Not sure what that has to do with my honesty. I never claimed anything to the contrary while you specifically stated "McClain saw nothing unusual until he saw the fireball." That clearly is not true.
With regard McClaine's recollection of altitudes and the events of that night, there seems to be some rather large discrepancies. That isn't surprising, as he had no reason to make mental notes of anything until after TWA 800 exploded. And as has been pointed out, McClaine radioed his explosion report 38 seconds after the initial event on TWA 800. In his witness statement he says he first noticed TWA 800's landing light just prior to departing FL240. The ATC radar data listed at this site: Witness Group Recorded Radar Study shows McClaine departed FL240 just over one minute before the initial event on TWA 800. But in his interview he states he watched TWA 800 take off from JFK (which was over 130 miles away from his position over the Sandy Point VOR) and that was 10 minutes before he departed FL240. In his witness statement he says he witnessed TWA 800 explode as he passed through 17,000'. The ATC radar data shows he was just over FL200 when the initial event happened and at 17,500' when he made his call reporting the explosion to Boston Center.
"Are you suggesting that the mythical center fuel tank explosion which supposedly separated the nose from the rest of the aircraft occurred two minutes before the visible fireball, and McClaine didn't notice this?"
Nope. I'm suggesting that it happened at 00:31:12z, and that McClaine witnessed and reported the fuel exploding as TWA 800's wings ripped off 38 seconds later. And incidentally, the same ATC radar data that shows McClaine was still above FL200 at the initial event shows he was 25 miles away from TWA 800 when it happened. He was between 15-19 miles when TWA 800's wings tore off the fuselage as it descended toward the water.
What evidence is there that anything unusual happened aboard TWA 800 at 31:12 according to the timing given on the ARTCC transcript?
ML/NJ