A year or two after the crash, at a women’s conference, I had lunch with the mother of one of the victims. After we had discussed the topic for a few minutes, I asked her what her conclusions were concerning the cause, and she flatly stated that it was a Navy test gone terribly wrong. From all that she and her family had seen and heard as people directly associated with the tragedy, they felt that it was a no-brainer and that the government should have just admitted it. I found it very interesting.
I doubt it was a Navy test. I am not aware of any missile test ranges off the East Coast, except Wallop’s Island and that’s hundreds of miles away. If a Navy cruiser had shot down a Civilian air liner hundreds of sailors would know, and many would have talked. My money is on the Iranians using SAMs either from a sub or a freighter.
Interesting. Two days after this happened a friend told me he was talking to a contractor who was on one of the Navy vessels in the area because they were testing some new weapons system and the contractor heard an officer on watch remark " My God we've shot down a civilian airliner".
Wrote it off as a conspiracy theory at the time. Amazing how a lot of these conspiracy theories ( IRS targeting Right Wing groups) are turning out to be true.