The gas tank theory was incredible from the get go. I thought the evidence of a surface to air missile was obvious. The question is who did it. Why would the U.S. do a training exercise in that airspace? The whole story made no sense.
Actually, an issue with the plane is the most plausible. If you’ll really do some research, you’ll see that the gas tank isn’t as incredible as you may believe. Warning, you can’t be lazy and just shoot from the hip if you want to learn it.