Gas bubbles, death rays and other junk

Couldn’t find anything that I was hoping for from a library today, so not wanting to come back home empty-handed I picked up a book from this one author, Nelson Demille. Thus far I’ve avoided his novels because the flashy covers and titles always – to me, at least - have seemed to indicate somewhere in the direction of fantasy literature, you know, pirates and mermaids, things like that. (However, after visiting the website I was proven wrong). Thus, I’ve never read one single book from him.
The reason I took “Night Fall” is that it’s based on factual evidence, on the big hush-hush what happened to Boeing 747 (Flight TWA 800) off Long Island on its way to Paris from Kennedy Airport with 230 passengers and crew onboard in July 17, 1996.
Don’t see myself as a conspiracy theory –enthusiast, but true stories with conspiring elements grab my attention especially if the case has been in the limelight for several years, more so in the post-9/11.
Probably didn’t say it right a few lines before, about the big hush-hush what happened to the plane, the fucking thing exploded that’s what happened (and killed everyone onboard). But – after reading this book for some rough 100 pages now and especially after zigzagging through lots and lots of websites regarding the accident – it seems that there are seven conflicting theories of what might have taken place.
The official statement is that the fuel tank simply exploded, possibly triggered by a short circuit, touching off the fuel vapours, but the more popular belief (and the first conflicting theory) is that it was blown up from the sky with a missile.
In fact, 80 % of the (U.S.) population believes that it was a missile strike; either a sea-to-air missile launched from submarine or the so-called MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defence Systems) launched from boat or ground. Gotta mention here that I had fun learning about different missiles like, for instance, state-of-the-art kinetic missiles otherwise known as Combat Kinetic Energy Missiles or CKEM (I also read about the dual locking systems of The Steyr Tactical Elite sniper rifles, but let's not get into that right here right now).
Other theories – ah, bear with me, some of them are right there at the X-files alley – are; 1) friendly fire/military fire (from the nearby sea and air training exercises), 2) some sort of electromagnetic pulse (caused by the U.S. military exercises), 3) meteorite or some other junk fell down from the space (what are the odds on that?), 4) methane gas bubbles – this one is pretty interesting, it’s about invisible gas that rises up from the ocean floor and possibly ignite in the air, 5) plasma death ray (from Brookhaven National Laboratory) even though it should still be under development, and 6) the cargo door of the 747 blew before the explosion and started the chain of events. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but the book truly has grabbed my attention, and it’s not only the story that keeps me on my toes, I kinda like Demille’s storytelling too.