Jet 'exploded into pieces' (Witnesses "Saw Explosion On One Side of Plane Before Crash")

BBC & CNN ^ | November 12, 2001 | BBC & CNN News Staffs

[t-shirt]

Jet 'exploded into pieces'

Monday, 12 November, 2001

BBC Residents watched as firefighters battled the blaze

Eyewitnesses have spoken of their horror at seeing an Airbus A300 crash into a residential area of New York. Witnesses reported seeing a fire or explosion on one side of the aircraft as an engine fell off.

The plane then crashed into the Rockaway area of Queens.

I saw the flames and the smoke and I just thought, 'Oh no, not again'

Milena Owens, who lives yards from the crash site, said she was putting up Thanksgiving decorations on her window when she saw the plane fly far too low.

"I heard the explosion and I looked out the window and saw the flames and the smoke and I just thought, 'Oh no, not again'."

"The whole house shook," said Gus Cholakis, who lives 100 yards from the spot where some of the wreckage came to rest.

Resident's prayers

"I looked out the window, the first thing I saw was a huge fireball right outside."

Mr Cholakis, 38, said he had known 13 of those lost when the World Trade Center collapsed.

This neighbourhood has been through enough

Gus Cholakis

He admitted he was praying he had not lost more friends, adding: "This neighbourhood has been through enough."

John Maroney, 47, said the engine plummeted onto a Texaco petrol station near his house, and pieces of plane were only a few hundred yards away.

"That's probably what shook us up from our beds. The whole house jumped.

'Climbing position'

"We were all out there with fire extinguishers and hoses, but we couldn't do much."

Ethan Moses said he had seen the plane climbing in the sky after take-off.

It was travelling to the left slightly and then it just nose dived straight down

Ethan Moses , "It was in a climbing position and when I looked up I saw fire on the left side of the engine," he told CNN.

The wing appeared to separate from the rest of the plane, which veered to the left and then plunged into a nose dive, he said.

"It was travelling to the left slightly and then it just nose dived straight down," Mr Moses said, adding that fire spread on the ground, moving from house to house within seconds.

Phyllis Paul said she heard the plane's engine drone louder as it descended.

Falling metal

"It was very, very loud. Because of what happened on 11 September, it gave me a chill," she told CNN.

"It was getting louder and louder and I looked out the window. I saw a piece of metal falling from the sky."

The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself
Phyllis Paul

Beverly Browne, from Brooklyn, said she saw white smoke coming from the plane before it crashed.

"The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself. There was white smoke coming out of it.

"It just couldn't seem to stabilise itself. The next thing I knew it had crashed."

? David Solero was driving over a bridge by Rockaway when he saw fire on the left hand side of the plane.

He told CNN: "We looked up and saw the fire coming from the left hand side - it could have been an explosion."

Plane 'veered'

Other witnesses told reporters that the fire or explosion was on the right hand side of the plane.

Mr Solero added: "It could have been the engine was on fire.

I was scared it was going to veer towards us and hit us - we stopped dead in our tracks

David Solero, "It flew right over us, started to veer to the left then it veered back right.

"I was scared it was going to veer towards us and hit us - we stopped dead in our tracks.

"We saw something fly off the plane."

One woman fled her home, fearing she could be killed.

Concorde-like sound

She told CNN: "It was a huge, loud sound. It seemed so loud that I was like ducking almost.

"I just heard - it sounded like Concorde flying too low and then it just hit.

Eyewitness
-- "It blew up into a huge fireball and I jumped out the second floor of my house." "It hit the house behind me and I think it exploded into pieces."

"I went over the deck in the front of my house because the back was so hot."

"We were just in shock and we had to evacuate two streets away. It was so horrible." "There is a lot of terror here. Everybody is in shock."

"I was very, very lucky."

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

[Patria One]

You know that there is a big business in bootleg airplane parts.

[apackof2]

AIRBUS A300 INFO HERE

[usconservative]

Thanks for finding that. BUMP.

[t-shirt]

Ok Mr Stupid, now see if you can follow, instead responding to one single thing I already replied to and ignore everything else I say.

I already stated two replies ago that what you called a theory was merely a suggested possibility. And I also stated that whether that possibility was wrong or right it did not change the fact that a large percentage of the workers at the airports are Middle Easterners and other noncitizen foriegners. Can you understand that?

Also understand I laid out no theory where you said I did--yet you fail to respond to that point, but rather keep desperately responding to something I have already addressed in your vain attempt to prove you blew a theory in an imaginary theory. Can you understand that I never posted a theory--where you say I did?

Now please try to address real issues in your next reply.

[t-shirt]

Thankyou I'm going there now!

For some reason that window is loading very slow...

[Landru]

"'I don't mean to belittle the crash witnesses,' Loftus said. But in some cases, particularly traumatic events, the perceived memories can be both vivid and incorrect. 'People have claimed to see things a lot more bizarre than flashes of light,' Loftus said."

Indeed people have claimed to be witnesses to *things* a tad-more bizarre than, "flashes of light.".
There's no better illustration than those claiming to have experienced something called, "The Abduction Phenonenon."
Serious & sincere attempts to get inside the head's of some mighty credible people(s) using such means as Regression Therapy (hypnosis) have been the most facinating accounts of attempts at verifing, and differentiating what the eyes see, & brain processes.
Even then, there're the critics of RT who'll easily punch holes in RT claiming pre-hypnotic suggestion can account for any/all claim(s).

In the event you haven't already, read a book or two written by Budd Hopkins; and you'll see the complexity of this subject. (~really wanted to delve into the subject try Jacques Vallee's, "Passport To Magnolia"...)

Point is (for me): One may claim anything they choose; I then may choose whether or not I'm going to believe said claim(s).
"A man hears what he wants to hear & disregards the rest."

An excellent article, nonetheless; even if it did appear in Snoozeday. {g}

[Trust but Verify]

OK, here is what you want: The Sky is falling! Everyone get in the fallout shelters! DO not beleive a word the experts and others in-the-know say. If the government says one thing, beleive the opposite in all cases. Trust the yahoos and their paranoid theories above all else or YOU are the one that will be called sheeple.

Sorry, I'm not palying that game. It hasn't been 12 hours. There is no evidence there was a missile or a bomb. Unless you have first-hand knowledge of the scene and the remains of the aircraft, your opinion is as dubious as the next.

Play your little game of semantics if you wish, theory vs. possibility. I'm interested in FACTS and YOU don't have any.

[Trust but Verify]

Bring it on, DUKE. Show me any evidence that's what they did! I seriously doubt a cash-poor company would hand out huge severence checks to long-timers when they could let short-timers go by showing them to the door and giving them their vacation pay!

[Asmodeus]

"We don't EVEN need to go into flt 800 with hundreds of credible witnesses that confirmed the hard evidence that the fed is STILL -obviously - lying about."

What's your rebuttal to this?

[anniegetyourgun]

I suppose you're right - he is a scum who obviously hates this country and wants everyone to die. Besides, he ought to be out there scaring everyone to death, telling them to stay in, quit their jobs, and hide under the covers. All this is certain to bring about the NWO he's after because he is the anti-Christ.

How's that....did I cover it all for ya?

[t-shirt]

Why do you keep attributing things to me which I never said?I never said any of this:
OK, here is what you want: The Sky is falling! Everyone get in the fallout shelters! DO not beleive a word the experts and others in-the-know say. If the government says one thing, beleive the opposite in all cases. Trust the yahoos and their paranoid theories above all else or YOU are the one that will be called sheeple.

I never said: "there was a missile or a bomb." which you imply I said. What I have said repeatedly is the eye witnesses-who were there--said (on national TV) that there was an explosion or a fireball.

Why do you attribute things to me that I haven't said?

Simply to avoid discussing the fact that you outrageously want others to believe that all the numerous eyewitness are wrong in what they saw today with their own eyes--that didn't really see what happened? And that the government line that there was no explosion and it was an accident--be-damned-the-witnesses-testimony is the only possibily point-blank-end-of-discussion?????

[t-shirt]

New Web Tool Hunts for Terrorists Online

October 12, 2001

Sue Kwon

Tracing the actions of terrorists can be as futile and frustrating as looking for needles in a haystack.

But now, investigators have discovered a high-tech tool that can help. It's computer software, created by a Mountain View company called Stratify, and it acts as a magnet for finding clues on the Internet.

It's like a search engine, but more powerful. It doesn't just hunt for keywords, it can search for concepts. For example, searching for documents related to terrorism brings up websites and emails that contain content ranging from anthrax to al-Qaida. Think of it as a filing cabinet with millions of documents to file -- different topics, in different languages, including those from the Middle East. The software can pick out pieces having to do with terrorism, and prioritize them in order of relevance.

The CIA paid over a million dollars for the firm's technology, as it can be directly applied to the war on terrorism. Since the attack on America, federal investigators have already learned how terrorists paid for airline tickets, how they used the Internet to communicate, and how they may have used brokers to profit from selling airline stocks short. Now the CIA can apply this software to monitor those key areas.

Investigators will still need to pick out those valuable needles from the haystack, but this technology will make those clues more obvious and easier to find.

[anniegetyourgun]

Methinks you are the one who needs to get a grip.

[Trust but Verify]

You really ARE stupid, aren't you? I will reconstruct this exchange for the comprehension impaired such as yourself

And how much yiou want to bet they are laying off a lot of the older, higher-paid, higher-skilled American citizen maintainance, baggage handlers, and security folks, while keeping the lower paid less skilled foriegn nationals--many of whom are Middle Easterners. 38 posted on 11/12/01 10:43 AM Pacific by t-shirt

Then I wrote:

And how much do you want to bet these are union employees who must be laid off in reverse seniority order, blowing a devastating hole in your little theory? 122 posted on 11/12/01 1:27 PM Pacific by Trust but Verify

Then you wrote:

What theory does it blow a hole in? LOL I never made any theory on this thread. Whose thread were you reading? The fact remain that there are a high percentage of non-citizen Middle Eastern/Arabs working in our airports in sensitive areas where they could engage in terrorism: baggage handling, security, maintainance and even some among the pilots. (The fact remains whether people were laid off or not.) It's funny I merely suggested a possibility and you suggested one (without any facts), and somehow you feel your guess somehow blows out of the water an imaginary "theory" which I never offered in the first place. LOL! 131 posted on 11/12/01 1:41 PM Pacific by t-shirt

Then I wrote:

You really are wound tight! My post was in response to your post #38 in this thread. And I even copy and pasted your statement. Are you stoopid? 137 posted on 11/12/01 1:50 PM Pacific by Trust but Verify

I'm done with this excercise in futility with you. You clearly are rankled due to a day-long episode of hyperventilation over things YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. Goodnight.

[Denver Ditdat]

Could be a maintenance screwup...or it could be that fine European government-subsidized craftsmanship.

Poohbah, My Airbus experience is limited to the A320 family, but from what I've seen the quality of their workmanship today is on a par with Boeing. Perhaps we're comparing impressions of the older A300s and new A320s and coming to different conclusions.

The A319s I work on are built in Hamburg, and I've witnessed firsthand the pride that the craftsmen assembling them take in their work. My prior experience was all on Lockheed, Douglas, and Boeing, but I'm now comfortable with (and confident in) the Airbus.

It's a good plane, and I don't hesitate to fly in one.