New Flight 911 Audio

Schnitt Show ^ | 27 Jan 04 | 9/11 Commission

[I got the rope]

New 9/11 audio is being released today played at the 9/11 Commission hearing. Flight attendant Betty Ong calling the American Airlines reservation desk regarding the hijackers taking over American Airlines Flight 11 Boeing 767, before it struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

[anymouse]

Just in time to contrast with the Rat candidates rants about President Bush's handling of the Iraq war and the economy.

Hearing this chilling message is a reminder of why the War on Terror cannot be left to the Left.

[I got the rope]

Nice job.

[rwfromkansas]

bump

[NonValueAdded]

Easy, FM. Later in the call it was explained that Betty contacted the reservations center. -- <assumption> maybe she had speed dial set up on her phone to check in for assignments, etc.</assumption> -- I doubt a reservations call center whould set up for emergency call dispatching (esp. pre-9/11) and even if they had a way, it probably hadn't been used in years.

Next, I think the seat number question was due to thinking she was a passenger and it must be SOP to try and tie the name to a manifest. Betty's saying "I'm #3 on the flight" might not have significance to the worker in the department handling the call.

In the very short timespan of the conversations they determined the flight was hijacked, ATC was notified, radio contact attempted, and realization that the transponder was turned off. It was a little rough but other then the emergency ops guy, I'm not sure how many of the participants had proper training and the day-to-day experience that let's you stay cool when "OMG, someone on the flight is telling me it's been hijacked" is running inside your mind.

[Fledermaus]

I'll take your points as to the first part of the call. But once she clearly stated who she was, what flight it was, etc., they continued with the stupid questions like they were looking around for the proper forms to fill out.

As we know from that day, regular passengers got through to their spouses or relatives that made 911 calls and got more information out than these two calls did.

I'm sticking with my attitude that these bureaucracies are horribly ran by bloated employees with no brains. Come on, you've flown I'm sure and had contact with brainless airline employees.

As for the "Easy, FM", I'll take that as an abbreviation of my nickname and not you calling me a Kerry-Moron! lol

[Indie]

Does anyone out there hate those islamist barbarians as I do?

Yes and the entire Islamic world deserves to be incinerated and turned into a new great ocean.

[rwfromkansas]

I do not normally get worked up.....but that gave me chills. My goodness.

[NonValueAdded]

Just appreviating your screen name, Fledermaus. Sorry. I save the epithet "Kerry-Moron" for the hijackers and OBL. :)

I listened again and still can't reach your same conclusion. The emergency ops guy on the second sound file took a little time to get Ms. Gonzales' name down but we don't have the video to see if he was waving over a supervisor, bringing up an employee roster, etc. Validating the identify must be SOP and he only spent 20 seconds doing it. Within 90 second he had the contacts to the plane and ATC dispatched out. It could have been better but not by much.

[Fledermaus]

Alright...I can see it that way.

But, as you can tell, I'm not a fan of bureaucracy and I heard a lot of it in those calls.

[My Dog Likes Me]

This was the FIRST story on ABC news with Peter Jennings.
Then he discussed the primary.

CBS buried it in the middle of their program.

MSNBC followed the story all day long.

[Yaelle]

In a weird confluence of events, on the night of 9/10/01, one of my best friends from college and her then-fiance nearly had a car crash (in the parking lot of a convenience store in Maine) with 2 of the hijackers who nearly killed me the next morning.

Wow... I'd like to hear more about that. How did they know it was the same guys?

[My Dog Likes Me]

Yes, there was a mention in the paper at the time that something may have been sprayed to keep the passengers at bay.

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

Please send this to Chealsea Clinton, forever!

[My Dog Likes Me]

I didn't think "snow" when I first glimpsed your photos on my computer.

[bootless]

A touching side note - I just watched part 2 of a Frasier episode, where Frasier was dithering between his two girlfriends (Claire and Lana).

At the end, Martin and Niles leave the apartment to go to a movie. Martin (Frasier's father) said bye to Frasier, and then "Let's roll."

Fade to black and the words: "In loving memory of David and Lynn Angell" - their executive producers who were killed on 9-11 - on AA Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower.

It gave me shivers. And what a touching moment, for them to honor them with "Let's roll".

[Indie]

Come on, you've flown I'm sure and had contact with brainless airline employees.

I have been a Flight Attendant, a Dallas police officer for 8 years, have a degree from SMU, have a Commercial pilot license/Instrument Rating, and currently work for a major airline....in RES. Insulting all airline employees because their management "freezes" when the res agent gets a call like this, and the res agent acts like a res agent and not a trained police officer or flight crew member, is expected.

I will say corporations do not place enough worth on the diversified work experience, cross-training, other "seemingly unrelated" training, or education of their employees, nor are they empowered accordingly. Our PC society no longer places value on general knowledge and experience and neither do employers [G Gordon Liddy would agree]. In this I agree with you if I have, perhaps, clarified your point.

I would have handled this call differently (I'd have recognized the F/A nomenclature immediately, and COMMANDED the agent next to me to disconnect their call, call information, get ARTCC (and the right one!) and the FBI on another line within the 4 minute duration of this tape and not waited for a "supervisor" to come by and stand there) but what the hell do you expect?? My background is slightly unique, to say the least.

In the end, ATC had the info in time to scramble fighters but the government held off a few minutes too long, because after all, it can't happen to us.

Your personal attack on "airline employees" in general is what is FUBAR.

If I misunderstood your post...apologies.

NEVER FORGET who did this to us, nor how our INS dollars assisted all of them!!

And by my tagline, I'm not PC like my employer either.

[BykrBayb]

The thing that woke me out of a sound sleep for more than a year afterward was hearing (in my nightmares) the sound of the first plane hitting the north tower.

Do you remember the documentary about one of the fire houses, that was being filmed when we were attacked? They completed the documentary, and aired it on tv later, careful to leave out any and all graphic images. As I was watching the firemen milling about the lobby of one of the twin towers, I kept hearing a strange noise in the background. Thud. Thud. Thud. I've never confirmed it, and I could be wrong, but I came to the conclusion that it was the sound of bodies hitting the ground. That's the sound that wakes me up at night, still to this day.

[Fledermaus]

Well, I didn't insult ALL airline employees, just the brainless bureaucratic ones.

And I never can remember all of what FUBAR is...I know the F and the U and the B...the rest I don't remember!

The rest of your comments I agree with. Actually, I normally have nothing but good experiences when flying and the only crap usually results in ridiculous FAA rules and not the airline.

But I won't fly American any longer and my last three flights have been with Southwest. But I don't fly enough to make a judgment. Southwest is cheaper and more flexible and I don't care to eat on the plane...I take flights to get somewhere and not have a gourmet meal and thus do not understand those that complain.

But I've had a couple of employees that I could swear had lobotomies...walking zombies they were so stupid. You have to wonder how they keep their jobs if it wasn't for unions.

No apologies required. Thanks for the reply.

[My Dog Likes Me]

I think FMaus has a point here.
She was on the phone with these AA employees for around 20 minutes, but only four minutes or so of the conversation was taped (so they say). Those four minutes were played on MSNBC and they are obviously from the beginning moments of the hijacking. The line from the dispatcher "I think we've lost her.." is taken out of context, I think, on this thread and in our national media today.

I hope the committee interviews the AA dispatchers tomorrow for the complete story of Betty Ong's final, brave report.
As I recall from in depth press reports at the time, the flight attendant said "I don't think (the captain) is flying the plane." The dispatcher asked her what she saw outside of the airplane. She responded, and I paraphrase here, "I see buildings, I think New York. Oh My God! Oh My God!" Then the transmissions ended. (This is taken from either the Times, the Post, or the Globe. I was reading everything at the time and got mixed up.)

I have an unhealthy obsession with these details, so please accept my apologies if I've offended you with this unsanitized version of events.

I have noticed that details like this were in the printed media for two or three weeks after the attacks, and then it seems that the sources dried up.

[Indie]

I had a feeling we really were on the same wavelength. I get the "lobotomotrons" all the time it seems and not just with airlines, and I do, like you, blame the corporate philosophy of "We as a corporation get what we pay for and we don't care!!"

Gourmet meals....?? BWA HAH HAHAHA!! Believe me, your comments on the specific carriers are appreciated.

(right on the union thing too) A union member could get "busted" for drugs and have their job survive. A non-union res agent could get walked out for looking at someone the wrong way, i.e. expendable. We all know how tough it is to bust our rears all day trying to do a good job when some fellow employees don't and our company doesn't appreciate us except as a warm body.
I will indeed be looking at them in my rear-view mirror quite soon, however, thanks to another career avenue but that's irrelevant here:)

~Cheers!!

NEVER FORGET!!