It was climbing to 17,000, and I didn’t think anything cut off before then. Again, we have to make sure that distance and altitude are combined. Every mile away from the plane is less altitude the missile can fly, so it’s not “15,000 AND six miles” or whatever, but a combo of the two.
No, the DFDR stopped recording at 13,800' (13,760', actually - See page 256, NTSB AAR-00-03).
According to the document, there were other airliners who reported the explosion taking place at what they estimated to be 16,000', but the last recorded altitude on the DFDR was 13,800'.
Where did you see the 17,000' figure?
According to the diagram in the PDF document produced by Northop-Grumman, anything witin the box I described (and shown on page 4 of the PDF) is susceptible.
Granted, I don't expect that one could launch a MANPAD at one end of the box and expect to hit an airliner at the other end, but as you noted earlier, the 'reliable' eyewitnesses descibed the smoke trail as going straight up, so your point about the combination of the two is moot.
According to everything I've read, TWA 800 was within range of most MANPADs.