Posted on 12/08/2001 2:42:18 PM PST by Constitution Scholar
Devvy Kidd
November 26, 2001
I am not a person who has visions, predicts the future or anything like that. Once in a while, like a lot of people, I get "feelings" about certain things, like when the phone rings and you know who's on the other end.
After several of us involved with Bob Schulz' IRS hearings and the 'Ghosts of the Revolution' threat which specified that effective 1 September 2001, the "rules of engagement" would change and violence against IRS personnel and facilities would occur, I kinda was waiting to see what would happen. Was this a terrible and real threat by twisted individuals or was it some kind of sick deal cooked up by unbalanced government personnel?
First thing in the morning, I used to tune in local talk radio for an hour or so. After 1 September, first thing I did after getting out of bed every morning was turn on FOX News. For some reason I just couldn't help myself, I kept waiting for something to happen.
September 7th , 8th & 9th I was up in Klamath Falls, Oregon looking into the slash and kill program by the Bush administration against single family owned farms. As soon as I got back to my hotel room, the first thing I did was turn on the tv to CNN or Fox. I just had this "feeling." Two days later, back home, like tens of millions, I watched the horror of September 11th unfold on my television set.
On November 9, 2001 while packing for my flight the next day to DC for Bob Schulz' 'Operation Enduring Patriotism' event, my husband wanted to know why I had so many clothes to pack? You see, I never pack more than I need 'cause the suitcases are heavy and I'm little. I told John that I was taking three extra pairs of jeans and t-shirts. I told him I didn't know why, I just felt I should have these extra clothes. He just said okay and gave me that funny little look spouses sometimes give each other when they think you're having a senior moment or sumpin.
On November 10, 2001, Larry Becraft picked me up at BWI airport. Since we hadn't seen each other since August 6, 2001, we had a lot to talk about on the way to DC, mostly about 9-11. I told him that my gut feeling was that the next commercial airliner that goes down will go down on take-off when the plane is most vulnerable. I laid out my scenario in detail, which I won't do here 'lest it give any sickos any ideas, but it was just my opinion to him, friends talking on a long drive.
On November 11, 2001, Veterans Day, Larry and I were standing in front of the Pentagon. Let me tell you, just like OKC, until you stand in front of these buildings, the damage you see on television is absolutely nothing compared to the real thing. It was just horrible and the destruction massive beyond words.
While we were standing there, planes were taking off right above our heads. I told Larry, "Can you imagine what it must have been like that morning (9-11) for commuters sitting here in traffic, watch that plane come right over their heads not 50' from where we're standing, at 350 mph and crash into the building right in front of us?"
Standing there thinking about all that went on that morning is something I will never forget. Again I told Larry that, "Mark my words, the next commercial airliner that goes down will go down on take off when the pilots have no time to correct any severe problems and it won't be any accident." We looked to the skies again while I vented the "bad feeling in my gut."
The next morning we were at the National Press Club and Bob's event went very well. It ended at 11:00 am and everyone proceeded out of the ballroom into the foyer area. A man I didn't know wearing press credentials walked up to me and said, "Devvy, do you know another plane crashed this morning on take-off from JFK?"
It takes a hell of a lot to rattle me, but I was absolutely paralyzed where I stood. I said, "What? What did you say?" He told me again and he asked if I was all right. I said no and in my mind all I could think about was telling Larry twice within 48 hours that this is how the next commercial flight would go down: either sabotage on the ground before take-off or right at lift-off. I could see myself telling Larry and I was simply horrified.
I immediately went over to Bob Schulz and told him and then spotted Larry. I dragged him over to Mr. Tucker, as I later found out his hame, who again explained what had happened a couple of hours earlier in NYC. Mr. Tucker is a member of the National Press Club and seeing how upset I was, was gracious enough to escort me and Larry upstairs to the private lounge, for which I was very grateful.
There we sat for about 45 minutes watching the coverage on 10 different tv sets. The tears were rolling down my cheeks as I thought about the horrible deaths on that flight - 265 of them, 5 were infants. What those now dead moms must have gone through in those few minutes, clutching their little angels as the plane raged out of control, breaks my heart into a million pieces. The pilots and flight attendants must have gone through hell experiencing what they did so soon after 9-11. As we sat there, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing from witnesses.
Regular readers know I am terrified of flying on commercial planes. I have flown extensively on private and military, no problem, love it up there. But, commercial planes - you have no control over your destiny and I don't trust their maintenance programs. Yes, I did fly to DC on November 10th but did not fly home, I drove. All I kept seeing was that burning plane and what I told Larry. I simply could not get on my return flight.
Accident?
As we all know, the attack on 9-11 hurt the airlines real, real, bad. I want the airline industry to stay solvent and provide jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans. I just don't want to see anymore dead pilots, flight attendants and passengers. However, the new airline "safety" bill passed last week is a joke and after Alaska Airlines, still more must be done to ensure that these planes are not flying death traps.
I am not saying that all the maintenance personnel for all airlines are a bunch of incompetent people who care nothing about the flying public. I'm saying the planes are too vulnerable and that we don't know where the loyalties of some airline personnel really lie -- after all, terrorists don't walk around with a big T printed on their foreheads.
Additionally, with continued concerns over money and cut-backs, I feel that safety has suffered because this sort of thing goes on all the time in different industries. The PR spin put out by the airlines says safety is their number one concern, then you find out their planes are flying with cracks in the landing gear and things of that nature. Too many of the planes in these fleets are 25-30 years old. Some say that's okay, they fly just fine. Want to bet your life on it or your precious children? Not me.
The big carriers are too big. I can remember back when the big carriers flew only to big cities and smaller companies did the inside the state short runs or maybe up and down just one coast. There is a trend developing right now to go back to this kind of service and I'm hopeful that will help out the situation.
Since I started to fly again in 1999, the one thing I found so different and hated was in order to go to DC, I was always shuffled to St. Lou or Chicago or Phoenix or here or there first. Go to Vegas? First they sent me to Ontario and then Vegas. Go to Denver? First you have to stop in Salt Lake City. Go to Cincy, first you have to hang out in Denver for a few hours at DIA. Geesh, forget it. The whole day is spent in misery in airports, waiting and then the flying in planes I never trusted.
I honestly believe that flying is the safest form of transportation, but one has to trust the airlines and their maintenance programs. I don't, not after Alaska Airlines. I hope things will change, but read on about what the government tries to float about the prior problems with this particular plane and the tail -- yet it continued to fly. Safety is their first concern?
Because of the dire necessity of keeping America's faith in the safety of flying firmly intact, the government immediately adopted several positions on AA Flight 587. One thing that is critical to remember here and make no mistake about it:
1. Too many of the FAA's senior level (political) personnel are liars.
2. Too many of the NTSB's senior level (political) personnel are liars.
3. Too many of the FBI's senior level (political) personnel are liars.
The statements above are fact. They are not conspiracy theories, they are fact.
If you're one of those just now coming to question the actions of this puppet government, I respectfully recommend that you read "the rest of the story on TWA Flight 800" and other crashes. Only by understanding the massive cover-up on other crashes can you understand the actions of these alphabet soup agencies immediately following the crash November 12th. For further research, please see:
http://www.twa800.com/index.htm
http://www.devvy.com/okctwa.html
http://www.devvy.com/kal007_19991120.html
http://www.devvy.com/kal007_20010830.html
http://www.devvy.com/kal_19991214.html
http://www.devvy.com/warscare_19991109.html
http://www.devvy.com/nazi_20011119.html
Following 9-11 and continued security breeches at airports regarding the new puff regs now in place, the crash of AA Flight 587 simply had to be declared an accident by the government, especially right before the busiest time of the year: the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
The American people seem to be able to look at things like Alaska Airlines and say, well, accidents happen and then they turn right around and get back on these planes. They did in droves after Flight 587. But, it would not be the same case if any hint of terrorism or sabotage was to be connected with the crash of 587.
Everytime one of these disasters occurs, all we hear from the NTSB mouthpieces is that it can "take months, perhaps years to make a final determination as to what caused this tragedy." That being the case, various government agencies sure went to a lot of trouble right off the bat after 587 went down to assure everyone that it was a mechanical problem with the tail or turbulence that caused the crash. I watched quite a bit of the coverage at the National Press Club after the crash and as usual, the eye- witness accounts are completely at odds with the government spokesmouths.
By the time I left the press club and went to my hotel to pack up and get on the road, I watched the horror unfold as: the tail section of an airliner fell off. Next came both engines. One fell in the back yard of a residential home and the other landed on the property of a gas station. The body of the plane mowed down some houses and one heck of a fire was underway, burning the body of the plane, houses and people.
I quit flying in 1981 and didn't resume until I attended Bob Schulz' first IRS Symposium July 1st and 2nd of 1999. Prior to an incident in '81, I flew tens of thousands of miles on commercial flights. What happened? Well, I've told this story a thousand times to people who want to know why I am so afraid to fly on commercial airplanes.
I was on a commuter flight, you know the ones with 12 or 14 seats. As we started to come down to land in Fresno, CA., we got caught in the tail draft (or turbulence) of a 747 quite a ways in front of us that was coming down to land in LA. My plane dropped 1,000 feet in a blink and I thought it was the end. I didn't step on a commercial plane again for 18 years. But, neither the tail nor the wings nor the engines fell off my flight, just my heart dropped into my shoes.
Over the past three years since I started to fly again, I have spoken with many pilots who have explained to me that my two worst fears would never, never happen and if they did, it would be so rare as to re-define the word rare. During my conversations with these pilots I've always said that my worse fears were the wings or the engines falling off the planes. It would never happen they said due to the structural design of these planes and how much stress they can take. Bless these guys hearts in taking the time to try and ease my fears about wings and engines falling off planes.
I left DC about two hours after I found out about Flight 587, so then I was only able to monitor the news in my hotel rooms as I made my way home. But, it appears the fix was in right from the beginning. While at the press club, Larry and I watched some of the eyewitnesses and their statements. How quickly these visual observations had been quashed by the NTSB, which they couldn't get away with it without the help of the inept low-lifes who call themselves reporters for the dominant media.
AA Flight 587 lifted off at JFK Airport at 9:14 am. Three minutes later, 265 people were dead, including five on the ground.
NTSB Statement
American Airlines Flight 587
Belle Harbor, New York
November 12, 2001
The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a full Go Team on Monday, November 12, to the site of the crash that day of American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus A-300, N14053, which had just taken off from Kennedy International Airport in New York for the Dominican Republic. The airliner crashed into a neighborhood in Belle Harbor, New York. The engines and some tail components were found some distance from the main wreckage site. Both the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) were recovered.
* * *
http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2001/11/12/223237
Monday, Nov. 12, 2001
Former NTSB Official Doubts Accident Caused Flight 587 Crash
"Aviation expert and former National Transportation Safety Board official Vernon Grose said late Monday that he's increasingly skeptical that the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 was purely accidental.
""I am backing away from the ready idea that this is simply an accident," Grose told Fox News Channel's John Scott.
"The veteran air crash prober said that he questions the sequence in which the plane broke up over Jamaica Bay before slamming into a residential area in Rockaway, Queens.
""Photographs you've already shown tonight [indicate] the vertical stabilizer of the aircraft with the American Airlines insignia right on it [fell into] Jamaica Bay long before the engine falls off in Queens," he told Scott.
"Grose said that if the vertical stabilizer detached from Fight 587 over Jamaica Bay, which the plane traversed before plummeting to the ground in Rockaway, it suggested that catastrophic engine failure alone may not have caused the crash.
""No, I don't think that's the situation at all," he told FNC.
""The engine that came free, which apparently was the number 1 left engine, crashed on land. That was well after the vertical stabilizer was detached from the aircraft, and that tells me that somehow ... the airplane was progressively disintegrating, not just losing an engine and then diving into the ground.
""Earlier today I thought it was simply the loss of an engine that caused this," Grose said. "But I'm not convinced now.... I am becoming more skeptical."
* * *
ABC News On-Line
Nov 13 2001
New York Reeling From Another Air Disaster
"An American Airlines Airbus A300 has slammed into a residential neighbourhood in the United States, killing all 251 passengers and nine crew on board.
"Originally the number of passengers on the plane was 246, but American Airlines raised by five the number of passengers on its ill-fated flight to 251 to include five infants travelling with adults.
"Investigators are focusing on possible engine problems as the cause of the disaster.
"The plane's black box flight recorder has been sent to Washington for analysis.
"With earlier fears that the airline crash was another act of terrorism abating, investigators are looking at mechanical failure as the reason for the destruction of Flight 587 and believe eyewitness accounts of an explosion on the plane may relate to a catastrophic engine break-up.
"Shards of burning wreckage littered tree-lined residential streets, while fire consumed houses bathed in aviation fuel. The tail section of plane was later pulled from nearby Jamaica Bay.
"One property was damaged when an engine of the doomed plane, almost intact, sliced into it. Other wreckage just missed a gas station.
"The White House said there were "no unusual communications" between the twin-engine jet and air traffic controllers before the crash and New York Governor George Pataki said the pilot had dumped fuel before the disaster."
* * *
The pilot had time to dump fuel? Three minutes and all the time fighting the controls with a plane on fire careening out of control, the pilot has time to go through the motions of dumping fuel? Maybe, I'm not a pilot so I wouldn't know, but it seems that there just wouldn't be enough time to do much of anything except fight for your life and the lives of your passengers.
In order to buy the stories put out by the White House, the NTSB, the FAA and the FBI, you have to trust their word is good. After 10+ years doing what I do, I'm sorry, but I wouldn't believe George Bush, Jr. or John Ashcroft if they swore on a stack of Bibles. I flat out don't believe a word from anyone in the NTSB, the FBI or FAA. In order to believe what has been put out what is heard on the flight data recorder and voice recorder boxes, you have to believe who is feeding you this information. In this case it is the premier liars from the NTSB and FBI.
* * *
http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2001/11/15/133624
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001
Feds Downplay Flight 587 Explosion Reports
"Just two days after the FBI said it was investigating witness accounts that American Airlines Flight 587 exploded in midair before it broke apart over New York's Jamaica Bay on Monday, NTSB investigators are pushing the theory that air turbulence from another jetliner - and not any explosion - caused the crash that scattered wreckage covering a half-mile-wide area.
""We are consistently looking for any sign of sabotage and not finding any," said NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely on Wednesday. "There is no evidence of any bomb, of any sabotage, at this point."
"That's not what the investigators were saying just hours after the crash, as reported in an Associated Press alert that flashed into newsrooms across the country.
""The Associated Press [is] saying the Bush administration says the FBI believes there was an explosion aboard the plane, and they are investigating its source," reported CNN's Paula Zahn around midday.
""Senior administration officials tell CNN that the FBI is trying to find out the source of that explosion on the American Airlines flight," echoed the news network's Major Garrett.
"As what sounded like an official confirmation that Flight 587 had exploded ricocheted around the world, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer denied the report, saying no administration official had made that statement - but that the FBI would not dismiss what eyewitnesses had seen.
"And what nearly every witness to Flight 587's ascent over Jamaica Bay said they saw was an explosion and/or a fire, something not likely cause by "wind turbulence."
"CNN's Zahn reported that morning, "We got five eyewitnesses to describe what they saw as an explosion coming, most of them believed, from the right wing."
"On WABC Radio in New York, vivid accounts of a midair explosion poured in from callers who saw Flight 587 from both sides of Jamaica Bay.
""I saw an enormous flash where the wing meets the plane," a woman who was out walking her dog told host John Gambling. "I don't know if it was fire or an explosion. It appeared that debris fell from the left side [of the plane]."
"Another eyewitness who called into the radio station said, "The right wing seemed to catch fire and explode. The wing was on fire with a trail of smoke behind it."
""I saw the plane going across Jamaica Bay," a third witness told WABC. "It was trying to ascend and then it just exploded."
"By Tuesday, some already suspected a cover-up.
""I keep hearing the authorities talk about an engine falling off the plane and [then] an explosion," eyewitness Rod McHale told the New York Post. "That's not what I heard and saw. There was an explosion and then the engine fell off. ... I'm convinced it's terrorism."
"Before the NTSB mounted its full court press on the air turbulence theory, ABC News aviation expert John Nance told WABC Radio's Gambling that probers were grasping at straws.
"GAMBLING: The theory that this plane, Flight 587, was going through the wash of a 747 ahead of it - that really seems to be sort of a bogus theory.
"NANCE: It really is. I think a lot of folks jumped on that last night, I think, misunderstanding the reality that these aircraft fly through severe turbulence. It could be the initiating event of something that was about to happen, but it would not be the cause itself."
Stay tuned.
* * *
LA Times.Com
November 17, 2001
Use of Composite Material for Airplane Parts Scrutinized
Layers can come apart and lose their strength. FAA orders emergency inspections of Airbus jet parts.
By Eric Malnic and Ricardo alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writers
"WASHINGTON -- A modern material that has replaced metal in many aircraft structures has become a central focus of the probe into the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, raising questions about possible problems in hundreds of other jets.
"The material, used in the tail fin that broke away from Flight 587, is a composite made of many layers of carbon fibers embedded in a special resin and molded together under heat and pressure. However, the material can develop internal flaws, causing it to weaken and come apart.
"Aviation industry experts say that even if a failure of the composite material is found to have contributed to Monday's disaster, they do not expect the widening use of composites to come to a halt. However, "we may have to do a better job of maintaining these parts of the aircraft and inspect composite-type material more closely," said Lee Dickinson, an engineer and failure analysis consultant."
* * *
Now it's time to do a better job? How comforting.
* * *
November 16, 2001
FAA Wants Inspections of Plane Tails
By Jonathan D. Salant
Associated Press Writer
"WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered airlines to immediately inspect the tail assemblies of their Airbus A300-600 and A310 planes. The tail of an Airbus A300-600 sheared off before an American Airlines plane crashed in New York Monday."
* * *
Now the FAA wants an inspection? How comforting.
* * *
November 17, 2001
Doomed Jet's Tail Perplexes NTSB
By Jonathan D. Salant
Associated Press Writer
"WASHINGTON (AP) One aspect of this week's crash of an American Airlines jetliner stands out, aviation experts say: No matter what else went wrong, the tail shouldn't have fallen off.
"Neither the turbulence from the jumbo jet that took off just before doomed Flight 587, nor pressure put on the rudder by pilots reacting to the wake, should have been strong enough to break off the tail.
"``I think there was a pre-existing structural problem with the tail,'' former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith said. ``It was going to fail regardless. It just so happened the conditions were right.''
"The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered airlines to immediately inspect the tail assemblies of their Airbus A300-600 and A310 planes. American and two cargo carriers, FedEx and United Parcel Service, have around 135 of the French-made jets in their fleets.
"Investigators say Flight 587 was buffeted by two wakes, generated by the wings of the Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 jet that took off from Kennedy shortly before the American Airlines plane lifted off. Because of its size and weight, a 747 generates heavy wakes.
"``The wake vortex of a 747 should not bring down an aircraft,'' said Tom Ellis, a spokesman for the Nolan Law Group, a Chicago-based firm that represents victims of airline accidents. ``The A300 is designed to withstand forces of that nature. It should be well within its design tolerance. There's got to be something that interferes with the ability to recover.''
* * *
Well, it seems that there was a known problem with the material used on these A-300 airbuses, but they let them fly anyway. How many more design flaws or material compositions or whatever does the FAA and the airline industry themselves know about, but you don't? No, I'm not trying to put the airline industry out of business, but, Lord, I don't want to see any more people, including airline personnel, killed in crashes. Let's see how the govmint starts to throw crap up against the wall to see what will stick with the American people.
* * *
November 17, 2001
Eight Seconds Sealed Fate of 265
By Mary Lou Pickel in New York
"American Airlines Flight 587 fishtailed violently after being buffeted twice by turbulence from another jet shortly before crashing, the plane's data recorder indicates.
"The new data raises the possibility that the crew, responding to turbulence, hit the rudder unusually hard, creating excessive stress on the tail fin that may have contributed to it breaking off.
"After the plane twice hit wake turbulence from a Boeing 747, the rudder jerked the Airbus A300-600 sharply left twice, then right. The aircraft then began turning sharply left and diving, probably when the tail fin broke off and the plane went out of control.
"The back-and-forth jerking was "very significant", the National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman, Marion Blakey, said. The plane's tail fin and then its engines broke away, causing pilots to lose control.
""We have eight seconds we're going to be looking at in extreme detail," said Tom Haueter, the safety board's deputy director of aviation safety.
"The Federal Aviation Administration, with the board's French counterpart, will check all Airbus A300 tails, made almost entirely of a carbon-fibre composite material. Airbus jets are assembled in Toulouse.
"The flight data recorder shows the plane passed through one wave of wake turbulence left by a Japan Airlines 747-400 about 48 seconds before the crash, which killed 265 people. The plane responded normally, Ms Blakey said.
"Then, about 28 seconds before the crash, the plane passed through another vortex of wake turbulence, the rapidly spinning columns of air that trail from airliners' wingtips.
"At first, the A300 responded normally, Ms Blakey said. But then, in the last eight seconds of the data recorder information, the plane began to shift from side to side with a force almost equal to its own weight.
"The plane started to bank sharply to the left, with its left wing down, even though the pilot was turning the wheel to the right, the data shows.
"In the last 2 seconds of the data recorder, the information from the rudder was "unreliable," the NTSB said, meaning it was possibly no longer attached to the plane.
"Investigators have seen no evidence suggesting sabotage.
"American Airlines, with 34 A300s, is the only US airline flying the model.
"Wake turbulence has never been known to have knocked a tail fin off an aircraft, and some experts say the structure might have been flawed or weakened. The same American Airlines plane encountered "severe clear air turbulence," in 1994, FAA records show.
"The plane dived 35,000 feet without warning over the island of Martinique. People and food trolleys hit the ceiling, and 47 of the 221 people on board were injured."
* * *
A few days after this disaster, the govmint came out and said that the control tower at JFK was not responsible in any way for the crash. Well, let me think about this for a minute. If these experts in aviation all know it's real dangerous to let planes take off so close behind each other 'cause this kind of turbulence can cause tail sections and engines to fall off planes, how come they let them take off so close together? Hmmm? Didn't the people in the tower who give the planes authorization for take-off know that they might be allowing two planes to take off too close to one another? I guess not. It was just an accident, next flight, please.
* * *
NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
November 20, 2001
Update on NTSB Investigation Into Crash of American Airlines Flight 587
On November 12, 2001, at approximately 9:17 a.m., American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus A-300-600, N14053, crashed into a neighborhood in Belle Harbor, New York, several minutes after taking off from Kennedy International Airport. The plane was on a scheduled flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. All 260 persons aboard the plane died, as did 5 on the ground. The following is an update of factual information developed during the Safety Board's investigation.
The Safety Board's command post near Kennedy Airport was closed on Sunday. Except as mentioned below, all NTSB investigators have returned to their headquarters to continue the inquiry.
Accident Sequence
Investigators have continued to extract data from the flight recorders - the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) - since their recovery last week, as well as radar data. The Safety Board has calculated that the time between flight 587's liftoff from Runway 31L until the end of the recorded FDR data is 93 seconds. The CVR continued to record information for about 10 more seconds (this is a correction of the time announced last week); it is believed the CVR ends at or about the time of the plane's impact with the ground. Therefore, the Board estimates that the time from lift off to impact was 103 seconds.
Based on radar data, flight 587 took off approximately 105 seconds behind Japan Airlines flight 47, a Boeing 747. The FDR indicates that flight 587 encountered two wake vortices generated by JAL flight 47. The second wake encounter occurs about 8 seconds before the end of the FDR data. For the first few seconds after the second wake encounter, the aircraft responded to flight control inputs. Both wake encounters averaged about 0.1 G lateral (side to side) movement. During the last 8 seconds of FDR data, the plane experienced three stronger lateral movements, two to the right of 0.3 and 0.4 Gs, and then one to the left of 0.3 Gs. These lateral forces corresponded in time with rudder movements. The NTSB continues to investigate the cause of the rudder movements.
The FDR's rudder data becomes unreliable about 2.5 seconds before the end of the recording, and sound spectrum analysis shows that engine sounds can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder beyond that point. The rudder and tail fin were found first in the wreckage path, followed by the engines and then by the main wreckage impact point at the intersection of Newport and 131st Street, Belle Haven, New York.
While at the scene, the Safety Board reported that a jack screw associated with the rudder trim system found in the wreckage showed a 10 degree left trim setting. Further examination of that jack screw, along with readings off the flight data recorder, show that the trim setting appears to be close to neutral. The aircraft's wing flaps appear to have been retracted at the time of impact, and the landing gear appear to have been stowed, based on both physical evidence and FDR readings.
Engines
Both engines were examined at the crash site and at a hangar at Kennedy Airport. No evidence was found of an uncontained engine failure, loss of blades, bird strike or in-flight fire. The thrust reversers were in the stowed position. The engines will be taken to the American Airlines maintenance facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a detailed tear-down in a few weeks.
Witness Group
The Witness Group has interviewed 40 persons who have provided either eyewitness accounts of the accident itself or believe they have knowledge that would help the investigation, and is reviewing over 100 statements collected by other agencies.
Anyone who believes he or she has information that would be of assistance to the National Transportation Safety Board should contact Luke Schiada, Witness Group Chairman, at (973) 334-6561.
Previous Incidents
In 1994, the accident aircraft experienced a turbulence incident near San Juan, Puerto Rico, that resulted in several dozen passenger injuries. The aircraft was inspected by American Airlines maintenance personnel after that incident, and they reported no damage to the tail structure.
On May 11, 1999, a different American Airlines Airbus 300-600, N7082A, experienced multiple rudder deflections while on final approach to Miami, Florida. The airplane landed without incident. Investigation revealed that the autopilot's wiring had been cross-connected by airline maintenance personnel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The aircraft was repaired. Airbus issued an advisory to all operators of their aircraft to check for wiring cross-connects, and the FAA and its counterpart agency in France
followed with Airworthiness Directives. One other aircraft was found to have a similar cross-connect and it, too, was repaired.
* * *
The NTSB and FBI are professional liars. TWA Flight 800 proves it beyond any question. The government and it's alphabet soup agencies, including the CIA, have spent close to $100 million dollars convincing the American people, especially the eyewitnesses to TWA Flight 800, that they didn't see what they did see and it was all just an accident caused by the middle fuel tank. Bunk.
What have some of the witnesses to AA Flight 587 said? I save everything, folks. I put all these articles, news reports, etc., in files and I save them so I can see how the lies or spin shape up over time.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2001/11/item20011113020854_1.htm
Nov 13 2001
New York Reeling From Another Air Disaster
Eyewitness Reports
"Eyewitness reports suggested an engine had tumbled from the doomed plane before it crashed.
"A former fireman out for a morning walk said he saw a small explosion on board the plane before the crash.
"I saw a very distinct orange explosion and I think I saw the whole wing fall and then the plane just arched directly down into Rockaway where I live," he told CNN.
* * *
November 13, 2001
Another NY Morning Becomes Nightmare
By David Crary
AP National Writer
"NEW YORK (AP) Strolling the beach near his home, retired firefighter Tom Lynch thought to himself, ``What a wonderful day.'' The serenity didn't last long.
"He spotted a plane in the bright sky overhead, then saw a flash of orange flame before the jet banked and plummeted, nose-diving about 10 blocks from his house in the Rockaway Beach section of Queens.
"Just three minutes earlier, at 9:14 a.m. Monday, the American Airlines Flight 587 had taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, bound for the Dominican Republic with 260 people on board.
"Its departure was 74 minutes late because of security checks put in place after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon two months ago on a similarly beautiful morning.
"Janet Barasso, in her home a block from where the Airbus A300 crashed, immediately assumed the worst.
"``I thought we were being bombed, because I didn't see the plane,'' she said. ``I looked out the window and saw a big ball of flame and smoke.''
"One of the plane's engines fell intact into the parking lot of a nearby Texaco station, missing the gas tanks by a few feet.
"Carmine Castellano, a gardener, was in his truck headed toward the gas station when the engine landed in front of him. ``My first reaction was to run to the fire to help, but people were running in panic in the opposite direction and I went with them,'' he said.
"By that time, federal officials were suggesting that a mechanical malfunction not terrorism was the likely cause of the crash. Though saddened, New Yorkers breathed a sigh of relief. The city's bridges and tunnels reopened; so did the airports.
"Within hours of the crash, officials recovered Flight 587's cockpit voice recorder and flew it to Washington for analysis.
"Just before dark, an Army Corps of Engineers salvage craft retrieved the plane's tailfin, floating off the Rockaway beach. Clearly visible on the wreckage were the American Airlines logo and an American flag."
* * *
Associated Retired Aviation Professionals
Post Office Box 90, Clements, Maryland 20624 USA
'I Know What I Saw...That Was No Mechanical Problem...No Way!'
By Peter Gelzinis
BostonHerald.com
11-13-01
"ROCKAWAY BEACH, NY -"I will never believe it was an accident. They'll never convince me of that."
"Eugene Sanfilippo kept looking past the microphones and notebooks, down 131st Street toward Jamaica Bay and a vision that the rest of us could not see.
"It was past three in the afternoon, the sky above this sliver of Queens was clear, but all this lanky, 45-year-old bus mechanic could see was a huge orange ball of flame; he could still feel the unbearable heat; he could hear people screaming; he could taste the acrid black smoke.
"And he was still afraid.
""When I heard the explosion, I thought we were under attack," Sanfilippo said.
""My first impression was that they'd hit us with a nuclear bomb. I figured it was just like the World Trade Center. And I watched that burn from the (Jamaica) bay."
"Miles away from where Eugene Sanfilippo stood, at the edge of a new Ground Zero, a mayor, a president's spokesman and a slew of FAA officials were urging us to think "accident."
""We are up on the Cross Bay Bridge," James Gill said, "driving over from Richmond Hill to look at a house.
""My wife saw the whole thing. What she saw was an explosion, way forward on the engines, sort of just behind the cockpit. "I had to pull over, just there on the bridge. Amanda was hysterical. She dialed 911 on the cell phone, and just started to scream, `Help me! Help me!' "
"After being rocked by the sound of an initial explosion, James Gill said he looked up to see American Flight 587 in flames and attempting to bank, only to wind up in a flat death spiral. "I was in munitions in both the Army and also the Navy. I know what I heard and what I saw. That was no mechanical problem. No way!"
"Howard Greenberg rushed home from his law office in Manhattan to find his wife shell-shocked.
"After seeing the plane fall, and believing it was going to kill both her and her children, Howard Greenberg said his wife spent the next few horrific hours running over body parts in the direction of her neighbors' burning homes. She was carrying blankets and water.
""I'm afraid," Howard Greenberg said, "that my wife believes this is another incident. She'd probably tell you that herself if she was able to talk. I'm afraid that's impossible."
"Personally I might like to believe that it was something else, but when you've been told that this whole area is being considered as a crime scene, and that FBI agents are looking in your yard and on your roof for evidence, for pieces of jet wreckage or human beings, then it becomes hard to make a case for coincidence. "Now that all may change, but right now this is simply too much to fathom."
* * *
Just like with OKC and TWA Flight 800, the eyewitnesses didn't really see what they saw with their own two eyes. Their recollections, in some cases only minutes old, well, the govmint says they really didn't see what they saw. The same thing happened to me and I'll reproduce a section from one of my old newsletters here:
http://www.devvy.com/9612.html#okctwa (August 1996)
"I also know from personal experience that the government doesn't seem very interested in finding out the truth about certain things. I saw, from the split-second instant in the sky when it occurred, the U2 spy plane that crashed in Oroville, CA
"While there were many witnesses who observed this horrifying event after it emerged, I was in a unique position, eyes trained to the sky, the instant it appeared. I will never forget what I saw, the shape of the object which appeared, its color and then plane emerging on fire, the feeling of helplessness, knowing the pilot was going to die in a matter of seconds. I sat in my car with the tears in my eyes, my hands shaking on the wheel, watching and memorizing every image I saw.
"I did everything but beg the U.S. Air Force at Beale AFB in Marysville, Ca., to take my statement. I told them I live about 1 1/2 hours from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB and Cheyenne Mountain, all in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I told them that I would be happy to sit down with some of their computer people and I could help recreate in minute detail exactly what I saw that day in the sky. Guess what? To this day, despite three attempts on my part to give a statement, including driving to Beale while in California, a 45-minute drive from my parents home, no one from the Air Force has ever contacted me to take my statement.
"A young, though experienced Air Force Captain died right in front of my eyes, he left a family with small children. An innocent bystander on the ground where the plane went in, a lady, was killed. Yet, like General Partin, no one from the government seems interested in what I saw from the instant it appeared in the sky." To this day, after the settlements and the sanitized report, I have never been contacted.
* * *
What about other aviation experts, what do they say?
Every single pilot or individual interviewed that is not affiliated with any govmint agency or on any of the "mainstream" tv newsies, i.e. FOX or CNN, says that this was no accident, period. Below are some pieces you might wish to read from investigative reporters who aren't on the govmint's payroll:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/14/200838.shtml
http://twa800.com/news/bh-11-13-01.htm
http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2001/11/15/133624
http://twa800.com/news/ames-11-13-01.htm
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/15/140045.shtml
* * *
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/queenscrash/theories-usat.htm
11/16/2001
Evidence in Aircraft Disaster 'Perplexing'
By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
"Veteran aviation accident investigators say they have never seen a scenario like the one that played out in the final moments of American Airlines Flight 587. They have little doubt about what led the jet to crash Monday in New York City: Large pieces came loose shortly after it took off. But that hardly solves the mystery. Investigators are still searching for what could have caused the Airbus A300 jet to break into pieces and slam into homes in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens about 9:17 a.m."
* * *
Missing Video
The majority of Americans are unaware that the Department of Injustice has been fighting a FOIA for years regarding the release of video tapes that show exactly what happened in front of the Murrah Building in OKC on April 19, 1995. Why would the government do such a thing? Why is John Ashcroft to this day fighting to keep these videos secret? Why the answer is obvious: to protect a cover-up. For those unfamiliar with this, please go to:
http://www.devvy.com/mcveigh4_20010625.html
"For almost a year, the Justice Department's lawyers have fought tooth and nail in court to have a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit dismissed. This FOIA suit is to get 23 pieces of tape the FBI confiscated from surveillance cameras at the Murrah Building and some of the other buildings in close proximity to the crime scene. Why is the government, now Ashcroft's DoJ, fighting so hard to keep this evidence secret? This film alone would prove opportunity for McVeigh and establish once and for all his physical being in front of the building that morning.
"If that video film from the Southwestern Bell Building showed Tim McVeigh, either alone or with others, getting out of that Ryder truck and walking away, we would have seen it on TV a million times already, just like the Rodney King video. If that video film the feds are hiding showed McVeigh, either alone or with others, getting out of that Ryder truck and walking away, the U.S. government would have used it in the first trial. There would have been no need to go through the horse and pony show, the video would have proved their case beyond a shadow of a doubt - if you ignore the physical evidence, i.e. the truck bomb could not have blown the building up.
"The fact that the feds continue to fight to keep all of these video tapes under wraps speaks louder than this entire piece. My money also says somewhere on those videos you will clearly see there is no crater in front of the building. On those videos the world would see the truth: the sequence of explosions as the whole thing happened. That is why the feds won't turn over the videos. Take money to the bank on it. You can also take money to the bank because I'll bet the feds deny the existence of any film or that it has disappeared. Bet."
* * *
What does this have to do with AA Flight 587?
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/11/16/100702
Nov. 16, 2001
FBI Sitting on Flight 587 Videotape
"A videotape that could show exactly what happened to American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed three minutes after taking off from New York's JFK airport on Monday, is in the hands of the FBI - but the bureau has thus far declined to release it.
"New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the Daily News Friday that the agency has given surveillance videotapes from Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway bridges to the FBI.
""One tape captures the plane taking off from JFK," the News said.
"Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway traverse Jamaica Bay, where the plane's vertical stabilizer was discovered intact after the crash.
"Dozens of eyewitnesses have told media outlets they saw an explosion and/or a fire at the juncture of Flight 587's wing and fuselage moments before it began to break up, losing its tail first, then both its engines.
"Since discovering the engines were working properly, NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely - along with most media outlets - have quietly dropped references to witness accounts of a midair explosion.
"The NTSB now says that wind turbulence from another plane is the most likely cause of the crash. One former jumbo jet veteran pilot was highly skeptical of the turbulence theory.
""If wind turbulence caused that accident, I'll never fly again," Barry Schiff, who flew 747s for TWA, told the New York Post.
"But a videotape showing the exact sequence of Flight 587's breakup could clear up any mystery, showing whether or not the breakup was caused by an explosion or by turbulence.
"It's not clear why the FBI has not yet released the MTA video - or even commented on what it shows. It's also not clear why the Flight 587 video was not turned over to the NTSB instead of the FBI, which had reportedly adopted a secondary role in the wake of NTSB claims that the crash was an accident."
* * *
If this was an accident as the govmint is trying to sell, why does the FBI have the tape and not the NTSB? The FBI is so corrupt, it's beyond rancid. Not everyone who works for the FBI is rotten, but the hierarchy are nothing more than political animals who would lie to God himself. I'm going to file a FOIA to get a copy of that video. Yes, I'm resigned to a long battle because I know from experience how the FOIA game is played by this corrupt government and it's agencies.
* * *
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/11/17/103936
Saturday, Nov. 17, 2001
Flight 587 Video Shows 'Puff of Smoke' in Sky
"A second-by-second videotape of the final moments of doomed American Airlines Flight 587 shows a puff of smoke in the sky seconds after it crashed outside New York's JFK Airport Monday, lending credence to eyewitnesses who say the jetliner exploded before slamming into a Queens, N.Y., neighborhood.
"Though Flight 587 probers have not released the key videotape, shot from a Metropolitan Transportation Authority highway surveillance camera, reporters from New York's Daily News were allowed to view it Friday.
""The tape ... shows a white outline of the jetliner against a clear sky in fairly steep decline," the News reported in Saturday editions. "Seconds later, the outline disappears and the video shows a blurry, white, undefined patch as the plane apparently breaks apart."
"Visible in one of the final frames of the sequential videotape is "a puff of white smoke in the sky."
"Dozens of other witnesses told various media outlets they saw the jet either explode or catch fire before it crashed.
"An explosion would be a problem for NTSB officials, who spent the better part of the last few days trying to sell the idea that the plane's vertical stabilizer snapped off, causing the in-flight breakup, because of "wake turbulence" from a Japan Airlines 747 that had taken off from JFK two minutes earlier.
"Independent aviation experts have generally scoffed at the NTSB theory.
""[747 wake turbulence] is not strong enough to be able to break off a tail or to compromise any sort of a normal airplane," said ABC News aviation analyst John Nance on Friday.
""They could turn a little airplane upside down. But especially an A-300, which is a jumbo jet - no way in the world should that ever have any potentially disastrous impact on the aircraft or the tail," he explained.
"On Wednesday, an unnamed aviation expert quoted in New York's Newsday said one likely explanation for Flight 587's breakup was a bomb exploding on board. " (See: Aviation Expert: Bomb One Likely Cause of Flight 587 Crash.)
* * *
Conclusion
It is my belief, strictly my opinion, that this plane was sabatoged before it left the ground (explosives inside the structure) or immediately upon take-off when it was most vulnerable. If objects (projectiles) were inserted into those engines, there would have been no time for correction.
Areas like JFK airport and the surrounding areas are very noisy and a shoulder mounted rocket launcher could easily be used to take down a plane - especially from a small boat out on the bay. The minute I was informed of this crash, to this second, there is no doubt in my mind the plane was sabotaged.
If this is the case, why has no one come forward to claim responsibility and who would gain by such an act?
The truly evil on this planet who commit acts of terrorism don't always let everyone know who they are, especially since 9-11. Potential hijackers know that their chances of pulling off another take-over of a commercial airliner in this country are nil to zip. Therefore, other methods, such as those used for Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, must be employed.
The other thing I mentioned to Larry a few hours after we watched the television coverage of AA Flight 587 was why another American Airlines flight out of NYC? Why not (God forbid) a Southwestern flight taking off in Seattle or a Delta flight taking off at Dallas-Ft. Worth? American Airlines lost two planes on September 11th - one in NYC at the WTC and the other hit the Pentagon.
Now, on November 12th, two months and one day later, another American plane goes down in NYC. I do not believe it was sheer coincidence that there was this massive structural breakdown and compromise of the integrity of the tail section and engines falling off, all at the same time that caused this terrible crash, just happened to one of the two airlines that were involved in hijackings 9-11.
Think about it: the tail section and both engines on the same plane, all falling off within three minutes after take-off. Pilots with more than 40 years flying experience have told me this never, never, ever happens to one plane at the same time unless it's a bomb or is hit by fire from another aircraft and even then, not in this sequence.
Flight 587 was apparently 74 minutes late taking off. To me this is a key component of the puzzle. What was going on with the plane during those 74 minutes? Who had access to the plane and a whole list of questions there. Second: There were quite a number of boats on the water in Jamaica Bay - eyewitnesses and possibly terrorists who could have used any number of weapons targeted at the plane the moment it lifted off the ground. If I were a professional investigative reporter, this is where I would be sniffing around real hard.
For the past few years I have been studying Sun-tzu and his art of war. Over the past year, I have spent a great amount of reading time studying Francis Marion, better known as the "Swamp Fox." Hit your enemy and run. Hit them again and again and again, randomly. Continue to create that fear in the populace. Keep them edgy. Play on their fears and weaknesses. Play head games with people so that they are more prone to turning to drugs, liquor, porn and any other escape mechanisms at their disposal. Keep them weak and cowering and hurt them financially.
I find, once again, the actions of this govmint to be despicable because they are putting people's lives ahead of corporate profits and promoting a false sense of security. Time will tell and, once again, as like so many times in the past 20 years, the families of these horrible events will have to fight tooth and nail to get the truth from a thoroughly corrupt and dishonest government from Bush to Ashcroft to Minetta. Please, Bush apologists, open your eyes.
For me, I shall once again get to see more of my country because I will be driving, not flying. If I were a parent of a minor (my daughter is 26 and I have no say whether she flies or not, but she now refuses), there is no way I would take my precious child on a commercial airliner until they arm the pilots, give at least pepper spray to the flight attendants, bomb sniffing dogs on the ground for every item that goes into the belly of the plane, all personnel undergo background checks and maintenance programs at the airlines are beefed up. Until then, for me, it's the pedal to the metal.
I live three miles from the Sacramento Airport. This is a rural airport located amid agricultural fields. I can see the tower from my back yard. Each and every day the weather permits, I walk my two dogs over in the field around the corner. Everyday I see planes taking off or landing from the airport. Each time I see one while walking my dogs, I pray to God and ask him to please protect the people on those planes. I told this to Larry at the Pentagon on November 11th. It may sound silly, but I do it for every flight I see taking off. Then Flight 587 hit and I was simply in shock.
After I got home on November 16th, I resumed walking my dogs. I still see the planes take off and land. I still pray for the people on-board while walking Dusty and Sir William Wallace, better known as Willy. I watch the flights climb into the sky, hoping, praying that they will make it to their destination safely. Perhaps I need to pray a little harder.
Perhaps the government needs to stop lying and the airlines stand up to the lies spewed by this government instead of just accepting their lies and then paying out millions in settlements. But, then again, the airlines are federally subsidized and as the old saying goes: the borrower is slave to the lender. Think about it.
Perhaps when the lying stops, then we might find out who really took down TWA Flight 800 and AA Flight 587.
* * *
If you decide not to fly anymore until the industry gets it's act together, tell the airline of your choice why you won't fly, otherwise they will think it's the economy or some other spin put out by the govmint. Let them know that you don't trust their maintenance programs or these phony new 'form over substance' regs implemented by the mentally impaired in Congress. You can e-mail any airline through:
Worldwide & Domestic US Air Carriers:
http://www.geocities.com/Thavery2000/
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words
Below are URL's that contain photos of this latest tragedy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1652000/1652243.stm
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/queenscrash_pix/photo7.html
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/queenscrash_pix/photo6.html
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/queenscrash_pix/photo5.html
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/queenscrash_pix/photo4.html
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/queenscrash_pix/photo3.html
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