[UCANSEE2]

So, reeling back toward Flight 800 as I recall I was the only one on any of the threads to note that a bolid coming in over the horizon would look like a missile streaking up and not a meteor simply going into low orbit where it connected with an airplane.

After slicing on Occam's Razor, your explanation seems likeliest.

However, that doesn't explain why the Feds went to such ridiculous lengths to conduct such a crazy explanation that defies known principals of flight and the law of gravity.

[Swordmaker]

"So, reeling back toward Flight 800 as I recall I was the only one on any of the threads to note that a bolid coming in over the horizon would look like a missile streaking up and not a meteor simply going into low orbit where it connected with an airplane."

After slicing on Occam's Razor, your explanation seems likeliest.

However, that doesn't explain why the Feds went to such ridiculous lengths to conduct such a crazy explanation that defies known principals of flight and the law of gravity.

That theory was raised, but it doesn't survive the triangulation of the witnesses viewpoints. A bolide would only appear to rise, coming over the horizon from a single vector, not from the 270° degrees around that the witnesses observing the incident were located. The bolide hypothesis, is, ahem, shot down.

[muawiyah]

Why? They made the extra effort to deal with Flight 800 because of the 'it's a missile' crowd!

Although it's rare for a meteor to hit a plane, they've been known to hit houses and cars. We had one hit a dentist's office nearby a couple of years back. The belief this doesn't happen, that we don't have rocks falling from the sky, is still around in some quarters. But I have a clue for those quarters, the Earth is round, it's in space, things traveling parallel to the ground are coming up on your left, right, front and back ~ and sometimes they drop out of orbit.