[FreeTally]

Thanks for posting that. It is definitely a fact that debris was found eight miles away. If the report os correct that it was clothing and human remains, then it was most likely shot down - or there is the possibility of a bomb inside, but not likely, IMHO.

[VietVet]

"...debris was found [up to] eight miles away. If the report is correct that it was clothing and human remains, then it was most likely shot down ... there is a possibility of a bomb [exploding on board], but not likely."

I would infer just the opposite. An air-to-air missile would have hit one of the engines, and would likely have blown a wing off. The most widely disbursed debris then would have been fragments of the engine and wing. Clothing, papers and human remains would not begin to disburse until the integrety of the fuselage was lost.

If a bomb went off in the cabin, or in the baggage compartment, then the fuselage would have disintegrated first, scattering its contents most widely.

But in all accounts, of the eyewitnesses who saw the plane hit the ground, it is implied that the plane was largely intact before impact, which seems to make any explosive destruction of the aircraft prior to crashing, whether from missile or bomb, unlikely.

VietVet