especially when it come to plane crashes. I'm not saying that an explosion didn't happen. Obviously, no one knows for sure at the moment unless the crew got off a distress call before going down. I just remember many cases where witnesses claimed seeing an explosion when it turned out not to be true. Sometimes, it can be an honest mistake like seeing the sun glint off of the plane, causing a very bright flash.

Could the plane have exploded? Sure. Does that mean it was a bomb? Not necessarily. A bomb is just one possibility, an engine throwing hot fragments into a fuel tank is another (remember the Concorde?)