•20:31:10 — Major Fred Meyer sees "meteor like" object flash across his field of view.
From the reports at the time, my first and long held impression has been that it was a stray from the Perseid meteor shower. Anyone who has seen a meteor clear their horizon at sunset/dusk will see the similarities.
Mike Wire and Fred Meyer were observing from points almost 90º away from each other. They could not have both seen a meteor coming from the same direction. While planes HAVE been known to have been hit by meteors, it is an extremely rare event. . . and for this to have been one beyond the plane on the horizon, every one of the witness who claimed to have seen a missile, firework, etc. would have had to have had the same general position to see the meteor behind the aircraft or close to it. That was not the case. There were people in about a 240º arc around the event as witnesses including some who were flying and looked down on it, and a meteor would not account for it.