It’s not that the air conditioning units themselves over heat. It’s that they are a source of heat for the fuel in the center tank, and it is capable of heating the fuel above the flash point of jet-A.
And that alone of course is not enough to ignite the fuel. The pilot is heard on the flight recorder mentioning faulty center tank readings, and there was evidence of wire chafing in the cable bundle which contains the fuel quantity instrumentation wiring. Also contained in that cable bundle are high voltage wires.
I work in an old power plant and it is quite common that older wiring chafes and signals get crossed. Just yesterday we had a breaker that indicates open and closed at the same time when the pump is running. The two cross connected circuits were both 48vdc, but had it mixed with 125vdc, damage would likely have resulted to the equipment receiving the signal. I don’t see why aircraft wiring would be exempt from this type of failure.
And don’t forget, flight 800 wasn’t the first or last Boeing plane to be destroyed due to a center tank explosion.
I don’t honestly trust the findings related to the center
fuel tank theory.
In one of my posts I touched on the damage these agencies
did to themselves. After watching their actions in this
case I don’t believe much of anything they say. Other
people far better informed than I am on these matters, felt
the same way I did about it.
As for other aircraft, I don’t believe an aircraft of that
same type of aircraft ever blew up due to a center fuel
tank explosion. There may have been one.
You have far too much to explain away for the center fuel
tank theory to hold water.
If the center fuel tank explodes, parts of the aircraft will
spread equally from the flight path. They didn’t.
The debris was heavily tossed off center. I forget the side
now, but it wasn’t even close to even disbursement.
That is just one more reason why a missile was deemed to
be likely.