An aside, before I relate my recollection of that day: The missile need not be a MANPAD. It could easily have been a standard SA (surface to air) missile, rigged on a trawler.
My story: I happened to have taken a day off that day, so I was on the internet and watching MSNBC. Those were the days of the Clinton - Lewinski problem, and MSNBC was very good journalism back then. They had not started their leftward drift yet.
My internet useage was interrupted by a flash bulletin of the Flt 800 explosion, and within 2 minutes, a graphic was pasted on the screen that speculated that it was a ‘center fuel tank explosion.’ The parts of the plane had barely hit the sea, and this graphic was up.
That was very odd. But the thing that most caught my eye was the watermark: PROPERTY OF THE CIA.
I looked again, I thought I read it wrong.
PROPERTY OF THE CIA.
I got closer to my televison.
PROPERTY OF THE CIA.
*****WHAT****???? WHY was the CIA posting graphics on a PURE speculation while the fuselage parts were still hot enough to boil seawater???!?
5 minutes later, the graphic was shown again.
PROPERTY OF THE FAA.
That is the very moment I knew it was a coverup.
The cover up is and was real.
The motives are speculative.