Some Firing from Second or Third Floor at 5 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/fEf7HObspB0 ^

[schurmann]

“...the idea that a plane can just spontanousely explode is a lot more worrisome to me than a terrorist attack.”

The most worrisome aspect of the TWA 800 incident is the apparent truth, that any American could possibly believe the aircraft was hit by a missile fired from any US-flagged warship, aircraft, or ground-based system.

Nobody in the military conducts live fire exercises the way it would have happened, to down an airliner. Live rounds are far too costly to be carried around so casually, in a ready status. Doing so would violate all safety rules and good practice.

Isolated individuals do not have launch authority nor physical control; such missiles are always fired from systems crewed by multiple personnel, with an even larger number of interested parties watching them closely (live fire is rare enough that everybody wants to watch). If anyone - even the captain of a warship - suddenly went off script so completely that there was merely some risk of launching a live missile with a warhead against a civilian aircraft that happened to pass by, the rest of the crew would notice and take countering action (TWA 800 was too high, and too far out, to have been hit by any individually-portable shoulder-fired missile).

Live munitions are fired only on suitably controlled and policed ranges far from population centers, where public access is severely restricted and there is instrumentation to record all possible aspects of the event.

No one bothers to “test” a missile in or around New York City, because no useful data could be collected without that instrumentation, which is sitting out at the test range.

Contrary to deeply held belief, wars are singularly bad situations from which to collect data on system effectiveness.