Sal - are you sure?
The NYT is quoting a source specifically saying that systems designed to pick up such flashes have not done so.
I would have thought that the whole of South East Asia would have been a prime area for the US DOD to be looking for flashes, given the proximity to at least three nuclear armed states, and others who have ambitions to be?
The two
SBIRS birds in orbit are geostationary, and I would assume have sensitive enough detectors with wide enough fields of view to pick up a fuel-air explosion at that height and location?
Particularly given that it was dark at the time?
My apologies - it seems those satellites operate in highly elliptical orbits, so might not have seen any explosion - if there was one.
Returning to the topic now, and thinking of the relatives of those who are missing...