Finally, a theory that fully explains the reports that a one-ton section of the engine was found over a mile away and other light debris was found scattered over eight miles away! I have no doubt that Sec. Rumsfeld (whom I respect greatly) misspoke, the question is whether his misstatement was in fact a rare revelation of the truth.
a four engine plane can fly a long time on three engines, any fighter pilot worth his salt would put a load of 20mm through the cockpit windows and put it down right then and there!!! anything else found on the ground is nothing more than the plane shedding lost skin etc. and could be smoking/on fire from the engine being ripped off the plane.
One of our air to air missiles would have taken the entire engine and part of the wing.the plane would have fallen at no more than about 300mph.
The plane hit at a very high rate of speed. Something a damaged plane with a missing engine could not possible have done. And there was no indication from passengers that anything like that occurred. Also, if we had shot it down, don't you think that we would have acknowledged it since orders had been given to do exactly that.
In point of fact, we actually failed to shoot it down before it crashed and the defense dept. got criticized for that as well.