TWA 800 brought down by "external ordnance explosions"

[ImNtUrBuddyGuy]

I was just thinking some guy with a Stinger, a scanner to listen to air traffic and a small boat. Of course the .gov ain't gonna tell you that is what happened. I just thought when it first happened it was a faulty aircraft. But then came some eyewitness accounts of something streaking towards the aircraft. For reference...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_MIAS

Or maybe it was a flying saucer that came down from space and shot it out of the sky with lasers. But of course the government is not going to tell us really happened.

[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.

[spongejosh]

If it was shot down by terrorists they would claim the attack in order to cause terror. If it was shot down by the government they would do everything possible to hush the missile story and surely wouldn't have the FBI searching for months for a launcher.

Witnesses report a lot of crap that never happened.

[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

[davsel]

If it was shot down by terrorists they would claim the attack in order to cause terror. If it was shot down by the government they would do everything possible to hush the missile story and surely wouldn't have the FBI searching for months for a launcher.

Witnesses report a lot of crap that never happened.

True

The terrorists did:
http://www.thehullthread.com/claims.htm

And the Govt did:
http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com/keytopics/twa800.shtml

[Ronin13]

A red streak like a missile huh? Just like the gas station attendant in the 9-11 truther videos that heard something that "sounded a lot like a missile" hit the side of the pentagon....

I wonder if ANY of the people involved have ever seen (or heard) a surface to air missile fire?....

Red streak? Never seen that- smoke trail, yes, but never seen a "red streak"- unless they're speaking about the exhaust- in which case, nope, not there either.
Here is similar to what I got to sit in and watch:

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:

I'm gonna say that SA might be mistaken on the models and types... By the way, for those that don't know, MANPADS are MAN-Portable Air Defense Systems... and are usually SA-7s (or related Soviet Portable SAM Systems) and use IR to home in on engine exhaust to track the target and hit them. You can very easily shoot down an aircraft with an SA-7, which entered service in the late 1960's. How do I know all this you ask? It was my job to know the threats to our rotary wing aircraft in Afghanistan and the SA-7 is not impossible to acquire by anti-US forces over there.

[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.

[clublights]

Wasn't the airliner at the very edge ( if not past) the SA-7 or Stingers max range ( in altitude)

Making a shot from either of those platforms unlikely.

TWA 800 was at about 15000 feet when she broke up .. that is the upper edge of the stinger and over the SA7's max altitude.

[Ronin13]

Wasn't the airliner at the very edge ( if not past) the SA-7 or Stingers max range ( in altitude)

Making a shot from either of those platforms unlikely.

TWA 800 was at about 15000 feet when she broke up .. that is the upper edge of the stinger and over the SA7's max altitude.

Ooh, good point! Stingers are considered to be low-altitude engagement weapons... SA-7's maximum altitude is about 14,000 ft. and that's the absolute ceiling for that missile.

[drew890]

The investigation stated that it was over 13,000 but under 14,000 feet at the time of the initial explosion.