*edit above: should be "1997-1998." Leadpenny may be at his best between 5-7 am, but I'm not. :)
I have real trouble with the missile theory on TWA 800, simply because out of all the hundreds and hundreds of people on those Navy ships--not the senior brass, but the enlisted men, the 19- and 20-year-olds--not a single one ever came forward? How could an incredible accident like this NOT leak out? Not a single one of those young kids on the bridge, or in the CIC, or handling missiles, or even swabbing the decks, heard or saw some of what happened and decided to risk it all to come out with the news?
I don't know what happened with TWA 800. The center fuel tank explosion theory seems incredibly weak, but if it really was shot down by an American missile, I can't see how somebody wouldn't eventually leak it. That leaves a terrorist missile, and the plane was out of the envelope for engagement by a shoulder-fired IR surface-to-air missile.
}:-)4
The "US Navy did it" story is absolute crap for the reason you cite.
Shortly after the event the WSJ (not a crackpot publication) printed a story that I've never forgotten and never seen repeated. It said that radar showed one single boat in the area speeding away from the crash site while all the other boats in the area raced to the site (for possible rescue work.) The article said serious attempts to identify that boat were undertaken but were unsuccessful. The suspicion was that people on this boat fired a missile and then fled the scene.
As I said, one WSJ article followed by silence.
You have pretty much part of the story...You are right in that there are a lot of crewmembers who just haven’t come forward, because there is just nothing there to come forward with...
The shoulder fired SAM theory is entirely plausible because the centerline fuel tank area on a 747 is actually the highest RCS (radar cross section) returnable portion of that airframe known to those who know radar theory...
12 years, and still there are not enough people to force the real story about all of this to the surface...
I’dgive this about another 50 years, and most of the people involved will be dead and gone, so maybe the screws will loosen on the hold against revealing the truth...
Till then...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...