[Ramius]

The number of crew members on a naval vessel who would have been aware of what happened would be dwarfed by the number of U.S. government officials who were involved in the investigation.

I don't agree. The investigation could have been diverted by a mere handful of people, IMO.

Part of the story that is never really questioned very hard are the a.) altitude of the plane and b.) the type of missile that a terrorist might have used.

Everybody seems to just accept that the missiles available to terrorists couldn't reasonably reach the 13,000 feet of the plane. Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story.

[labette]

Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story.

Exactly. We really don't even KNOW if the 13,000 ft. figure is accurate.
So what do we know?
A lot of people were killed in a "crash".
Witnesses saw a missile.
Planes, trains, and automobiles log many miles every day with electrical circuits in their fuel tanks and don't blow up.
Sailors talk.
If the Clintonistas were in cover up mode for a terrorist attack, they would need to "muddy the water". Peter Salinger?

[Veloxherc]

You can check out the SA-7 for yourself.

SA-7 at Global Security/

Max alt: 4500 Meters, which is 14,763.779 feet.

[Alberta's Child]

Everybody seems to just accept that the missiles available to terrorists couldn't reasonably reach the 13,000 feet of the plane. Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story.

Actually, I think a lot of people simply realize that if terrorists were able to get their hands on that kind of weapon, we'd have civilian aircraft shot out of the sky with boring regularity.

[Rex_Ruthless]

"Everybody seems to just accept that the missiles available to terrorists couldn't reasonably reach the 13,000 feet of the plane. Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story."

Isn't the 13,000 ft. altitude a contested statistic?

Years ago I read an article that mentioned a specific model of Swedish made SAM that could easily have done even that 13,000 ft. task. Since then I have tried searching in Jane's (www.janes.com) for more information but old stuff there requires a subscription to access.