Posted on 06/05/2006 8:40:19 AM PDT by april15Bendovr
Oh Good grief
a fact that, for some odd reason, got deep-sixed quickly in the media including pilots reports of how these jump-seat 'guests' scurried off as soon as the shut down was announced...
I believe 93 was headed for the Capitol - of the ones that didn't make it off the ground = one for the WH, others for non-government targets -
You'd win that bet
That seemed very strange...
I also found that very strange...
I found it hard to believe...
...which I also knew to be untrue.
What bothers me the most about this story is that all the warning signs were there, but the author waited until after 9/11 to report them. And apparently, at least six other pilots had similar experiences that day and didn't report them either. A simple phone call reporting this suspicious activity might have allowed 3000 people to dodge a bullet on September 11.
side bar to this issue of the evil-doers doing some dry runs for 9-11...
looks like Snopes has their take on actor James Woods' story:
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/woods.htm
It is on the message board, but not physically integrated into their website as an actual hoax. If you search on their website search, there are several official Snopes Mohammed Atta references which pass judgement on various other aspects, but nothing about this subject.
This is the same link I posted earlier, saying there is discussion, but it has not advanced beyond the message boards, which is no different than us discussing here on Free Republic, as far as I know.
The key to knowing if this is true or not is to find out if the person who wrote it is a real person and stands behind his story. If that is the case, anyone can say it is impossible, but hey, if this guy says it happened, we can only call him misinformed or a liar, depending on his presentation.
Good God. Listen to us. Next they will be getting phone calls sayin "Hi, this is such and such from Free Republic, and we are doing some investigation..."
Well, heck. We gotta be better at it than the NYT, right?
Atta was in Brunswick, Maine - he and his buddy - the night before they boarded the plane at Portland Air on 9-11.
They had dinner and drinks - booze - and used a credit card.
I suspicion they were there casing the Brunswick Navel Air Station. (Base security after 9-ll was ramped up big time, as at others)
So, I have NEVER seen this 'visit' in the papers or on "Larry King." Does that mean it didn't happen?
Was there ever any confirmation that the guy in the jumpseat was Atta, or does this guy just think it was Atta? Oh Good grief
So some guy you don’t know posts an unsourced email he got from somebody you don’t know, who tells the rather unlikely story that he flew Mohammed Atta around the country in the cockpit of his commercial airliner, while Atta sported an American Airlines pilot’s uniform and quizzed him about how the plane works. And he didn’t even think to report the fact that he had a foreigner in a pilot’s uniform who didn’t know how to fly a plane in his cockpit to anybody.
And you give me an “Oh Good Grief” for wanting a little more information. You're just going to buy all that at face value, based on the sincerity of the author, I guess.
Now I know why the Nigerian scammers just keep fishing.
Why don't you take a hike over to one of the immigration threads - they dominate about 97% of the threads
I understand that there were reports right after 9-11 of about 200 airport, airline, and airport contract employees that disappeared right after 9-11. Does anyone know anything about that?
I remember hearing about it - and their targets - but the lamestream media seems to have relegated it to the dust bins...
It's too bad he didn't mention his suspicions to someone who could have checked it out with American Air lines. They could have put the word out to be aware of suspicious folks posing as flight officers. He put too much stock in the documentation and didn't listen to his 'gut'. But, hindsight is always 20/20.
the remaining hijackers may be waiting for the proper time to exercise their chosen "duty" S/off
No. The story is bull. Let me deconstruct it for you:
First, the "email" has the "retired Delta pilot" saying the following:
I asked him about his background, and he admitted he was from Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Atta was Egyptian.
Second, according to the "retired Delta pilot" Atta exhibited several suspicious behaviors:
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 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.
Besides, he was just, shall I say, "Creepy"?
So a supposed professional airline pilot old enough to retire -- meaning highly experienced -- is confronted with a "creepy" man in his cockpit claiming to be a fellow airline pilot. But "creepy": (1) doesn't appear to know what type of aircraft he's flying in, (2) asks a lot of questions about the plane's operation, and (3) claims that the 767 is operated differently at American Airlines from the way it is operated at Delta.
Any one of those three things would tip a REAL pilot off to the fact that the guy in the jump seat is lying. All three together would have raised big red flags. But what does the "retired Delta pilot" Nothing.
By the way, this claim is preposterous: "He avoided all my questions about his personal life."
Yeah -- all questions, that is, except a couple that serve to enhance the drama of this phony story. "Creepy" supposedly did answer personal questions about his country of origin and U.S. citizenship. The answers, of course, were also "very strange" to "retired Delta pilot," who goes on to explain the reasons why.
So, to sum up, "retired Delta pilot" is confonted with a "creepy" guy who doesn't know about the aircraft or its operation, and who lies about his credentials, but the Delta guy does nothing. Nada. Zip. Squat. Puhleeeese.
The only thing more pathetic than yarns like this is that it demonstrates once again how easily people are manipulated and conned.
Thanks!I am spreading these Far Und Wide(all my email address book)!!
The person who is floating this hoax obviously knows that most of the hijackers were Saudi, so he (or she) assumes Atta was Saudi.
The rest of the story is equally preposterous.
bull crap
"there are those who would find fault with the morning red - if they ever got up early enough"{ Throeau
He's either a phoney or a knucklehead. Or both.
and so, of course, Atta would have been truthful about where he was from - but this pilot is lying, I tell ya, LYING
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