Missles and the 30 thousand foot question?? Heard this with Flt 800 too... Heard it many times today.. But, didn’t the USSR hit a U2 back in early 60’s which would fly at 70K feet..
Below I added Wiki on that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2
The Day We Shot Down the U-2
by Sergei Khrushchev