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Was Flight 93 shot down?

 

"But I saw [the mysterious small white jet] and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."

"...the FBI and the state police here have confirmed that have they cordoned off a second area about six to eight miles away ... This is apparently another debris site, which raises a number of questions ... there were some cell phone callers ... who said saw a bomb, or something that looked like a bomb..." - Brian Cabell, CNN Correspondent

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"A Boeing 767 out of Boston made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins Airport due to concerns that it may have a bomb ... the plane had been moved to a secure area of the airport ... United identified the plane as Flight 93."

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United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757.

"Flight 93 was going from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco. Thirty-three passengers, seven crew members and the four hijackers died." -ABC (8/08/03)

Rescue workers search for debris left from United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed at approximately 10:06 am on Sept. 11, 2001 in Shanksville, PA.

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Two alleged Flight 93 hijackers reported alive!

* Saeed Alghamdi, a name used by one of the alleged hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93...

* Ahmed Alnami, a name used by another suspected hijacker on Flight 93. -(See Alleged hijackers)

 

 Video- Pres. Bush talks about hearing that Flight 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania. -CBS

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 New!

Did Flight 93 land safely on 9/11 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport?

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Plane Lands In Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard
Reported by: 9News Staff
Web produced by: Liz Foreman
9/11/01 11:43:57 AM
"A Boeing 767 out of Boston made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport due to concerns that it may have a bomb aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White.
White said the plane had been moved to a secure area of the airport, and was evacuated.
United identified the plane as Flight 93. The airline [didn't] say how many people were aboard the flight.
United said it was also "deeply concerned" about another flight, Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to Los Angeles.
On behalf of the airline CEO James Goodwin said: "The thoughts of everyone at United are with the passengers and crew of these flights. Our prayers are also with everyone on the ground who may have been involved.
"United is working with all the relevant authorities, including the FBI, to obtain further information on these flights," he said." -WCPO-TV (09/11/01) [Reprinted at:  911Truth.org, Global Free Press, Rense.com]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice that the flight path of Flight 93 makes a hard turn very close to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

(Click maps for source.)

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

5300 Riverside Drive Cleveland, Ohio 44135

(Red star = Hopkins Airport.  Map zoomed out to "6".)

Plane makes emergency landing
by Paul Singer
"A Boeing 767 out of Boston made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport because of concerns that it may have a bomb aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White.
The plane was sitting on a runway at the airport's west end with approximately 200 passengers on board. The mayor had said earlier that the plane was being evacuated, but an airport spokeswoman said the passengers remained inside.
It was unclear whether any passengers had been taken off the plane.
A SWAT team and bomb unit were at the scene. However, White said, "As of this moment we do not know that this plane is in stress or duress."
The airplane landed at about 10:45 a.m., but the airport released no information about the plane's intended destination. Normally, planes of this size do not land at Hopkins.
"We have no confirmed information that this was a hijacking," the mayor said. But White said authorities are still concerned that there may be a bomb aboard the plane.
Cleveland police blocked off all entrances to the airport terminal, and bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in to the baggage pickup areas.
He said airport officials reported that a second airplane in distress had passed through Cleveland airspace earlier Tuesday morning before being handed off to Toledo. Officials at Toledo Express Airport did not immediately have any information about a plane headed from Cleveland.
Six other planes were diverted to Akron-Canton Airport, said airport aviation director Fred Krum. "They were told to get down," Krum said. The planes were bound for Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Boston when they were asked to land at Akron.
White said air traffic controllers said they could hear screaming within the Boeing 767. Additional details were not available.
WTAM radio reported that NASA had closed its Glenn Research Center, which is located near the airport.
The mayor ordered the evacuation of all major public buildings downtown, including City Hall, the Justice Center and the convention center. He has asked owners of large commercial high-rises downtown to evacuate. Federal buildings downtown also were closed.
Traffic in downtown Cleveland was backed up for blocks as people tried to get home.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jacobs Field, Gund Arena and Browns Stadium also were closed, and the mayor said he asked two downtown college campuses to close.
White said there would be a parking ban on downtown streets." -AP (09/11/04) [Reprinted at: 911truth.org, Global Free Press]

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Was this original news article from WCPO-TV about Flight 93 landing at Hopkins airport taken off it's website because it was "factually incorrect", or was it taken off because it was correct?  If this story was "factually incorrect", why didn't they correct the article instead of removing it?

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Plane Lands In Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard
Reported by: 9News Staff
Web produced by: Liz Foreman
9/11/01 11:43:57 AM
"This story has been removed from WCPO.com.
It was a preliminary AP story, and was factually incorrect." -WCPO-TV

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Was it Delta flight 1989 and not Flight 93 that landed at Hopkins airport or did both planes land there?

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No explosives found on Cleveland plane
by Paul Singer
CLEVELAND - No explosives were found aboard a Delta flight from Boston that was forced to land at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport because of fears it had been hijacked, city officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration had been informed at 9:45 a.m. of a possible hijacking of a plane headed for Cleveland, said FBI spokesman Mark Bullock.
Flight 1989 to Los Angeles was not hijacked but was grounded by Delta because it was in the same flight pattern as a plane that was hijacked and struck the World Trade Center in New York, Bullock said.
The plane landed about 10:45 a.m. today with 78 passengers aboard, airport officials said.
The Boeing 767 was evacuated and searched, said Della Homenik, spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. White. Passengers were taken to a nearby NASA facility.
FBI spokesman Bob Hawk said that since the Delta plane left Boston about the same time as the hijacked plane, passengers were being interviewed to see if they saw anything unusual this morning.
After the plane landed, the airport was closed and bomb-sniffing dogs were brought to baggage pickup areas.
Meanwhile, White said a second airplane in distress had passed through Cleveland airspace Tuesday morning before being handed off to Toledo.
Officials at Toledo Express Airport did not immediately have any information about the plane." -The Post (Ohio Univ.)/AP (09/11/01)

See also:  The Cleveland Airport Mystery, by Woody Box - INN World Report

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A Mysterious Small White Jet Was Seen

 

A-10 "Warthog"

"It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look. It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets," said Susan Mcelwain.

NetJets Gulfstream VSP

"Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings."

NetJets Falcon 2000

"The FBI's later explanation for the white jet was that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet...Susan Mcelwain says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she saw."

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"The unmarked military-style jet swooped down at high speed through the valley, twice circled the smoldering black scar where Flight 93 had careered into the ground just seconds earlier and then hurtled off over the horizon.
At least six eyewitnesses saw the mysterious aircraft on the morning of September 11 last year. But the US authorities deny it ever existed.
What was the white jet doing there and why won't they admit to its presence? Why did other witnesses see smoke and flames trailing from Flight 93 as it fell from the sky, indicating a possible explosion aboard?
Or - and this is proving to be the most uncomfortable question of all - in the moments before the airliner piled into the black, spongy earth at 575mph did an American fighter pilot have to do the unthinkable and shoot down a US civil airliner?
Susan Mcelwain, 51, who lives two miles from the site, knows what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.
"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real fast, but hardly made any sound.
"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialled 911 and told them what happened.
"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93.
I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the very moment it came down.
"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look.
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around.
"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.
"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."
Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it down.
Lee Purbaugh, 32, was the only person to see the last seconds of Flight 93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely 10.06am - and he also saw the white jet.
"Yes, there was another plane," Lee said. "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon."
Tom Spinelli, 28, was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and a half away. "I saw the white plane," he said.
"It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for something. I saw it before and after the crash."
The FBI's later explanation for the white jet was that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet was asked to descend from 34,000ft to 5,000ft some minutes after the crash to give co-ordinates for the site. The plane and pilot have never been produced or identified. Susan Mcelwain says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she saw." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

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"At least four witnesses who were at the crash scene within five minutes of the crash told WTAE's Paul Van Osdol that they saw another plane in the area.
Somerset County resident Jim Brandt said that he saw another plane in the area. He said it stayed there for one or two minutes before leaving.
Another Somerset County resident, Tom Spinello, said that he saw the plane. He said that it had high back wings.
Both men said that the plane had no markings on it, either civilian or military. The FBI said that it does not think that it was a military plane, but it would not rule out the possibility of it being a civilian plane.
-The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

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"In separate interviews Thursday, five residents who live and work less than four miles from the crash site said they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of the crash of the Boeing 757 that took off from Newark two hours earlier Tuesday morning.
Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge.
It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I could think of was how close I came to dying. "
"As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast," Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out. " Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings.
Earlier Thursday, FBI Special Agent William Crowley said investigators could not rule out that a second plane was nearby during the crash. He later said he had misspoken. He dismissed rumors that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it could strike a target in Washington, D.C. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, President Bush's nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff rejected rumors that the military had shot down the hijacked plane.
"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said.
An official at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center in Oberlin, Ohio, which tracked Flight 93 as it turned in the sky and tracked eastward from the Cleveland area, said "no comment" when asked if there was any record of a second plane over the crash site.
"That's something that the FBI is working on and I cannot talk about," said Richard Kettel, head of tower operations at the Cleveland center. He spoke shortly before the FBI announced it had no evidence of a second jet.
Susan Custer said she saw a small white jet streaking overhead.
"Then I heard the boom and saw the mushroom cloud. " Robin Doppstadt was working inside her family food-and-supply store when she heard the crash. When she went outside, she said, she saw a small white jet that looked like it was making a single circle over the crash site.
"Then it climbed very quickly and took off. " "It's the damndest darn thing," said Dale Browning, a farmer.
"Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it is." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

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"Two other airplanes were flying near the hijacked United Airlines jet when it crashed in Somerset County, but neither had anything to do with the airliner's fate, the FBI said yesterday.
In fact, one of the planes, a Fairchild Falcon 20 business jet, was directed to the crash site to help rescuers. The request for the jet to fly low and obtain the coordinates for the crash explains reports by people in the vicinity who said a white or silver jet flew by moments after the crash.
"There was a hole in the ground -- that was it," said Yates Caldwell, the pilot who was at the controls of the 10-passenger corporate jet for Greensboro, N.C.-based apparel maker VF Corp. "There was no way to know what it was .... I didn't know there had been a crash until I landed, until I was on the ground in Johnstown." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)

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Why was this "Falcon 20" plane directed by authorities to give "coordinates" to the crash site and this single-engine Piper plane told to immediately turn away and land without explanation?
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"A few minutes before the crash Bill Wright, piloting a single-engine Piper, could see Flight 93 three miles away, but was suddenly told to turn away and land immediately without explanation."  -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

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Why was an executive jet owned by Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett "tracking" Flight 93 instead of a military jet intercepting it?
 

"Additional recordings would be played from the cockpit of an executive jet that tracked Flight 93 on Sept. 11...
An official for NetJets, a company that sells shares in private business aircraft, confirmed that the plane tracking Flight 93 belonged to the company.
The official, who asked not to be identified by name, said the company was asked not to comment on the Sept. 11 flight but would not say who made the request." -Holland Sentinel/AP (8/09/02)

 

In 1995, world-renowned financier Warren Buffett purchased his first fractional share in the NetJets® program. Three-and-a-half years later, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased NetJets Inc.
"As a NetJets fractional aircraft Owner, I had Three-and-a-half years to examine the service of NetJets before Berkshire Hathaway purchased NetJets Inc. We knew we were purchasing the premier provider of aviation solutions in the world. And you can quote me to the world on that."
- WARREN BUFFETT Chairman and CEO Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

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 More about Warren Buffett and his connections with 9/11

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Shoot Down Orders Were Given

 

CHENEY SAYS MILITARY WAS ORDERED TO SHOOT DOWN PLANES

U.S. military pilots were told to shoot down hijacked commercial airplanes over Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said today.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the vice president said President Bush "made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out."
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that authorization." Cheney said. "But there were a few moments when we thought we might."
Questions of U.S. military action have surrounded the crash of a hijacked airliner in rural Pennsylvania. But although the government was authorized to shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash came instead as a result of a passenger uprising.
"We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz said. "And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down, but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had had to." -PBS (9/16/01)

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Feds Would Have Shot Down Pa. Jet

U.S. officials were considering shooting down the hijacked airliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania, but it crashed first.
"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday.
No decision had to be made, but administration officials say that, had the jetliner continued toward Washington, the fighter jets would have shot it down. The rationale, say the sources, was that the government was willing to "kill 100 to save a thousand". -CBS (9/16/01)

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Contradictions

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"In fact, military commanders were never notified of the need to intercept hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned abruptly from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S. military jets in the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., director of the Air National Guard.
Weaver went further Friday, saying planes had scrambled to intercept three other hijacked jets over New York and Washington - but that no such notification ever was made to commanders about the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently because it initially stayed on its flight plan toward Ohio and was the last to crash.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the sky nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble, Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)

 

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Military Aircraft Were in Range

 

Feds Would Have Shot Down Pa. Jet

U.S. officials were considering shooting down the hijacked airliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania, but it crashed first.
"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday.
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that decision," Cheney said.
In addition, a Korean Air jetliner en route to Anchorage signaled that it was being hijacked, though that proved to be a false alarm.
As the fourth hijacked plane was over Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for Washington, military commanders, the FAA, and White House officials were on a conference call discussing options.
At the time, there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles within 60 miles of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of missile range when the jetliner crashed, sources said.
No decision had to be made, but administration officials say that, had the jetliner continued toward Washington, the fighter jets would have shot it down. The rationale, say the sources, was that the government was willing to "kill 100 to save a thousand".
Also on Tuesday, the FAA and military officials were alarmed when a Korean Air jetliner inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that it too had been hijacked. Before it got to Alaska, jet fighters were trailing it, and the plane eventually landed at a remote base in Canada. -CBS (9/16/01)

 

In the White House bunker, a military aide approached the vice president.
"There is a plane 80 miles out," he said. "There is a fighter in the area. Should we engage?"
"Yes," Cheney replied without hesitation.
Around the vice president, Rice, deputy White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, tensed as the military aide repeated the question, this time with even more urgency. The plane was now 60 miles out. "Should we engage?" Cheney was asked.
"Yes," he replied again.
As the plane came closer, the aide repeated the question. Does the order still stand?
"Of course it does," Cheney snapped.
Within minutes, there was a report that a plane had crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania-what turned out to be United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked after leaving Newark International Airport. Many of those in the PEOC feared that Cheney's order had brought down a civilian aircraft. Rice demanded that someone check with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did we shoot it down or did it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers had fought with the hijackers. - Washington Post (1/27/02)

 
"As the fourth hijacked plane was over Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for Washington, military commanders, the FAA, and White House officials were on a conference call discussing options.
At the time, there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles within 60 miles of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of missile range when the jetliner crashed, sources said."

Also on Tuesday, the FAA and military officials were alarmed when a Korean Air jetliner inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that it too had been hijacked. Before it got to Alaska, jet fighters were trailing it, and the plane eventually landed at a remote base in Canada.
That plane had not been hijacked, and there's been no explanation as to why it was sending out the hijacking signal. But in light of what had already happened in New York and Washington, sources say, that jetliner was also in serious jeopardy of being shot down. -CBS (9/16/01)

 

 

 

The 180th Fighter Wing's primary mission is to provide combat ready F16C and support units capable of deploying world-wide in minimum response time.

 

Military A-10 "Warthog"

"It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look. It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets," said Susan Mcelwain.

*Notice that some A-10's look white, especially from a distance.  All have two rear engines mounted near the back,  a spoiler at the rear with two upright fins on it's sides, and have very small identification markings that would make it hard to see if it was flying fast or if seen from a distance.  Also, it wouldn't be too hard for the military to paint one of these planes all white with no identification markings.

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The 111th Fighter Wing mission:  To maintain highly trained, well-equipped, and motivated military forces in order to provide combat-ready OA-10/A-10 aircraft and support elements in response to wartime and peacetime tasking under state or federal authority, and to do so with Loyalty, Honor, and Pride.  Willow Grove Air Reserve Station Pennsylvania.

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"FURTHER verification that some kind of military aircraft was operating in the area is scientifically irrefutable.
At 9.22am a sonic boom - caused by supersonic flight - was picked up by an earthquake monitoring station in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles from Shanksville.
UA93 was identified as a hijack at 9.16am. At 9.35am three F-16s were ordered to "protect the White House at all costs" when it turned towards the capital. At 10.06am it crashed at Shanksville, less than 10mins flying time from Washington. -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

 

"Witnesses reported seeing military aircraft in the air just after the crash, and there were rumors that Flight 93 was shot down." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

 
 

Is it just a coincidence that the C-130 military plane seen flying near the Pennsylvania crash site was the same C-130 plane that saw Flight 77 flying in the air before it supposedly crashed into the Pentagon?

 

"A C-130 military cargo plane was also within 25 miles of the passenger jet when it crashed, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said yesterday, but was not diverted." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)

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"Lt. Col. Steve O'Brien started his day at the controls of a Minnesota National Guard C-130 cargo plane. He and his crew were heading back to the Twin Cities after moving military supplies around the Caribbean. About 9:30 a.m., O'Brien throttled the lumbering plane down a runway at Andrews Air Force Base, just southeast of the District of Columbia.
"When we took off, we headed north and west and had a beautiful view of the Mall," he said. "I noticed this airplane up and to the left of us, at 10 o'clock. He was descending to our altitude, four miles away or so. That's awful close, so I was surprised he wasn't calling out to us.
"It was like coming up to an intersection. When air traffic control asked me if we had him in sight, I told him that was an understatement - by then, he had pretty much filled our windscreen. Then he made a pretty aggressive turn so he was moving right in front of us, a mile and a half, two miles away. I said we had him in sight, then the controller asked me what kind of plane it was.
"That caught us up, because normally they have all that information. The controller didn't seem to know anything."
O'Brien reported that the plane was either a 757 or 767 and its silver fuselage meant it was probably an American Airlines jet. "They told us to turn and follow that aircraft - in 20-plus years of flying, I've never been asked to do something like that. With all of the East Coast haze, I had a hard time picking him out.
"The next thing I saw was the fireball. It was huge. I told Washington the airplane has impacted the ground. Shook everyone up pretty good. I told them the approximate location was close to the Potomac. I figured he'd had some in-flight emergency and was trying to get back on the ground to Washington National. Suddenly, I could see the outline of the Pentagon. It was horrible. I told Washington this thing has impacted the west side of the Pentagon."
O'Brien asked the controller whether he should set up a low orbit around the building but was told to get out of the area as quickly as possible. "I took the plane once through the plume of smoke and thought if this was a terrorist attack, it probably wasn't a good idea to be flying through that plume."
He flew west, not exactly sure where he was supposed to land. Somewhere over western Pennsylvania, O'Brien looked down at a blackened, smoldering field. "I hoped it was just a tire fire or something, but when I checked with Cleveland center, he told me he'd just lost a guy off the scope pretty close to where we saw it. By then, we were able to patch in AM radio, so we heard about all the planes. It was like a domino effect - a really bad day for airplanes."
He finally landed at the Youngstown, Ohio, airport. "For awhile there, almost every night, I found myself stone awake at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Took awhile to get over it." - Minnesota Star-Tribune (09/11/02) [Reprint at:  Cooperative Research]

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"Northern Virginia resident John O’Keefe was one of the many commuters who witnessed the attack on the Pentagon.
“The eeriest thing about it, was that it was like you were watching a movie. There was no huge explosion, no huge rumbling on ground, it just went ‘pfff.’ It wasn’t what I would have expected for a plane that was not much more than a football field away from me.
“The first thing I did was pull over onto the shoulder, and when I got out of the car I saw another plane flying over my head, and it scared ...me, because I knew there had been two planes that hit the World Trade Center. And I started jogging up the ramp to get as far away as possible.
“Then the plane -- it looked like a C-130 cargo plane -- started turning away from the Pentagon, it did a complete turnaround." -  New York Law Journal (09/12/01)

- See also: Flight 77 witnesses
 

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Contradictions

 

Officials: Flight 93 Not Shot Down - Fighter jets too far away to intercept it

"U.S. fighter-jets couldn't have had any involvement in the crash of a hijacked airliner in Pennsylvania because the closest airborne jets at the time were over the Washington area, more than 100 miles away, a defense official said Friday.
In fact, military commanders were never notified of the need to intercept hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned abruptly from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S. military jets in the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., director of the Air National Guard.
That means the U.S. fighter-jets in the air closest to the site at Shanksville, Pa., in the southwestern part of the state actually were over Washington, those sent up to defend the airspace over the nation's capital, Weaver said.
The Pentagon has sought to knock down persistent rumors that the Pennsylvania flight was shot down or intercepted by U.S. fighter-jets and driven down.
The Pentagon's top spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said Thursday that military officials had "triple-checked" and could state categorically that the United States didn't shoot down the plane. He couldn't say whether any U.S. military planes ever had the doomed plane in sight.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the sky nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble, Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)

 

Debris Field Stretched 6-8 Miles from Crash

 

America Under Attack: FBI and State Police Cordon Off Debris Area Six to Eight Miles from Crater Where Plane Went Down
"DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we want to take our viewers live to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our Brian Cabell is standing by. This of course is the site where United Airlines flight 93 crashed on its way from Newark to San Francisco, crashed on Tuesday, and I understand, in this investigation, there's some breaking news.  Brian, what can you tell us?
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, in the last hour or so, the FBI and the state police here have confirmed that have they cordoned off a second area about six to eight miles away from the crater here where plane went down. This is apparently another debris site, which raises a number of questions. Why would debris from the plane -- and they identified it specifically as being from this plane -- why would debris be located 6 miles away. Could it have blown that far away. It seems highly unlikely. Almost all the debris found at this site is within 100 yards, 200 yards, so it raises some question. We don't want to overspeculate of course. But there were some cell phone callers, one cell phone caller in particular, who said saw a bomb, or something that looked like a bomb with one of the hijackers. Also, the man who took over the plane apparently announced at one point, he had -- there was a bomb on board the plane.
Again, we don't want to speculate, we don't want to jump to conclusions. But what we do know is that there's a site about half mile behind me, where the plane went down, where most of the debris is, and then about six miles away up by a lake, there is another area that's been cordoned off, and state police and the FBI have said definitely there is debris from the plane located there. We have a crew on the way right now. We should have pictures of that a little bit later on.
KAGAN: Which was first question, so I'll move on to my next one, Brian.
WE don't want to speculate about this large debris field. But it seems to me from covering a number of plane crashes on the scene, that if nothing else, this is not typical for a plane crash to be spread across an area this large.
CABELL: It's certainly doesn't make sense, because most of the debris has been found in a very compact area, within 100 yards, 200 yards, maybe a little bit beyond that. Then all of a sudden they're telling us six miles away, they have another concentration of debris, very small pieces. Most peoples here no bigger than the size of briefcase. The debris six miles away may be smaller. We have talked to a number of individuals here. They say they have talked to people who saw this plane during the final moments. They haven't confirmed whether they saw -- whether they talked to anybody who saw this plane actually land, or crash rather, and as to whether it broke up on the way, we don't know that. The FBI being very tight-lipped about that.
But again, at It leads to that possibility. It certainly leads to a number of questions.
KAGAN: You mentioned they have yet to find the black box. It would seems to me when you compare the four plane crashes of Tuesday, this would be the site where they would be most likely to find a black box.
CABELL: That's what they told us initially, and I think they're somewhat disappointed they haven't found it. It's been 48 hours, but they are still hopeful they will find it. There is a pond nearby this particular site. They may have to send divers into the pond. They haven't done that yet, but conceivably, it could be in the pond, it could be anywhere, it could be at this other debris side. They've also found some other debris scattered around this area. They say in fact some individuals have been collecting it. Again, we're talking about very, very tiny parts. The biggest part they found at this site is an engine, an engine part, and most of the other pieces are probably no bigger than this particular notebook.
So again, very small pieces. They had hoped to find the black box by now. They're still voicing optimism they will find it." -CNN (09/13/01)

 

"India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.
"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind." But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away? Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what they reckon."
Light debris was also found eight miles away in New Baltimore. A section of engine weighing a ton was located 2,000 yards - over a mile -from the crash site. Theorists point out a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile attacks the hottest part of aircraft - the engine.
The authorities say the impact bounced it there. But the few pieces of surviving fuselage, local coroner Wallace Miller told us, were "no bigger than a carrier bag". -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

l

"Bill Crowley, FBI, has told reporters in Pittsburg, that debris from the hi-jacked plane which crashed there has been found six miles away." -TCM Breaking News (9/13/01)

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"Finding any substantial evidence from the plane will be difficult. Any remaining debris is very small. WTAE-TV's Paul Van Osdol also reports that some debris has been spotted up to two miles away from the crash scene. Some has been washing up on shore at nearby Indian Lake." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

/

"Debris from the crash has been found up to 8 miles from the crash site, but searchers are concentrating on the crater where most of the remains are located. Papers and other light objects were carried aloft by the explosion after impact of the plane and they were transported by a nine-knot wind." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)

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Mid-air Explosion

 

 

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"A witness said he heard two loud bangs before watching the plane take a downward turn of nearly 90 degrees. A large crater, from which none of the plane could be seen, was left in the ground."
Another witness, Michael Merringer, said he was out on a mountain bike ride with his wife, Amy, about two miles from the crash site.
"(I) heard the engine gun two different times," he said. "(I) heard a loud bang and the windows of the houses all around rattled."
FBI Agent Wells Morrison said that Westmoreland County 911 received a call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was on the plane. The FBI had the tape but would not discuss its contents.
The caller said he was locked in the plane's bathroom and that the flight had been hijacked, according to Glenn Cramer of Westmoreland County 911. A loud noise was then heard and the caller reported seeing white smoke, Cramer said.
Connection with the man's cellular telephone was then lost. The crash was reported soon after." -NewsNet5.com (9/11/01)

/

"According to The Associated Press, the man told officials, "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!"
Emergency dispatcher Glenn Cramer said the man on board reported the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him."
An FBI official said the crash "appears" to be an act of terrorism, but Pentagon officials firmly denied to ABCNEWS rumors that the U.S. military shot down the aircraft to prevent it from being crashed into Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, or another government facility.
Adm. Craig Quigley told reporters the cause of the accident "was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft."
One eyewitness to the Pennsylvania crash, Linda Shepley, told television station KDKA in Pittsburgh that she heard a loud bang and saw the plane bank to the side before crashing." -ABC (9/11/01)

 

"India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

 

Rumored of Being Shot Down

 

4:28:14 PM
"A Boeing 767 has crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It is not known if this air crash is related to the three other jets used in today’s spate of terrorist attacks on the US.
The plane came down just north of the Somerset county airport, about 80 miles south east of Pittsburgh.
US anti-aircraft fighters are in place - unconfirmed reports say this plane was shot out of the sky by US defence.
It remains unclear whether this aircraft was the fourth to be hijacked in Boston earlier today." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

 

"Within minutes, there was a report that a plane had crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania-what turned out to be United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked after leaving Newark International Airport. Many of those in the PEOC feared that Cheney's order had brought down a civilian aircraft. Rice demanded that someone check with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did we shoot it down or did it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers had fought with the hijackers." - Washington Post (1/27/02)

 

"Q: Ari, can you rule out that there was any decision to shoot down the plane over Pennsylvania? There are still continuing questions that the government may have decided that that was necessary. Do you have any information about that crash?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't have information about the cause of that crash.
Q: But can you rule out that it was shot down by the U.S. military?
MR. FLEISCHER: That would be the first I've heard of anything like that. I have not heard anything like that at all." -White House/KnoxNews (9/11/01)

 

"Q: Mr. Secretary, there were rumors earlier in the day that the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania had been brought down by the United States, either shot down or in some other manner.
Rumsfeld: We have absolutely no information that any U.S. aircraft shot down any other aircraft today." -DoD (9/11/01)

 

"...there were rumors that Flight 93 was shot down. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld said that was not the case..." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

 

"He dismissed rumors that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it could strike a target in Washington, D.C. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, President Bush's nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff rejected rumors that the military had shot down the hijacked plane.
"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

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"Responding to persistent rumors that have circulated around the nation, the North American Aerospace Defense Command disputed accounts yesterday that U.S. military aircraft shot down United Airlines Flight 93 in Somerset County.
"Contrary to media reports that speculate that United Airlines Flight 93 was 'downed' by a U.S. fighter aircraft, NORAD-allocated forces have not engaged with weapons any aircraft, including Flight 93."
It was the second such statement NORAD released on the incident since the plane crashed Tuesday morning on a hilltop outside Shanksville.
"There was no military involvement here. I hope that ends that speculation," FBI agent Bill Crowley told reporters yesterday during an afternoon briefing at the crash site.
Asked if there were any military aircraft flying in the vicinity of Flight 93 or activated in response to the hijacking of the plane, Capt. Adriane Craig, a NORAD spokeswoman, declined comment." -Post-Gazette (9/14/01)

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"As soon as he climbed off his jet, Nasty was told by a crew member on the ground that another airliner had smashed into the Pentagon. And he was told that a military F-16 had shot down a fourth airliner in Pennsylvania, a report that turned out to be incorrect." -Cape Cod Times (8/21/02)

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"Mrs Mcelwain is further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it down." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

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Timeline Discrepancy

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 From takeoff to takeover; Putting it all together

(Click photo for source.)

1. 7:49 a.m.
Mark Bingham calls friend. Says that he is sitting in first class and drinking orange juice.
2. 8:42 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 93 departs from Newark International Airport in New Jersey, 41 minutes late.
3. 8:47 a.m.
Plane passes through 10,000 ft.
4. 9:02 a.m.
Plane reaches cruising altitude of 31,000 feet. Estimated cruising speed is 515 mph, but actual speed on this flight may have varied.
5. Just after 9 a.m.
United warns all aircraft of the potential for cockpit intrusion and to take precautions to barricade cockpit doors.
6. 9:20 a.m.
Hijacking begins. Tom Burnett calls wife, reports takeover.
7. 9:28 a.m.
Keyed microphone reveals someone in cockpit saying, "Get out of here!"
8. 9:29 a.m.
Jeremy Glick calls his wife and describes the hijackers. He is told about the attacks in New York.
9. 9:34 a.m.
Cockpit intercom: In broken English, a man announces there is a bomb and that the plane is returning to the airport.
10. 9:35 a.m.
Hijacked plane is turned around near Cleveland.
11. 9:41 a.m.
Marion Britton calls friend. She tells him that two people have been killed and the plane has been turned around.
12. 9:45 a.m.
Todd Beamer's cell phone call is transferred to Verizon operator Lisa Jefferson. He tells her about the passengers' plan to fight the hijackers.
13. 9:49 a.m.
Pittsburgh International Airport flight tower is evacuated.
14. 9:50 a.m.
Sandra Bradshaw calls her husband. She tells him that they are in the rear galley filling pitchers with hot water to use against the hijackers.
15. 9:58 a.m.
Todd Beamer's call ends as he and others begin to carry out their plan to force their way into the cockpit and take over the plane.
CeeCee Lyles has called her husband. Screams and jumbled noises heard in the background. Call disconnects as confrontation with hijackers begins.
16. 10:04 a.m.
Johnstown-Cambria Country Airport reports the plane is 15 miles south and coming fast.
17. 10:05 a.m.
People on the ground witness the plane flying low and erratically.
18. 10:06 a.m.
Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, approximately 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
19. 15-20 minutes away
Possible terrorist target: Washington D.C. approximately 124 miles, or 15-20 minutes, from crash site.

Source-  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

"The following timeline is for United Airlines flight 93, scheduled to fly from Newark International Airport to San Francisco. The flight crashed in Pennsylvania.
--8:42 a.m.: United Airlines flight 93 takes off from Newark International Airport.
--9:16 a.m.: FAA informs NORAD that United Airlines flight 93 may have been hijacked.
--9:40 a.m.: Transponder signal from United flight 93 ceases and radar contact is lost.
--10:02 a.m.: After a review of radar tapes, a radar signal is detected near Shanksville, Pennsylvania." - CNN (9/17/01)

 
Three-minute discrepancy in tape - Cockpit voice recording ends before Flight 93's official time of impact

"THE FINAL three minutes of hijacked United Flight 93 are still a mystery more than a year after it crashed in western Pennsylvania - even to grieving relatives who sought comfort in listening to its cockpit tapes in April.
A Daily News investigation has found a roughly three-minute gap between the time the tape goes silent - according to government-prepared transcripts - and the time that top scientists have pinpointed for the crash.
Several leading seismologists agree that Flight 93 crashed last Sept. 11 at 10:06:05 a.m., give or take a couple of seconds. Family members allowed to hear the cockpit voice recorder in Princeton, N.J., last spring were told it stopped just after 10:03.
The FBI and other agencies refused repeated requests to explain the discrepancy.
Aviation experts said there could be several explanations for the gap.
...President Bush and other top government officials continue to invoke the story - based largely on the cell-phone calls - of fighting between the passengers and the hijackers as a "Let's roll" rallying cry to continue the war against global terrorism.
But the FBI has clamped a tight lid of secrecy on the flight data recorder - which could best show how Flight 93 actually crashed - and on the cockpit voice recorder.
An FBI spokesman, Steven Berry, said the bureau continues to officially list the time of the Flight 93 crash as 10:03 a.m. The NTSB referred all questions to the FBI.
But the relatives of Flight 93 passengers who heard the cockpit tape April 18 at a Princeton hotel said government officials laid out a timetable for the crash in a briefing and in a transcript that accompanied the recording. Relatives later reported they heard sounds of an on-board struggle beginning at 9:58 a.m., but there was a final "rushing sound" at 10:03, and the tape fell silent.
"There is no sound of the impact," said Kenneth Nacke, whose brother, Lou Nacke Jr., is one of the passengers believed to have fought with the hijackers. Nacke confirmed that the government said the tape ended at 10:03 a.m.
"The seismic signals are consistent with impact at 10:06:05," plus or minus two seconds, said Terry Wallace, who heads the Southern Arizona Seismic Observatory and is considered the leading expert on the seismology of man-made events. "I don't know where the 10:03 time comes from."
None of the family members interviewed for this story recalls any explanation of a discrepancy between the times on the tape recording and the actual crash at 10:06.
Investigators typically nail down the correct times very early in a probe, experts said. Todd Curtis, who runs the Web site AirSafe.com, said the three-minute gap "does not make sense."
But the three-minute gap is certain to fuel ongoing debates on the Internet over how Flight 93 really crashed, and whether the plane could have been shot down by military jet fighters that were sent aloft as the Sept. 11 hijackings unfolded. The government insists there was no shoot down.
Numerous witnesses in the Shanksville area have told the Daily News and other publications since last September that a mysterious, low-flying unmarked white jet, military in nature, circled the area at the time of the crash. The FBI has claimed this was a business jet that had been asked by air-traffic controllers to inspect the Flight 93 crater.
The debate has also been driven by the wide debris field from Flight 93 - including papers found eight miles away - and by conflicting accounts over whether a 911 caller reported an explosion and white smoke on board.
Grose, the former NTSB member, said he doubts the entire story of Flight 93 will ever be told.
"I don't think so," he said. "It's like David Crockett at the Alamo. We need heroes." -Philadelphia Daily News (9/16/02)

 
 

 

NORAD's Flight 93 Response Time Missing

 

NORAD'S Response Times, Sept. 11, 2001

***** The FAA and NEADS established a line of open communication discussing AA Flt 77 and UA Flt 93

United Flight 93 – Newark to San Francisco
FAA Notification to NEADS N/A *****
Fighter Scramble: Order (Langley F-16s already airborne for AA Flt 77)  
Fighters Airborne (Langley F-16 CAP remains in place to protect DC)  
Airline Impact Time (Pennsylvania) 1003 (estimated)
Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location approx 11 min/100 miles (from DC F-16 CAP)
 

 

Hero Theory Reported

 

"Questions of U.S. military action have surrounded the crash of a hijacked airliner in rural Pennsylvania. But although the government was authorized to shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash came instead as a result of a passenger uprising.
"We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz said. "And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down, but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had had to." - PBS (9/16/01)

 

 

Passengers Breaching Cockpit Dismissed

 

Investigators: Sept. 11 Hijackers, Not Passengers, Deliberately Crashed Flight 93

"One of the hijackers in the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 ordered the terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the plane into a field in Pennsylvania because of a passenger uprising in the cabin, U.S. investigators now believe.
Thirty-three passengers, seven crew members and the four hijackers died in the horrific, heroic crash.
The new theory, based on the government's analysis of cockpit recordings, discounts the popular perception of insurgent passengers grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls.
The government's findings -- laid out deep within the report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that was sent to Congress last month -- aim to resolve one of the enduring mysteries of the deadliest terror attacks in U.S. history: What happened in the final minutes aboard Flight 93?" - Fox (8/08/03)

 
Relatives Say FBI Report Shouldn’t Change View of Flight 93 Passengers

Relatives of some of those who died on United Airlines Flight 93 during the Sept. 11 attacks say their family members are still heroes, even if an FBI report that claims the terrorist hijackers deliberately crashed the jetliner into a Pennsylvania field before passengers could seize control is true.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has been widely accepted that the passengers on the plane, having learned of the other terror attacks on the World Trade Center that morning, stormed the cockpit of the plane, where hijackers had taken the controls, and in overpowering the terrorists, crashed the airliner themselves into a Pennsylvania field.
However, the analysis of what happened on Flight 93 contained in a report sent to Congress last month tells a slightly different story.
Based on analysis of recordings from the cockpit, investigators concluded that while the passengers managed to get into the cockpit, they never took control of the plane from the hijackers.
Instead, investigators believe that a hijacker in the cockpit ordered Ziad Jarrah, the only one of the terrorists on the plane with a pilot's license, to crash the jetliner.
Hoglan said she does not believe the FBI's analysis of what happened on Flight 93 is accurate. The voice recording of the flight's final minutes tells her there was a passenger struggle before the crash, she said.
"It was the last five to seven minutes of the cockpit voice recording that would convince any rational person that yes, indeed, the passengers did make it into the cockpit," she said. "And yes, indeed, a struggle ensued for the controls."
Jerry and Beatrice Guadagno, whose son Richard died on the flight, find the suggestion that the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane unbelievable.
"It sort of implies the aircraft was deliberately crashed, which makes no sense to me," Jerry Guadagno said. "I have never been told or had any reason to believe that the aircraft wasn't taken over by the passengers and as a result of the conflict, control of the aircraft was lost either by the terrorists, or the passengers. … I am quite surprised and amazed by this new interpretation."
"I doubt that any of our loved ones would have deliberately downed the plane," she said. "What I think happened is that there was a struggle at the controls and because the plane was flying so low, and so fast, any little tweak on the controls could put it into the ground and that is indeed what happened." -ABC (8/08/03)

 

"Passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers but never actually made it into the cockpit, the Sept. 11 commission concluded.
The assertion, included in the panel's dramatic summary of the harrowing flight, contradicts the firmly held belief by some victims' families that passengers breached the cockpit and fought with hijackers inside during their final moments.
Relying on the cockpit recorder and flight data, the commission said terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah violently rocked the jet's wings and told another hijacker to block the door. With the sounds of fighting outside the cockpit, Jarrah asked, "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?"
Another hijacker, who wasn't identified, replied, "No, not yet. When they all come, we finish it off."
Jarrah then began pitching the nose of the plane up and down to throw passengers off balance.
Seconds later, a passenger who wasn't identified yelled, "In the cockpit! If we don't, we die!" And 16 seconds afterward, another passenger yelled, "Roll it!" Investigators previously have said they believe passengers tried to use a food cart to break the cockpit door.
Jarrah said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!", and he asked his fellow hijacker, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?"
The other hijacker answered, "Yes, put it in, and pull it down."
Roughly 90 seconds later, the jet rolled onto its back and crashed into a Pennsylvania field at more than 580 mph, killing everyone aboard.
The commission concluded that the hijackers remained at the controls of the plane, "but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them."
The Associated Press reported last year that the government's theory about Flight 93 described by FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional investigators in closed testimony also concluded that passengers grappled with terrorists but never actually got into the cockpit." -ABC (07/22/04)

 

Witnesses

 
Saw a second plane in the vicinity:
 
Jim Brandt - Somerset County resident Jim Brandt said that he saw another plane in the area. He said it stayed there for one or two minutes before leaving. -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)
Dale Browning - "It's the damndest darn thing," said Dale Browning, a farmer.
"Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it is." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)
Rick Chaney - Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings. -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)
Susan Custer - said she saw a small white jet streaking overhead. -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)
Dennis Decker - "As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast," Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out." Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings. -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)
Robin Doppstadt - was working inside her family food-and-supply store when she heard the crash. When she went outside, she said, she saw a small white jet that looked like it was making a single circle over the crash site.
"Then it climbed very quickly and took off. "
-The Bergen Record (9/14/01)
Susan Mcelwain, 51 - who lives two miles from the site, knows what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.
"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real fast, but hardly made any sound.
"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialed 911 and told them what happened.
"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93.
I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the very moment it came down.
"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look.
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around.
"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.
"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."
Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it down.
"If they shot it down, or something else happened, everyone, especially the victims' families, have a right to know." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

More - Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge.
It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I could think of was how close I came to dying. "
-The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Lee Purbaugh, 32 - was the only person to see the last seconds of Flight 93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely 10.06am - and he also saw the white jet.
He was working at the Rollock Inc. scrap yard on a ridge overlooking the point of impact, less than half a mile away. "I heard this real loud noise coming over my head," he told the Daily Mirror. "I looked up and it was Flight 93, barely 50ft above me. It was coming down in a 45 degree and rocking from side to side. Then the nose suddenly dipped and it just crashed into the ground. There was this big fireball and then a huge cloud of smoke."
But did he see another plane? "Yes, there was another plane," Lee said. "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)
Tom Spinelli, 28 - was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and a half away. "I saw the white plane," he said.
"It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for something. I saw it before and after the crash."
India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.
"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind." But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away? Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what they reckon." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

More - Another Somerset County resident, Tom Spinello, said that he saw the plane. He said that it had high back wings. -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

 
 

Alleged Hijackers

 

1) Saeed Alghamdi
-Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida

Reported alive - "Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.  He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.
FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt." -BBC (9/23/01)

"FBI Chief Raises New Doubts Over Hijackers' Identities
* Saeed Alghamdi, a name used by one of the alleged hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
A Saudi Arabian pilot, currently on a mission to Tunisia, has the same name." -LA Times (9/21/01)

"It's impossible for us to believe [the United States] anymore," said Taha Alghamdi, a salesman in Jeddah whose brother Saeed was mistakenly confused with another man by the same name who hijacked United Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
"What sort of intelligence agency doesn't know that there are thousands of Saeed Alghamdis in Saudi Arabia?" Alghamdi said. "It is like accusing Tom from New York."
Like others, Alghamdi said his family would be pursuing legal action against the U.S. government for defamation." -Chicago Tribune (10/04/01)

 
2) Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi - Possible Saudi national
-Date of birth used: October 11, 1980
-Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida
 
3) Ahmed Alnami
-Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida

Reported alive - "FBI Chief Raises New Doubts Over Hijackers' Identities
* Ahmed Alnami, a name used by another suspected hijacker on Flight 93.
A 33-year-old Saudi Arabian pilot with the same name is alive in Riyadh." -LA Times (9/21/01)

 
4) Ziad Samir Jarrah
-Believed to be a pilot

More about Jarrah:  The Two Ziad Jarrahs by Paul Thompson

 

 

- Photos source:  FBI (9/27/01)

Jarrah stopped by CIA in January 2001 in United Arab Emirates, stopped by Maryland police Sept. 9th for speeding, and a fragment of his passport was supposedly found at Shanksville crash site!

"One of the September 11 hijackers was stopped and questioned in the United Arab Emirates in January 2001 at the request of the CIA, nearly nine months before the attacks, sources in the government of the UAE, and other Middle Eastern and European sources told CNN.
The CIA suspected Ziad Jarrah had been in Afghanistan and wanted him questioned because of "his suspected involvement in terrorist activities," UAE sources said.
The FBI believes Jarrah, a Lebanese national, was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania shortly after 10 a.m. on September 11. U.S. officials believe the plane's target was the White House.
A CIA spokesman vigorously denied that the CIA knew anything about Jarrah before September 11 or had anything do with his questioning in Dubai.
U.S. and UAE officials say Jarrah was stopped at the airport in Dubai on January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified UAE officials that he would be arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe. UAE sources say the CIA wanted to know where he had been in Afghanistan and how long he had been there.
Told of the CIA's denial, UAE government officials repeated to CNN that Jarrah was questioned at the request of the United States. Senior UAE sources said they had no reason to question him for their own purposes because he was in transit.
Jarrah was questioned after he had already spent six months in the United States learning to fly. He had a valid U.S. multiple-entry visa in his passport, a fragment of which was found at the Flight 93 crash site. Investigators have confirmed that Jarrah had spent at least three weeks in January 2001 at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
He was released because U.S. officials were satisfied, according to sources. The CIA spokesman repeated the agency's denial that there was any such contact.
After his release, Jarrah boarded a KLM flight in the early hours of January 31 and flew to Europe. Between then and September, Jarrah traveled to the United States, Lebanon and Germany before returning to the United States. There is no sign that he ever again drew the interest of any intelligence agency.
On September 9, two days before the hijackings, a Maryland state trooper cited Jarrah for speeding on Interstate 95 in Cecil County, near the Delaware state line. Registration showed that the red 2001 Mitsubishi Galant that Jarrah drove that night was owned by Garden State Car Rental at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. After the September 11 hijackings, the car was found at the airport with the speeding citation was still in the glove box.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has said local law enforcement officials should have been told by the FBI that Jarrah was on a CIA watch list. The FBI disputes his criticism, which came during O'Malley's testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last fall.
A month after the hijackings, U.S. authorities also discovered a letter written by Jarrah to his girlfriend in Germany and postmarked September 10. In the letter -- which was mistakenly addressed and returned to the United States, where authorities found it -- Jarrah told his girlfriend he had done his duty.
"I have done what I had to do," he wrote. "You should be very proud. It is an honor, and you will see the result, and everyone will be happy." -CNN (08/01/02)

 

"Mr Glick is said to have explained to his wife that the plane had been taken over by three men of Middle Eastern appearance wearing red headbands."
The microphone went off again, then on, and a voice in broken English - an Arabic accent, according to a source who heard the tape - said: "There is a bomb on board. This is the captain speaking. Remain in your seat. There is a bomb on board. Stay quiet. We are meeting with their demands. We are returning to the airport."
The hijacked United Airlines flight was the only plane to crash without causing damage to structures on the ground." -BBC (9/13/01)

 

"While visiting the crash site Thursday, FBI Director Robert Mueller said translators were helping to work on a transcript of the tape -- confirming that more than one language is heard on the tape. Officials say there are shouts heard in Arabic and English." -CNN (9/22/01)

 

Passengers

 
Name Age Home Job Employer
Crew
Lorraine G. Bay 58 East Windsor, N.J. flight attendant United Airlines
Sandra W. Bradshaw 38 Greensboro, N.C. flight attendant United Airlines
Jason Dahl 43 Denver, Colo. captain United Airlines
Wanda Anita Green 49 Linden, N.J. flight attendant United Airlines
LeRoy Wilton Homer Jr. 36 Marlton, N.J. first officer United Airlines
CeeCee Lyles 33 Fort Myers, Fla. flight attendant United Airlines
Deborah Welsh 49 New York, N.Y. flight attendant United Airlines
Passengers
Christian Adams 37 Biebelsheim, Germany foreign sales manager German Wine Fund
Todd Beamer 32 Cranbury, N.J. account manager Oracle Corp.
Alan Beaven 48 Hurleyville, N.Y. environmental lawyer  
Mark K. Bingham 31 San Francisco, Calif. owner The Bingham Group
Deora Frances Bodley 20 San Diego, Calif. university student Santa Clara (Calif.) University
Marion Britton 53 New York, N.Y. assistant regional director U.S. Census Bureau
Thomas E. Burnett Jr. 38 San Ramon, Calif. senior vice president and chief operating officer Thoratec Corp.
William Joseph Cashman 60 West New York, N.J. construction worker  
Georgine Rose Corrigan 56 Honolulu, Hawaii antiques and collectibles dealer  
Patricia Cushing 69 Bayonne, N.J. retiree  
Joseph Deluca 52 Ledgewood, N.J. systems business consultant Pfizer Inc.
Patrick Joseph Driscoll 70 Pt Pleasant Beach, N.J. retired research director Bell Communications
Edward P. Felt 41 Matawan, N.J. technology director BEA Systems
Jane C. Folger 73 Bayonne, N.J. retiree  
Colleen Laura Fraser 51 Elizabeth, N.J. chairwoman New Jersey Developmental Disabilities Council
Andrew Garcia 62 Portola Valley, Calif. salesman  
Jeremy Glick 31 Hewlett, N.J. managing director Credit Suisse Boston
Lauren Grandcolas 38 San Rafael, Calif. sales worker Good Housekeeping magazine
Donald F. Greene 47 Greenwich, Conn. executive vice president Safe Flight Instrument Corp.
Linda Gronlund 46 Greenwood Lake, N.Y. environmental compliance BMW
Richard Jerry Guadagno 39 Eureka, Calif. manager Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Toshiya Kuge 20 Nishimidoriguoska, Japan student, Japanese  
Hilda Marcin 79 Budd Lake, N.J. retired teacher's aide  
Waleska Martinez Rivera 37 Jersey City, N.J. automation specialist U.S. Census Bureau
Nicole Miller 21 San Jose, Calif. student West Valley College
Louis J. Nacke 42 New Hope, Pa. distribution center director Kay-Bee Toys
Donald Arthur Peterson 66 Spring Lake, N.J. retired president Continental Electric Co.
Jean Hoadley Peterson 55 Spring Lake, N.J. retired nurse  
Mark Rothenberg 52 Scotch Plains, N.J. owner MDR Global Resources
Christine Anne Snyder 32 Kailua, Hawaii arborist Outdoor Circle
John Talignani 74 New York, N.Y. retired restaurant worker  
Honor Elizabeth Wainio 27 Baltimore, Md. district manager Discovery Channel stores
Olga Kristin Gould White 65 New York, N.Y. freelance medical journalist  
-Source: Boston Globe
 

 

LINKS:

Timeline: United Airlines Flight 93 - Center for Cooperative Research

The Cleveland Airport Mystery, by Woody Box - INN World Report

The Two Ziad Jarrahs - Paul Thompson

Flight 93 and the A-10 - Mark O'Loughlin

Timelines and maps for 9/11/2001 - Irving Shapiro

How Did United Flight 93 Crash? - flight93crash.com

Seismic Event: The Final Moments of Flight 93 - Robb Magley

In the Infamous 9-11 Fundraising Photo, Did Bush Order the Shoot Down of the Flight 93 Heroes? - Democrats.com

"Let's Roll!" On United Flight 93, The Saddest Lie Of All - Vialls Investigations

Cleveland Smoking Gun Proves “Arab Hijacker” Calls
From United Airlines Flight 93 Were Faked
- Vialls Investigations

Was United Airlines Flight 93 Shot Down by U.S. Fighter? - The Konformist

United Airlines Flight 93 Shot Down by USAF - Pirate News

Was Flight 93 Shot Down? - Freedom Files

Was Flight 93 Shot Down Over Pennsylvania? - BuzzFlash

Flight 93: The Improbable Truth - Seismic Event

Flight 93 - analysis - was it shot down? - Natural Law Party Wessex

Was UAL Flight 93 Shot Down By US Fighter? - Ian Goddard/Rense.com

Flight United Airlines 93 - Stony Creek Township, PA - Utopia X

Evidence indicates Flight 93 shot down by U.S. fighter - Idaho Observer

What Really Happened to Flight 93? - David McGowan

News Articles:

The downing of United Airlines Flight 93 - WorldNetDaily (04/26/04)

Was United Flight 93 shot down on Sept. 11? - WorldNetDaily (01/25/03)

Did U.S. jet shoot down Flight 93? - Athens Banner-Herald (01/25/03)

Three-minute discrepancy in tape - Flight 93's official time of impact - Philadelphia Daily News (09/16/02)

WHAT DID HAPPEN TO FLIGHT 93? - Daily Mirror UK (09/12/02)

True or false? Did a US missile shoot down flight 93 - The Age (09/09/02)

Unanswered Questions: The Mystery of Flight 93 - The Independent UK (08/13/02) [Reprint at:  100777.com]

What Are They Hiding About Flight 93? by Reed Irvine - Accuracy In Media (12/28/01)

Unanswered Questions About Flight 93 - SFGate (10/22/01)

We know it crashed, but not why by William Bunch - AR Online/Philadelphia Daily News (10/15/01)

The Story of Flight 93 - September11News.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo sites:

Pittsburgh Live

Florida Today

Flight 93 Crash Site Photo Essay

 

Memorial sites:

Shanksville Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial

Tribute to Flight 93

Flight 93 Memorial Chapel

 

 


 

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