I was watching CNN shortly after the explosion of Flight 800. One of their early interviews (voice only) was with a private pilot who was flying a cessna 172 over Long Island at the time of the explosion. He said he was southbound at 7500 ft., which would be an appropriate VFR altitude. He claimed to have seen a large ball of fire to his right and about 8000 ft.

I never heard another reference to that pilot on any news station nor have I seen anything about his report in any other media including the internet.

I believe this was important information. The NTSB claims that flight 800 was above 15000 feet. This of course adds to the creditability of an explosion in the fule tanks. As Commander Donaldson noted, Jet A is very difficult to ignite below that altitude. If a pilot observed tha explosion at 8000 feet it diminishes the possibility of fuel tanks being the cause, and places Flight 800 within range of a shoulder fired missle.

Does anyone else remember hearing the pilot's report?

To start out I'd like to say I never heard anything about this pilot. I'm not saying it never happened and I'm not saying that TWA 800 wasn't shot down. I'm just saying I'm a private pilot myself and you have to relize all of the illusions that there are up there. Expecially for a less experenced pilot. The explosion he saw may not have actully been at 8000 ft but could have been at a higher altitude. I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm just giving a little of detail on that.