Among the dozens of witness statements, a pattern emerged that could be plotted, roughly. It looks like 2 missles were fired, one from very close in-shore, and one from 3-5 miles further out.
If a missle is fired but it is pointing toward you, instead of away from you, it is MUCH harder to see the hot exhaut at the tip of the nozzle.
The plane was at the edge of the Stinger envelope. The stinger has a range of 8 kilometers with a ceiling of 10,000 ft (per GlobalSecurity.org).
TWA800 was at appr. 13,500 when it was hit.
Looking up at the bottom of a 747, the center fuel tanks sits very closely to the A/C units. In fact, it was this A/C unit that supposedly overheated the CFT vapors.
If a missle is looking at a blob of heat, then they seperate into 4 distinct heat sources (5 if you count the A/C) I can see the heat seeker locking on to the A/C heat source.
Also, if the Stinger was at the edge of it’s range, it may have lost maneuverability and simply missed the engine and hit near the CFT.
Flight plans and paths are public information. IF the terrorist had a watch and a pair of binoculars, they would have easily been able to pick out a 747. But at that time of night, livery colors would be almost impossible to pick out.
They look at their watch, calculate the time and shoot at what they THOUGHT was the El-Al flight. Instead they hit TWA800.
So far as I know not a single witness said they saw two distinct missile paths. How could they all have missed that?
If a missle is looking at a blob of heat, then they seperate into 4 distinct heat sources (5 if you count the A/C) I can see the heat seeker locking on to the A/C heat source.
The missile seeker will lock on before the missile is fired. From that range, the hottest target would have been one of the engines.
They look at their watch, calculate the time and shoot at what they THOUGHT was the El-Al flight. Instead they hit TWA800.
Any terrorist who based their plan of an airplane leaving JFK on time has obviously never flown into or out of New York.