-it seems evident that missile came directly from ahead of the plane
Yes, I understand that. However, the flight path of the missile indicates that at least the initial part of its flight could have quite likely been seen from the aircraft by a pax scanning the ground ahead from a window.
Then there's always the likelihood that someone just happened to be coincidentally videoing or taking a photo inside the cabin at the moment of detonation.
Then there's the interesting point from Nikolay Istomin on his blog ..
SIA351 was very close and the passengers side had the opportunity to observe firsthand the catastrophe.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Russian security forces have been told to search for pax phones and cameras, and to ensure that when found, the phones/cameras and their memories, were "damaged beyond repair".
