Personally I think it was an accidental shoot down. But on the other hand how do you keep all the sailors on board a naval vessel quite about this? Perhaps it was an intentional shoot down by terrorists? But on the other hand why over Long Island Sound when the aircraft would be very high and more difficult to hit and take down. The logical area would be just East of JFK airport with terrorist with man pads.
I do know that the CIA produced a film showing the zoom climb of over 1000 feet purported to explain what those thought was a missile trail is totally and 100% impossible aerodynamic feat. Why did they produce this film that was impossible?
Is the center fuel tank explosion accurate? Maybe. I would like to see data on assumed fuel tank temperatures verses fuel vapors and minimum oxygen concentration to make an explosive fuel vapor air explosion. It is all about vapor pressure and oxygen content. 747s have been flying since the early 70s. Why has this occurred in only one time? What is believed to be explosive residue was recovered, this is odd. Link to NY Times article on this. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/31/nyregion/more-traces-of-explosive-in-flight-800.html#:~:text=Federal%20investigators%20announced%20yesterday%20that%20they%20had%20discovered,plane%20was%20brought%20down%20by%20a%20criminal%20act. A chopper pilot in the air described what he thought was missile strike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNT7EQObFnA
Bottom line is we do not know. I do know our government has not been honest.
Could it be that ANG had a "Rust" armorer type mistake?