I agree the Navy story is full of wholes, as a former squidly I can tell you for sure there is absolutely no way they could have kept that quiet. But the centerline fuel tank story is equally bogus.
My bet is a Jihadi MANPAD.
I’ve read the NTSB reports and the engineering reports. As I said before, every so often this is brought up by people who need something in their lives. We could chat about the JFK assassination in Dallas and the third bullet. That’s a goodie.
As I recall, at the time there was no SA manpad capable of reaching the altitude (9,000-10,000 ft) 800 was at when it exploded. But ... there was a photo published of a stationary missile launcher found by a NYC cop - but nothing more was said other than it appeared to be of Iranian manufacture.
The only missiles then existent able to reach 800 were all fixed stationary mil varieties which is why people were looking at the US Navy.
There was also the contrary explanation that experienced former mil pilots who saw the hit, actually saw burning pieces of the plane coming down and somehow mistook those for a missile going up ...
The description of a missile exploding near the plane would have meant that the type of missile had to be either radar or heat guided with a proximity fuse - this limits the available types of missiles to chose from.
And lets not omit that Iran declared war on the US in 79.