At a 2000 miles an hour it would take 5 seconds to fly up and hit the plane. Count off 5 seconds, it is quite awhile.
It's out of range for a stinger attacking a fast, agile fighter - NOT out of range for one attacking a slow, lumbering, straight-line path 747.
Also, stingers are heat seekers. The stinger would go for an engine not the center of the plane.
Apparently there are also A/C heat exchangers on the belly of 747s, making them quite warm. However, I do not believe that the attack was necessarily a stinger - it could have been any type of missile, including radar guided that would have gone for the conrner-cube like metal making up the wing root.
At a 2000 miles an hour it would take 5 seconds to fly up and hit the plane. Count off 5 seconds, it is quite awhile.
The stinger burn is said to be 6 seconds, and this time is comparable to what some of the witnesses reported.