It likely wasn't a "shoulder-fired missile" -- for two reasons:
1. The maximum altitude for a shoulder-fired missile is 13,000 ft. TW800 was at 14,500 ft when it began to disintegrate.
2. The explosive charge in a shoulder-fired missile is insufficient to cause the destruction of a plane the size of a Boeing 747.
A boat launch is likely. But it would need to be something a little more substantial -- and more lethal -- than a Stinger.
Also MPAD’s have infrared homers...would have gone for one of the 4 engines instead of “center of mass”. Radar guided missile would go for center of mass. Large navy ship needed for radar guided.
1. The maximum altitude for a shoulder-fired missile is 13,000 ft. TW800 was at 14,500 ft when it began to disintegrate.
According to the NTSB a high end portable missile could have reached TWA800. But it would have had to have been in about a two mile circle underneath the flight path. They took the possibility seriously and tested for it.
2. The explosive charge in a shoulder-fired missile is insufficient to cause the destruction of a plane the size of a Boeing 747.
The NTSB determined that a detonation within 40 feet of the tank could have sent shrapnel capable of penetrating the tank, but they found no such damage to the plane wreckage.
No, the initiating event occurred at approximately 13,800 feet. This is a known fact. The last active transponder return from TWA-800 showed it was passing through 13,700 feet and climbing at the rate of 33 feet per second. The event occurred sometime before the next active transponder failed to return a signal 4.64 seconds after that when the radar next swept the aircraft. Best estimates put that at approximately three seconds post the 20:31:11:85 sweep and last return. Those three seconds would allow, at best for only a 100 feet climb to the initiating event. BOOM! and perhaps a few more seconds before the nose was detached. The point at which the nose landed tracks back in a ballistic fall from that point calculated with its mass. Certainly there was no more climb with the rest of the wreckage.