[Map Kernow]

It's not just sloppiness at our airports. It's a matter of actual terrorist infiltration, IMHO.

[Mark17]

It's not just sloppiness at our airports. It's a matter of actual terrorist infiltration, IMHO.

A lot of people seem to think they may have been able to get in around security. Sounds logical.

[classygreeneyedblonde]

I would like to know how they got passed airport security with guns or knives in all these different airports

[holyscroller]

Step One: Get rid of all foreign security personnel at Airports, and all foreigner employees who have access to the planes or runways. This is got to be how they got through security.

[patlaw_guy]

Pilots murdered before crashes? Duh! This is the dumbest story I've seen all day. What US pilot, with a gun to his head, is going to crash into the WTC instead of ditch the plane into the ground or ocean at a 90 degree dive in order to save some lives?

[tbeatty]

Why do they think 6 terrorists on an airplane would need more than knives to kill the crew and take control? The answer to this is to arm pilots with guns.

[seamus]

As experts pieced together their audacious operation, it was clear that no pilot would have steered their plane into a building packed with people.

Golly, I'm not an "expert," yet I still figured that out all by myself immediately after the second crash. And the European media calls Dubya "dumb." This report is just stupid, and all to typical.

[Bush2000]

It might also be necessary to prevent calls from being made from and to aircraft. It is rumored that the terrorists coordinated their actions by phone between the aircraft.

[Terriergal]

Just a story restating the obvious. Nothing to see here.

[spiker]

Source:
Canada.com Breaking News

Experts: Terrorists must have had own pilots in scheme that defied planning

[Mahone]

Modern weapons made from materials other than plastic may also have been used to avoid detection at airport terminals.

Anyone ever watch the East Meets West show on the Food Network? The host, Ming Tsi, has a whole line of the new wonder knives from Japan, they are ceramic. Handles are wood or plastic, and brother are they sharp knives! Would they show up in screening?

[DWPittelli]

Speculation on terrorist mass murder of September 11, 2001 First, the 4 hijackings were obviously centrally directed as to strategy and timing. It is also most likely that tactics were centrally directed. Independent teams working out their own tactics for attaining control of the plane would take longer and clearly have higher risk of early detection, or failure, or poor timing, than a centrally directed plan such as this one, which could probably achieve the level of success as this one did even with only 16 people in the US. It would not be necessary to have help from airline or airport employees. The hijackers carried knives or box cutters (based on, e.g., Olson phone call). Not the ideal weapon, or even the ideal knives, for the affair. While guns might be obtained with inside help from airport security, today’s plan required teams to reliably get on 4 planes, and even good inside help could not guarantee that with serious weapons. (Even a medium-sized steel Rambo knife would possibly get found even with the best terrorist operatives, and the plan had to let 4 teams of hijackers at 3 airports to get through with low risk of any detections.) Far more reliable to sneak on with fake knives, or quite real nylon knives, which would do the trick with several adult men taking charge of an airplane. The terrorists would expect that the passengers would never quite motivate themselves to fight back, especially since passengers don’t expect hijackers to kill themselves by taking out the whole plane. That said, the Pittsburgh crash in the middle of nowhere was probably the result of such a fight. Surely the hijackers wanted some target besides rural Pennsylvania, so unless their pilot was uniquely incompetent, that means the terrorists did not hold complete control over the cockpit, and thus that the passengers and/or crew fought back, with some success. There were probably about 4 men on each plane. 3 at a minimum, 6 at a maximum. Under 4 men and the odds of taking over a group of 60 or more people goes way down with mere knives. Over 4 men, and the odds of secrecy being compromised go up quickly (even with 6 men, you have 24 people on 4 planes, a lot to keep secret, whether they are foreigners or domestic). Also, the fact that the hijackers could not quickly take and keep control in 1 of the 4 cases (Pittsburgh) is another reason to expect that the number was probably not much over 4. The planes did not go to the closest targets (e.g., the plane that took off from NYC did not attack in NYC). That was to maximize the odds that all the planes would be in the air, even if one were delayed, before crashes would shut down the system. Planes going to close targets would otherwise be better, due to better fuel loads (as everyone has properly speculated, the terrorists used transcontinental flights for big fuel loads). The terrorists would not want to depend on in-air communications to ensure this timing. Everyone, of course, assumes it was Muslims, although they are generally loathe to say it in so many words, after some such early speculation on Oklahoma City proved completely baseless. We will know soon enough. The men almost certainly bought tickets – no need to sneak on when anyone can buy a ticket for relatively trivial money and a mediocre ID. The men were also almost certainly buying the tickets under assumed names, and if they were smart, names which they did not use in any other context (such as housing or purchases of other goods or services, including previous travel). But odds are a witness somewhere will be able to remember what some of them looked like, and what languages/accents they spoke in.

[Lazamataz]

Instead, it is possible they were shot dead in the cockpit

Incorrect. Knives seem to have been used. But the rest might be true.

[yoe]

Russian pilots carry pistols in plain sight in a shoulder holster. Were I flying for any of the airlines I would pick up the phone and say "I want an Air Marshall and I want a weapon. When you give me those things, call me and I will fly your f###### plane!" Another thing, the mechanics DO NOT have to go through the checks the stewardess's and pilots do, they go right to their work stations.

Call or write your elected and insist that our civilian pilots be given what they need to protect the cockpit, themselves and their crew as well as the passengers. Like Newt Gingrich, I don't want justice in this mess, I want action and I want it fast!

[FReepaholic]

The Washington Post reports that the transponders on all 4 aircraft were turned off prior to the attacks.

These guys were pros and were probably flying the planes themselves.

[OldFashionedAmerican]

This better be the LAST unopposed skyjacking in an American jet. If this should ever happen in the future, EVERY passenger should rush the terrorists with the rememberance of New York City and Washington in their minds, and with those images, find the determination to either stop the terrorits, or at least, in the fashion of true Patriots, die in the attempt to protect out freedoms and our fellow countrymen.

I predict that we will NOT allow ourselves to driven into huddled fear. Even if we can not ABSOLUTELY prove who has done this, we should then realize once and for all the absolute indifference of the Universe, and that we must TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES and totally destroy ANYONE who is on the top of our list of known terrorists and their sanctuaries that we know that have EVER attacked our citizens and our great country. DEATH to the cowards.

[KeyLargo]

It is too bad that we got very complacent and got rid of the old "Sky-Marshalls" on domestic flights.

-------------------------------------------

External Security

Federal Air Marshal (FAM) Program

"The FAM program provides an anti-hijacking capability for U.S. civil aviation. The program provides a covert, armed security force capable of conducting anti-hijacking operations and of deploying rapidly. FAMs are specially trained Special Agents who travel on U.S. air carriers along routes and into areas where worldwide terrorist activities indicate the highest probability of hijacking. FAMs are authorized to carry firearms and, if they reasonably believe a person has or is committing a felony, they can make arrests without warrant for any offense against the U.S.

The FAM program serves as a deterrent to hijacking and other forms of terrorist activity aboard inflight aircraft. It is authorized by the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the Anti-Hijacking Act of 1947, and the International Security and Development Cooperation Act of 1985. Order 1650.6, Federal Air Marshal Program, governs the FAM program. "

http://cas.faa.gov/fam.html

[Oberon]

Hey, why is everyone believing this was a terrorist attack?

...obviously, the REAL cause faulty wiring in the airplaines' center fuel tanks... /sarcasm

[pttttt]

Darn, this thing was sophisticated when you look at the number of things that had to go right and did.

Wonder who did it. There aren't many outfits this good, and not usually third world fanatics. Much slicker than a truck bomb.

And yes, looking around any airport will quickly convince you that lots of people with access to the airplane never had a background check.

[Don Myers]

I understand a stew on one of the planes was locked in a lavatory. She had a cell phone, and she made one phone call. She said that the other crew members had been killed.

[Blake#1]

It is impossible to stop terrorists! There will always be more.