NBC 4 in NY was reporting they had amateur video showing the same thing . The FBI swooped in and took all copies.
There were also Navy warships in the area on military exercises.
The CIA concluded that the fuel spilling out of the exploded airplane and then igniting created the effect of fire steaking up to the plane when it was actually streaking down from the plane.
If there were only one witness the CIA might get away with this but there were multiple seeing the exact same thing from different angles
The CIA also put out a disinformation video animation of what happened. I thought that was a nice touch give the low-information types a cartoon and they will believe it and go on their merry way
I know. I followed the story closely over the years. It is all very disturbing. When my friend started talking about his involvement on the project, my first question was, “So which US ship shot down Flight 800?”
My friend laughed and started reviewing the evidence of the official story. And my friend is no left-wing world view CIA type guy. He is a conservative, Reagan style great American.