot of reasons. But it seems, according to the below story, it's not as hard as you make it out to hit an aircraft with a portable missile:

Since 1975, 40 civilian aircraft have been hit by MANPADS, causing at least 28 crashes and more than 800 deaths around the world, according to the U.S. State Department.

SOURCE