That thing was shot out of the sky.
I recall that evening as if it were yesterday. I remember all the eyewitnesses seeing what appeared to them to be a missile and the plane exploding.
I also recall there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Many people speculated that someone may have even hit the plane with leftover fireworks. Though not possible to down the plane much less reach it, that sort of thinking demonstrates that many people believe they saw a missile or streak of flame head for the plane before it exploded.
They were certain that they saw two things: A possible rocket and then the explosion.
Here is one of the best investigations I ever saw and it involves witnesses of military experience, the Medical Examiner and many others.
42 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwWzRFsrqAE
at 15:30 you can hear what the ME has to say and it starkly contrasts what the government theory is. It is also striking for his description of what he did not see on the bodies, leaving him with doubts about the government “story”.
I also remember the crew of a military cargo plane (possibly a c130) being interviewed on the night of the crash. They were introduced as having been in the area and deploying flares at high altitude. Something that made me have a wtf moment . There was nothing else mentioned about this again.