"A big gouge in the earth, and some broken trees." "Nothing that you could distinguish that a plane had crashed there." "Nothing. It was absolutely quiet." "No smoke, no fire." "I would guess it was probably about 20 to 15 feet long and probably about 10 feet wide."

What is the theory?

I recorded video footage from the major networks pretty much all day that day, I will pull my tapes as I don't remember this at all.
As for theory, I will just ask my Air Traffic Controller friends. They know exactly what was where, when. Commerical jets don't hide from radar.

You mean you don't know what the theory was? The theory became the conclusion. Nothing more. Why do you ask?