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You said:"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."

If a terrorist told a pilot he had a bomb on board, the pilot would likely NOT take the plane over a populated area, PARTICULARLY in light of 9/11/01. Personally, a terrorist would have to kill me and take over the controls himself to get it over a populated area. I suspect most pilots would feel the same way. Oftentimes, when you hear about a plane crash that could have killed more people on the ground, the pilot did his/her best to get it away from populated areas.

a terrorist would have to kill me and take over the controls himself to get it over a populated area

Which could explain why the plane took an abrupt turn.