But... could it do it without leaving a trace of itself or its entry? It couldn't. Look what happened to that Nova:
It pretty much totaled the car. There would have been zero doubt looking at that Nova what happened to it, I bet. People wouldn't have been looking for a guy in a turban driving a phantom Kenworth.... This post, to an astronomy group long before the TWA investigation has closed, expresses some skepticism about the meteorite theory and discusses the evidentiary difficulties. The author notes that "even if [a puncture] is found, a meteorite impact is still the least likely cause. A man-made object is still far more likely." At that time he had no way of knowing that no suspicious puncture would be found.
We don't have an aircraft known to have been downed by a celestial object for comparison, but the wreckage of aircraft known to have been downed by bombs (ex. PA103) and struck by missiles (three civil a/c I've seen the photos from are the two Air Rhodesia Viscounts and the DHL Airbus) have always had plenty of evidence of that damage.
Here's another list where a JPL scientist is addressing some of the shortcoming of the meteorite theory, in a polite discussion with a meteor-theory supporter. You may wish to read the whole thread. Early in the investigation, a letter writer to Scientific American led them to question several scientists, who come up with a split decision. They say car strikes happen from time to time: one guys says three times last century, one says five or ten in a decade. An aircraft strike is much less likely than a car strike -- maybe 1,000 times less likely -- but certainly not impossible.
Here are official links on TWA 800:
That should give you some interesting reading. Bottom line: a meteor strike on an aircraft in flight is possible but extremely improbable. One that gets in and blows up the plane from inside out without leaving its mark from outside in is even more so.
Personally, I don't sweat any meteors while in a plane... most crashes are still human error, which happens a hell of a lot more frequently. The meteor event that concerns me is the possibility of a dinosaur-killer making all the environmentalists happy by messing up life for us humans (and this is probably even more unlikely. Also, we humans can consciously adapt, a capability the poor lizards lacked). Anyway, here are a few links for you to chew on.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
We'd had half a dozen other folks on that same floor die in a bit longer period of time from various types of cardio-vascular problems ranging from inflammation of the soft-tissue surrounding the brain to plain old fashioned aneurysm.
This is out of an employee population of about 200 people, so it was fairly frightening. Intriguingly most people didn't seem to notice!
During that same period of time, on January 13, 1982, to be precise, we had a plane crash in DC. SEE: http://www.roadstothefuture.com/AirFlorida_SubwayDis.html
Roughly a half hour after the crash there was a subway derailing. My secretary was in the car where she saw, upfront and at close hand a couple of men crushed to death. She was never right again particularly after she heard about the lawyer whose office was directly overhead ours who'd died on the plane.
I was on the bridge and saw the plane hit the cars on 14th Street Bridge and then bounce over upside-down into the Potomac.
At roughly the same time the controller operating a computer punchcard reader on our "ground" floor failed right as it was handling one of my jobs. The printout said "abend 15:28" (or thereabouts).
Adding to all of this, there were hundreds of automobiles in NW DC having ignition problems because, for some unknown reason, their electronic systems were working improperly. Then the new electronically controlled traffic control signals in the near downtown area went out.
The fellow at NTSB (whose article I referenced) believes the plane crash and the subway derailment are UNRELATED, except in time.
He doesn't know about the controller that went out ~ it was in a large windowed room immediately adjacent to the airshaft to the subway tunnel running past our building. The train derailed because a switch at the bottom of that tunnel failed.
One of my coworkers (who later died of a brain tumor) noticed that several of these events happened in a straight line. The plane sat at the end of a large hanger for several hours before it made it's fatal trek down the runway. That point connected with our computer room and the subway airshaft. The traffic control lights that failed were on the same line as were the expensive automobiles with the ignition problems. Eventually we discovered that all the folks with the brain tumors were on that line as were two Department of Defense microwave transmission towers.
Was there a connection of all these events with what was going on with those towers, or was this all coincidental?
Even worse, was there a cover-up? One thing about DOD microwave towers, the FCC doesn't officially know if DOD even has towers, nor do they regulate them! Fortunately the NTSB held hearings on all three sectors of its jurisdiction ~ air, rail and ground ~ at roughly the same time so it's possible to read the different conclusions regarding the probable causes of each "unrelated" event.
The plane crashed because it had too much ice. However, when the pilot throttled up the plane, his instruments record no additional fuel flow to the engines. On that plane the device controlling fuel flow was on top of the cabin in a fiberglas housing. Was it damaged perhaps? NTSB recommended that METRO put aluminum housings around it's switch controls in the tunnels, and to please remove them to someplace other than the bottom of those airshafts. The recommendation for the traffic control systems was similar ~ shield the switches! Again, was this a coincidence or a "Ko Inky Dink"?