Actually, the meteor theory has been getting a lot more attention
lately. Thousands of meteors enter Earth's atmosphere every day,
and there are thousands of commercial flights every day. An intersection
was bound to happen sooner or later.
(Note: don't fret about the dangers to commercial flight from meteors.
Just tote up all the commercial flights that ever flew, before TWA 800,
and none of which (apparently) were ever struck by meteors. Now take
the reciprocal of that number. That's your approximate chance of being
hit by a meteor on your next commercial flight... so relax.)
Just an alternative possibility that has yet to be ruled out.
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ expectation foils perception -pcd