The Attack On The World Trade Center...

What is known:   American Airlines Flight 11 departed from Logan Airport in Boston at 7:59 AM;  United Airlines Flight 175 departed from Logan Airport at 8:14 AM.  Both were Boeing 767 airliners.  Within 20 minutes after take off, they were hijacked  and converted to semi-stealthed missiles by turning off their transponders.  They crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center at 8:46 and 9:03 AM.  The FBI further determined from passenger lists and passport records the identities used by ten hijackers to buy tickets and board the two planes.

There were no voice communications with the airline pilots on the two planes after they climbed to their cruising altitude. There were no May day signals or even utterances from them heard during the attacks of their cockpits. There were no reports from witnesses who saw the actual attacks on the cockpits. There were no data, voice recorders, bodies or other evidence recovered from the debris. So what we know is based on two sources.

First, announcements overheard from the planes' public address system, presumably by the hijackers, instructing the passengers to keep their seats, which indicated that they had established control over the cockpit within a few minutes after the planes had reached their cruising altitudes.

Second, cell phone calls. On flight 11, two flight attendants, Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney, called American Airlines officials in Boston.  Ong's conversation, which continued from 8:20 to 8:43, was recorded. She was seated in a jump seat in back, relaying information from others.  She reported that four men in first-class seats had killed a passenger seated behind them. She said that they had used a chemical weapon on her that made her eyes burn and made it difficult for her to breathe. Sweeney, the flight attendant in the rear compartment, reported that three of the the hijackers had been seated in seats 9D, 9G and 10B and were of Middle Eastern descent.   She also reported that one of the hijackers showed her a bomb with red and yellow wires and that the hijackers had wounded or killed members of the crew. Her report was not recorded and their was some discrepancy over whether she had said stabbed or shot. The initial secret FAA memo, summarizing what had been reported by Sweeney, said the passenger had been "shot." Subsequently. the FAA changed "shot" to "stabbed" explaining that there had been a "miscommunication."  In any case, she provided enough information so that the airline knew its plane had been hijacked by five men with Arab names.

    On Flight 175, two passengers made cell phone calls. One left a message that the plane had been hijacked, the other that a stewardess had been stabbed.

Here is what we do not know:

1) What weapons did the ten hijackers have?

Although a stabbing is reported, the only weapons described by the two witness (Ong and Sweeney) aboard Flight 11 was a paralyzing chemical spray and a bomb. (The stories about plastic knives and box-cutters are erroneous.)

2) How did these get these weapons through security scanners at Logan or Portland Airport?

All ten of the hijackers went through the security screening in Boston on September 11th and boarded flights 11 and 175. Two of those hijackers drove from Boston on September 10th in a rented car to Portland, Maine, and at 5 AM the next morning passed through security at Portland Airport, and then again in Boston. Did someone in Boston assist the hijackers in smuggling weapons past the security checkpoints?

3) How did the hijackers gain entry to the cockpits?

The attacks on the cockpit were so sudden that none of the pilots had the opportunity to sound a May Day alert or scream. The cockpits doors are required to be locked. How did the hijackers open these doors so as not to alert the pilots?

4) How did the hijackers immobilize the pilots without causing the planes to swerve out of control?

The pilots are strapped by harnesses into their seats and have microphones connecting them to ground controllers. How did the hijackers managed to get the pilots out of their seats and take over the controls?

5) Were the planes on auto pilot? If so, how did the hijackers determine this prior to the attack?

6) How did the hijackers guide the planes to their targets? Did they have global positioning devices?

 

 Any additions or deletions:


Your email (required):


This is a totally commerce-free site. No charges, no advertising.