Patali: Pilot of AA flight dumped fuel prior to crash, in (likely) response to mechanical failures

Gov. Pataki | 11/12/01 | WABC Radio

[Steven W.]

Gov. Pataki is reporting that the pilot of the ill-fated American Airlines flight dumped most of the airplane's fuel over Jamaica Bay, anticipating a crash landing and most likely indicating a trained response to onboard mechanical failures.

[Shale]

LOL.....spewed my apple cider when I read that. Hehehe...him his beard and his gut

[mombonn]

You won't be hearing from Mr. Gore today. . .

A bright spot on an otherwise sad day.

[Smogger]

There is no reason to make an assumption, hence there is no "safest" assumption in this case.

Of course there is a reason to make an assumption. The reason being to aid you in deciding what to do next. For my part I am going to assume for the time being that this was a deliberate act. As a result of my assumption I am going to be staying off of planes for the forseeable future. I suspect most people with brains in their heads will error on the side of caution with me and stay off of planes as well. If they have a choice of course.

[concerned about politics]

was it J.F.K., Jr.?

Reports came from the city that Kennedy was going to run for senator. The report came from a friend of his that worked for the George magazine. He didn't say if he was going to run as a democrat. The friend wouldn't answer that question! It didn't make it to the main stream presses 6:00 news, of course. Guess they didn't feel it was "newsworthy".

[Steven W.]

The question isn't whether or not the plane crash was the result of a mechanical failure. It obviously was. The question is was the mechanical failure the result of improper maintenance, an act of God, or deliberate sabotage

correct

[wingnuts'nbolts]

How in the name of all this is reasonable would he have had time to dump a full load of fuel in 4 minutes or less?

[BlueHorseShoe]

"...Has she found out a way to blame it on the Bush tax cut yet?..."

She's still searching for that angle but I think she said something about quite a lot of friction from her big, fat thighs rubbing together when she walks making a very significant impact on air density.

At least I think that's what she said. You know, I may have gotten that wrong because every time I see her UGLY MUG my ears plug up and I get this gagging reflex.

[Magnum44]

"If he had time to dump fuel, wouldn't he also have had time to radio a distress call?"

Yes, which makes me wonder if anybody there has enough of the facts yet to be making any comments.

[BluH2o]

Haven't read thru every post on this string so someone may have touched on this ... a catastrophic engine failure that caused the wing to disintigrate would dump fuel. My take on this ... the crew didn't have time to initiate a fuel dump, they were to busy trying to stabilize the aircraft.

[Clinton's a rapist]

If you recall, the EgyptAir accident was also quickly blamed on mechanical failure, and quite detailed explanations of how it occured appeared in the press before the flight recorder was recovered and gave the lie to those reports.

[TheRealLobo]

You said "A fifty caliber sniper round fired up the runway could easily hit the 12' diameter jet intake and cause the engine to self destruct.

Instead of posting National Guardsmen inside of terminals, they should be on the perimeters and approaches."

Only if the plane was less than 4 miles away from the shooter. And only if the round was one of the anti-armored vehicle ones.

[ikka]

Gov. Pataki is reporting that the pilot of the ill-fated American Airlines flight dumped most of the airplane's fuel over Jamaica Bay, anticipating a crash landing and most likely indicating a trained response to onboard mechanical failures.

IF he dumped fuel, wouldn't he also have time to inform the tower?

[ValerieUSA]

If a terrorist had told the pilot he had a bomb on board, the pilot would be smart to covertly dump fuel - that would explain the action without communication to the tower about what was happening.

[webster]

Dumped fuel HA!

[Shale]

Hm...personally I think that abortion should be illegal. There is a holocaust of unborn babies in this country. and that person brought up a good point, a life is a life. But, that is as far as I agree.....

[Fury]

There is no reason to make an assumption, hence there is no "safest" assumption in this case.

DON'T SAY THAT! That will mean that folks who want to believe that this must be due to a bomb and/or government cover-up without getting more information will have the rug pulled out from under them.

[copycat]

The black box will reveal whether the pilot intentionally dumped fuel.

[ikka]

A fifty caliber sniper round fired up the runway could easily hit the 12' diameter jet intake and cause the engine to self destruct.

NO NO NO!

You don't understand - a *single* 50 caliber round can cause a rupture in the space-time continuum - obviously what happened is that the terrorists caused two versions of the plane to appear, and the copy bumped into the real one, causing them both to crash!

It must be true, I read it on one of those anti-gun sites.

[nicmarlo]

the flight recorder was recovered

I wonder if we'll hear the truth about what's on THIS flight recorder.