A longtime airline pilot is disputing the long-held conclusion that a fuel tank explosion caused TWA flight 800 to crash off the coast of Long Island almost 19 years ago.

Andrew Danzinger, who helped fly Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, told NYDailyNews.com that planes don't simply blow up in midair.

Instead, Danzinger claims, the 747 must have been shot down and the FBI covered it up.

The crash on the night of July 17, 1996 killed all 230 people on board the flight that had departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport less than 15 minutes earlier en route to Paris. Seven of the victims were from New Jersey.

While planes' engines can fail and pilots can make mistakes, it's unheard of for a plane to simply blow up in midair unless a bomb is detonated or it's struck by a missile, the pilot said.

He also disputed the official explanation that cracked insulation in 16 miles of wiring not recovered from the crash site contributed to the explosion of vapors in the empty center fuel tank. Danzinger noted that in the 159 miles of wires found, there was not a "single piece of cracked insulation."

Danzinger also suggested the FBI was covering something up by repeatedly ordering mechanics to leave a hangar where recovered pieces of the plane were being stored to eventually be re-assembled. The FBI blamed the need to keep sterilizing the area when asked why it needed to clear the hangar.

In 2001, then U.S. Senator and current Secretary of State John Kerry also questioned the official version of events, asserting Osama Bin Laden was responsible.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.