As a former race track firefighter, I can tell you that sealed fuel tanks, even partially filled ones, even heated ones, *DO NOT* explode from internal ignition. We used to demonstrate the fact during noob training by dropping a lit match down the gas tank filler tube of a wrecked passenger car. The fumes at the mouth of the tube flared, and then the match went out.
Once you understand the explosive limits and flammable limits of various fuels, you’ll KNOW the TWA 800 explanation is just absurd.
Just to make you think a bit ... *IF* TWA 800 was hit center mass by a missile, it was probably radar-guided, not IR, like a ‘Stinger’. THAT implies a level of sophistication not usually associated with your garden variety Achmed-the-jihadist level of terrorist. So, who was on that airplane that needed ‘dying’? So much so that serious SAM technology needed to make certain it worked. An IR-guided SAM might have only hit an outboard engine, or even missed all together, considering the altitude and the frontal aspect ratio of the shot. A 747 is a sturdy bird. I personally doubt a ‘Stinger’ or similar would have been able to cause what happened to TWA 800.
See my post #15. See Part 1, 2, and 3 of the youtube clips.