“instantaneous decompression” wouldn’t necessarily bring down an airliner. I remember an Hawaiian flight that lost it’s entire roof due to metal fatigue and was able to lend safely with the loss of a stewardess.
Stringers have a ceiling of about 15,000ft. The normal flight of these big boys are 20,000
Where would these terrorists be where the authorities couldn’t detect and seize them?
Lastly stringers have IR guidance which would key on one of the four engine pods. Short of total wing failure, the pilots should be able to get back safely on the remaining three.
At the time, a suspicious radar track, known as the "30 knot track" was one of six unidentified boats in the area of the debris field. What made the "30 knot track" stand out was the fact that it was the only track moving AWAY from the accident site, while all the other traffic was rushing towards the site.
Here are some data from the time:
The Flight 800 Investigation: Analysis of Islip Primary Radar for TWA 800
exhibit13A-IV-5.pdf - TWA 747 Out of JFK, July 17, 1996 Radar Data Overhead View From 20:30 - 20:50
FBI Witness Triangulation of Possible MANPADs “shooter locations” From Witness Form 364
Exhibit 16 - Triangulation of Witness Bearing Lines - Cmdr William S. Donaldson - USN Ret.
The theory at the time was this was an Iranian retaliation for the shoot-down of the Iranian passenger jet by the USS Vincennes. If I had to venture a guess as to why "authorities couldn’t detect and seize them," it would because they didn't want to. Bill Clinton was struggling with handling the TWA 800 catastrophe, and 10 days later the Centennial Olympic Park bombing occurred where the FBI initially pinned it on Richard Jewell just to get it off of the headlines.
The Clinton administration was in full damage-control mode to keep this from becoming an issue about Clinton's leadership just three months before the election.
-PJ