One does wonder if a shoe bomb directly above the center fuel tank would result in what happened to flight 800.
Large quantities of fuel pouring out on fire could leave a massive fire streak in the air.
Just wondering...
With respect to the plane damage, maybe, but there is still the question of the radar evidence and the fact that witnesses saw something ascending before the explosion. It would take a lot more than 10-15 seconds for the fuel to leak down all the way to the surface, and then be ignited at the surface, and have the flame race up to the sky. (Furthermore, the streak was described as being a different color than the petroleum fireball that happened later.) And then, you have the nose gear doors that were blown inwards, etc.
I'd say that what the shoe-bomber was trying to do would be Pan Am #103 that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. That was a cassette recorder filled with Semtex, I think, and the plane disintegrated mid-air. However, I don't believe that it actually produced a mid-air fireball as TWA 800 did.