I assume the petitioners have thought of this, but just how likely is it that a Navy ship could fire a missile and no one from the crew has said anything since? And how likely is it that terrorists could obtain and fire a missile capable of reaching 16,000 feet?
One of the excuses CTs use is that only a few people would need to know a missile was fired, which is absurd because before a missile is fired its imminent launch is announced on the ship-wide public address system (called the 1MC) telling all hands to remain clear of the launcher. And they claim the crew was threatened to keep them quiet. To believe the crew would remain silent if they were threatened in the face of such a gross injustice says more about the CTs than it says about the crew.
Also, US Navy SAMs use semi-active radar homing.
1. If you don't want to destroy the target all you have to do is turn off the radar!
2. The nearest US Navy surface ship was, iirc, 187 nautical miles from TWA 800. The range of 1996 era ship-launched SAMs was 35 nm.
3. US Navy surface ships never operate anywhere near Long Island. If one where close enough to shoot down TWA 800 it would be such an unusual sight the residents on the shore would have taken hundreds of photographs of it.
4. 187 nm is well below the radar horizon so there there wouldn't be any radar to paint the target to guide the missile to it.
5. You don't launch missiles towards your own country or towards air traffic lanes.
6. US subs could not and cannot launch SAMs.
7. There are designated areas for launching missiles and where TWA 800 went down is nowhere near one of those areas.
