Posted on 06/05/2006 8:40:19 AM PDT by april15Bendovr
This is the response from a retired Delta pilot in response to questions about whether he was going to see UAL 93.
I haven't seen the movie, yet, but I intend to when I get the chance. Retirement has made me busier than ever, and I haven't had the chance to see many movies lately.
As a Delta B-767 captain myself at the time of the attacks on 9/11 I was in crew rest in Orlando that morning. I had just turned on the TV in my hotel room only to see the WTC tower on fire, then saw the second airplane hit the other tower. My immediate reaction was "Terrorists...we're at war", followed by the realization that we airline crewmembers had all dodged a bullet; it could have been any one of us flying those planes. As soon as the news stations flashed the first pictures of the terrorists I knew just how close and personal the bullet I dodged was. There, on the screen for all to see, was a man who had sat in my jumpseat the previous July.
His name was Mohammad Atta, the leader of the terrorist hijackers. Atta had boarded my flight from Baltimore to Atlanta on July 26, 2001 wearing an American Airlines first officer uniform. He had the corresponding AA company ID identifying him as a pilot, not to mention the required FAA pilot license and medical certificate that he was required to show me as proof of his aircrew status for access to my jumpseat. An airline pilot riding a cockpit jumpseat is a long established protocol among the airlines of the world, a courtesy extended by the management and captains of one airline to pilots and flight attendants of other airlines in recognition of their aircrew status. My admission of Mohammad Atta to my cockpit jumpseat that day was merely a rout ine exercise of this protocol.
Something seemed a bit different about this jumpseat rider, though, because in my usual course of conversation with him as we reached cruise altitude he avoided all my questions about his personal life and focused very intently upon the cockpit instruments and our operation of the aircraft. I asked him what he flew at American and he said, "These", but he asked incessant questions about how we did this or why we did that. I said, "This is a 767. They all operate the same way." But he said, "No, we operate them differently at American." That seemed very strange, because I knew better. I asked him about his background, and he admitted he was from Saudi Arabia. I asked him when he came over to this country and he said "A couple of years ago.", to which I asked, "Are you a US citizen?" He said no. I also found that very strange because I know that in order to have an Airline Transport Pilot rating, the rating required to be an airline captain, one has to be a US citizen, and knowing the US airlines and their hiring processes as I do, I found it hard to believe that American Airliens would hire a non-US citizen who couldn't upgrade to captain when the time came. He said, "The rules have changed.", which I also knew to be untrue. Besides, he was just, shall I say, "Creepy"? My copilot and I were both glad to get rid of this guy when we got to Atlanta.
There was nothing to indicate, though, that he was anything other than who or what he said he was, because he had the documentation to prove who he was. In retrospect, we now know his uniform was stolen and his documents were forged. Information later came to light as to how this was done.
It seems that Mohammad Atta and his cronies had possibly stolen pilot uniforms and credentials from hotel rooms during the previous year. We had many security alerts at the airline to watch out for our personal items in hotel rooms becuase these were mysteriously disappearing, but nobody knew why. Atta and his men used these to make dry runs prior to their actual hijackings on 9/11. How do I know? I called the FBI as soon as I saw his face on the TV that day, and the agent on the other end of the line took my information and told me I'd hear back from them when all the dust settled. A few weeks later I got a letter from the Bureau saying that my call was one of at least half a dozen calls that day from other pilots who had had the same experience. Flights were being selected at random to make test runs for accessing the cockpit.& nbsp; It seems we had all dodged bullets.
Over the years my attitude towards the War Against Terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been known to be on the red neck, warmongering, rah-rah-shoot-em-up side of things. I've been known to lose my patience with those who say the war in Iraq or anywhere else in the Muslim world is wrong, or who say we shouldn't become involved in that area of the world for political correctness reasons. Maybe it's because I dodged the bullet so closely back in 2001 that I feel this way. I have very little patience for political rhetoric or debate against this war because for a couple of hours back in July 2001, when I was engaged in conversation with a major perpetrator in this war, I came so close to being one of i ts victims that I can think in no other terms.
I don't mind admitting that one of the reasons I retired early from Delta last May, other than to protect my disappearing company retirement, was because it became harder and harder for me to go to work every day knowing that the war wasn't being taken seriously by the general public. The worst offenders were the Liberal detractors to the present administration, and right or wrong, this administration is at least taking the bull by the horns and fighting our enemies, which is something concrete that I can appreciate. Nobody was taking this war seriously, and it seems everyone found fault with the US government rather than with those who attacked us. I found that incomprehensible.
I also found myself being scrutinized by TSA screeners more and more every day when I went to work, and suffered the humiliating indignity of being identified about half the time for body searches in front of the general flying public who looked at the entire process as being ludicrous. "They don't even trust their own pilots!" accompanied by an unbelieving snicker was the usual response. Here I was, a retired USAF officer who had been entrusted to fly nuclear weapons around the world, who had been granted a Top Secret clearance and had been on missions over the course of 21 years in the military that I still can't can't talk about without fear of prosecution by the DoD, who was being scanned by a flunkie TSA screener looking for any sign of a pen knife or nail file on my person.
It wasn't until six months after my retirement when my wife and I flew to Key West, FL last November that I was finally able to rid myself of the visage of Mohammad Atta sitting behind me on my jumpseat, watching my every action in the cockpit and willing to slit my throat at the slightest provocation. I missed being a headline by a mere 47 days, and could very well have been among the aircrew casualties on 9/11 had one of my flights on my monthly schedule been a transcontinental flight from Boston or New York to the west coast on the 11th of September. Very few people know that, while only four airliners crashed that day, four more were targeted, and two of them were Delta flights. The only reason these four weren't involved is because they either had minor maintenance problems which delayed them at the gate or they were scheduled to depart after the FAA decided to ground all flights. Theirs are the pilots and flight attendants who REALLY dodged the bullet that day, and my faith in a higher power is restored as a result.
I will see United 93 when I get the chance, and I will probably enjoy the movie for its realness and historical significance, but forgive me if I do not embrace the Muslim world for the rest of my life. The Islamic world is no friend of the West, and although we may be able to get along with their governments in the future, the stated goal of Islam is world conquest through Jihad and it is the extremist Jihadists, backed and funded by "friendly" Moslem governments, whom we have to fear the most. We must have a presence in the Middle East, and we must have friends in the Middle East, even if we have to fight wars to get them. Only someone who has dodged a bullet can fully appreciate that fact.
Best to all, Pat Gilmore
Ok, I checked this out via various searches.
Sites and blogs faithfully quote "the letter," but
no original source urls.
It may be one of those email hoaxes.
Yep. I have zero tolerance for internet hoaxes.
On 9/11/01 he was known to be carrying a Saudi passport. On 7/26/01 when the purported incident in the "email" is said to have taken place, there is no way of knowing what he was carrying. As noted in another post, there is no record of Atta taking the trip this "Delta pilot" claims he took.
In particular, there is no record of Atta having taken the flight discussed in this purported email (funny, BTW, how this email is all over the internet). Atta left Madrid on July 19 and was in Flordia at the beginning of August looking into the possibility of buying a crop duster.
I don't have any tolerance for them either.
Just curious...are you an airline pilot, or do you work in the Airline or regulatory industry?
No to all three parts of your question.
Not sure why you linked Laurie since I completely believe Atta was in Prague and likely picked up the anthrax used around 911 there.
Nor have I ever doubted a close relation between Al Queda and Iraq.
I was just saying that the claims to the contrary have been Treason Media based because of leaks from the CIA. Almost all official pronouncement from the Administration have been "we cannot prove" a meeting or a link not statements that there are none.
No it has not. It has REAFFIRMED it everytime the lying traitors in the CIA feeds stuff to the Treason Media.
Debunked? Disbelief is not debunking, nor is it disproving.
Wolfstar,
Do you think that because someone left Spain on July 19th, that there is no way they could take part in a flight on July 26th as the retired pilot stated? Especially with the fairly nebulous data point of..."August" as the next data point, with the next validated data point as August 6th?
Why do you think there would be an official documentation under the name of Mohammed Atta of the flight on July 26th that he supposedly took in the jumpseat? If the uniforms were purportedly stolen, then documentation at some level would probably have to be forged or stolen.
This should be a fairly easy hoax to disprove on the basis of facts.
Again:
1.) Is the person who wrote this a real person who is what he says he is?
2.) Does he stand by his story?
3.) Is there documentation for the jumpseat flight in question on file with the Airline (a flight manifest) that lists an additional crew/passenger, however it is done in the industry?
4.) Is that person on the documentation a real person who took a jumpseat flight, and can he/she verify that was done on that date.
Without question 1 and 2 positively confirmed, there is no sense in looking at it further.
If the retired pilot is who he says he is, and stands by his story, The next two questions might be asked.
If asked, the Airline may or may not confirm the information about the purported jumpseat crewmember. There is probably ongoing litigation, and if their procedures were so lax that someone in a stolen uniform with forged papers could get on a flight in an informal manner, they are probably not going to admit to that without a formal legal process.
Again, we KNOW that once upon a time, getting on an aircraft with a stolen/purchased flight uniform and nearly no documentation WAS indeed possible. Granted,that was back in the late sixties, early seventies, but it WAS done by at least one talented person.
The first comment has nothing to do with the latter.
It is entirely plausible Atta had false credientials anyway. And what happens AFTER 911 has little to do with what happened BEFORE as well.
Why would you believe that all of Atta's flights were known? Or that he would have used fraudulent credentials in his own name?
In order to show this a "con" you will have to do better than quote the 911 Commission Report which concluded that Atta could not have been in Prague because someone used his CELL PHONE in the US during the period in question.
Now if you can show that there was NO PILOT of this name who ever flew that route then you're in business.
There was evidence of explosive residues left even after being submerged in salt water for weeks. There is more evidence of a missile than there is of a fuel tank explosion (which would have been sparked by fuel pump wires which are OUTSIDE the fuel tank.)
Not debunked, thoroughly or otherwise. Posters criticize it. No evidence adduced one way or another.
You folks and the others who want to believe this "email" are perfectly free to do so. If any of you want to nail down proof either of its veracity or its falsehood, you're perfectly free to do that also.
You want evidence? Do the research.
I am entirely agnostic on this email and the episode in question. I am simply stating that the link you provided on snopes does not, as you claimed, "debunk" the story.
AND, this means that there are still terrorist out there that were scheduled on those flights that day that did not fly. Are they awaiting another chance or has their plans changed? Are we still waiting ... ?
What is this guy's problem?
It is like talking to a brick wall. A waste of electrons. He apparently cannot differentiate "believe" from "examine". Because we don't just take his word for it and reject it out of hand (and we don't know him from a hole in the wall, he is somehow offended by it) we believe it?
You run into all types here.
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