Conspiracy Theorists: WHAT DID HAPPEN TO FLIGHT 93?

WHAT DID HAPPEN TO FLIGHT 93?
RICHARD WALLACE, US Editor, examines riddle of hijacked jet as he visits crash site

THE unmarked military-style jet swooped down at high speed through the valley, twice circled the smouldering black scar where Flight 93 had careered into the ground just seconds earlier and then hurtled off over the horizon.

At least six eyewitnesses saw the mysterious aircraft on the morning of September 11 last year. But the US authorities deny it ever existed.

So when George Bush laid a wreath yesterday at the crash site in a remote valley outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, he was one of only a handful of people who know what really happened to the 40 innocents and four hijackers aboard the doomed United Airlines Boeing 757-200.

Those unimaginable final seconds as passengers showed courageous defiance apparently wrestling for control of the aircraft have become one of the defining images of the tragedy.

And "Let's roll" - ringleader Todd Beamer's no-nonsense call to arms - became a defining battle cry in America's war on terror.

But of the four aircraft taken on September 11, the exact fate of Flight 93 after its two-hour journey is proving difficult for US officials to explain.

What was the white jet doing there and why won't they admit to its presence? Why did other witnesses see smoke and flames trailing from Flight 93 as it fell from the sky, indicating a possible explosion aboard?

Or - and this is proving to be the most uncomfortable question of all - in the moments before the airliner piled into the black, spongey earth at 575mph did an American fighter pilot have to do the unthinkable and shoot down a US civil airliner?

Susan Mcelwain, 51, who lives two miles from the site, knows what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.

"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was travelling real fast, but hardly made any sound.

"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialled 911 and told them what happened.

"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got home and saw the TV that I realised it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93.

Ididn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the very moment it came down.

"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look.

"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around.

"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.

"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."

Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.

"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it down.

"If they shot it down, or something else happened, everyone, especially the victims' families, have a right to know."

Lee Purbaugh, 32, was the only person to see the last seconds of Flight 93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely 10.06am - and he also saw the white jet.

He was working at the Rollock Inc. scrapyard on a ridge overlooking the point of impact, less than half a mile away. "I heard this real loud noise coming over my head," he told the Daily Mirror. "I looked up and it was Flight 93, barely 50ft above me. It was coming down in a 45 degree and rocking from side to side. Then the nose suddenly dipped and it just crashed into the ground. There was this big fireball and then a huge cloud of smoke."

But did he see another plane? "Yes, there was another plane," Lee said. "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon."

Tom Spinelli, 28, was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and a half away. "I saw the white plane," he said.

"It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for something. I saw it before and after the crash."

India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.

"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind." But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away? Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what they reckon."

Light debris was also found eight miles away in New Baltimore. A section of engine weighing a ton was located 2,000 yards - over a mile -from the crash site. Theorists point out a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile attacks the hottest part of aircraft - the engine.

The authorities say the impact bounced it there. But the few pieces of surviving fuselage, local coroner Wallace Miller told us, were "no bigger than a carrier bag".

Nearly all the passengers were reduced to charcoal on impact and the largest piece of human tissue found was a section of spine eight inches long.

CURIOUSLY, military officials insist there was never any pursuit of Flight 93, although they were informed that it was a suspected hijack at 9.16am, 50 minutes before the plane came down.

At 9.35am they assumed it was heading for Washington DC after it changed course in a 180 degree turn and three F-16s - top speed 1,800mph - now patrolling over the capital were told to "protect the White House at all costs".

An anonymous flight controller said on the day that an F-16 was "in hot pursuit" of Flight 93 - Washington to Shanksville is seven to 10 minutes flying time.

A few minutes before the crash Bill Wright, piloting a single-engine Piper, could see Flight 93 three miles away, but was suddenly told to turn away and land immediately without explanation.

At 9.58am a 911 call - the last mobile phone contact from Flight 93 - was made from one of the airliner's toilets by passenger Edward Felt.

Glenn Cramer, the emergency supervisor who answered it, said on the day: "He was very distraught. He said he believed the plane was going down.

"He did hear some sort of an explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane, but he didn't know where. And then we lost contact with him." Glenn Cramer has now been gagged by the FBI.

Also, according to sources, the last seconds of the cockpit voice recorder are the loud sounds of wind, hinting at a possible hole somewhere in the fuselage. What caused the smoke and explosion? Why the wind sounds?

The FBI's later explanation for the white jet was that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet was asked to descend from 34,000ft to 5,000ft some minutes after the crash to give co-ordinates for the site. The plane and pilot have never been produced or identified. Susan Mcelwain says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she saw.

FURTHER verification that some kind of military aircraft was operating in the area is scientifically irrefutable.

At 9.22am a sonic boom - caused by supersonic flight - was picked up by an earthquake monitoring station in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles from Shanksville.

That Todd Beamer and others launched an assault on the hijackers there is no doubt. The brief extracts released from audio tapes indicate a fierce struggle going on at the cockpit door.

But nobody - official or otherwise - has categorically said the group got into the cockpit or that their actions led to the crash. Those final, agonising moments are mere presumption.

President Bush and his team have the whole story. So why aren't they telling the rest of us?

At least SIX witnesses, including Susan Mcelwain saw a small military type plane flying around shortly BEFORE UA93 crashed. The FBI denies its existence

The US Government insists the plane exploded on impact yet a one-ton section of the engine was found over a mile away and other light debris was found scattered over eight miles away

Passenger Edward Felt made an emergency call from the plane. He spoke of an explosion and seeing some white smoke. The superviser who took the call has been gagged by the FBI

UA93 was identified as a hijack at 9.16am. At 9.35am three F-16s were ordered to "protect the White House at all costs" when it turned towards the capital. At 10.06am it crashed at Shanksville, less than 10mins flying time from Washington

Sources claim the last thing heard on the cockpit voice recorder is the sound of wind - suggesting the plane had been holed

The FBI insists there was no military plane in the area but at 9.22am a sonic boom - caused by a supersonic jet - was picked up by an earthquake monitor in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles away from Shanksville.

Noted. I've said it before and I'll say it again:

" I'm just not sure anymore. It is best to leave one for the heroes of that fateful day."

>>> If an F-16 flew that close over your head the noise would practically knock you down. <<

I've been underneath a Blue Angel at full boggie that routinely flew 50 to 100' over my house during the Seattle Seafair shows. It mad a small pine tree that was below the level of my head in my neighbors yard shake from the sound. The best I can describe the sound was like the sound of a sheet being ripped amplified about 100,000 times. It physically hurt your heavy organs!

An F-16 probably wasn't what she "didn't" hear, if it was anything at all!!

Just look at the Mirror's story--they cite as one piece of evidence the scrambling of F-16s from the DC area around 9:50 and the Mirror suggests they flew toward Shanksville, then another piece of "evidence" is a sonic boom near Shanksville at 9:20, well before even the Mirror says any F-16s were in the area.

If they can silently fly 50 feet above the ground, a little thing like traveling back in time should be no problem.

To the best of my knowledge, no interviewer has ever asked Bush [or Cheney], "Mr. President [or Mr. Vice President], can you say conclusively, and unequivocally, that no branch of the United States military, to include the United States Air Force, but not limited thereto, was involved in the downing of United Airlines Flight 93, on the morning of September 11, 2001?"

Because there simply isn't enough credible reason to suspect any such thing. It would be like asking Dubya if he's been getting hummers from the interns like the SinkEmperor.

I suppose some adolescent (of whatever age) might ask him the question, and when he denied it announce that he'd been caught in a lie if any military personnel happened to be among the passengers who brought down Flight 93.

I'm real tired of government deceit though.

So are we all, which is all the more reason not to discredit legitimate questions about government conduct by allowing them to become entangled with this tinfoil-hat nonsense.

There is nowhere near enough smoke for that amount of fuel.

Smoke is a product of incomplete combustion. A really roaring fire wouldn't produce much more smoke (it might even produce less) than a small one.

Very interesting article. A lot happened that day. If there were fighter pilots in the area, and I tend to think that was a possiblity, they probably saw Flight 93 disappear into the ground. What an incredible visual to have to be straddled with.

Uhhh, I don't think so. If Flt93 was "50ft" above him and coming down at a 45deg angle, it would have crashed 50ft away from him. Plus, he sure did witness a lot of maneuvering in less than four seconds ("rocking" and nose dip).

Do you have any credentials in the Aviation industry to back up your assertions?

Umm, if that plane was shot down, you would see a streak of smoke all the way down to the crash site- that picture shows a perfectly clear sky except for the ball of smoke rising from the ground.

One does not need an aviation background to know that a damaged plane trails smoke, and certainly one that was shot down with a missing engine would leave some type of smoke trail.

It is my belief that the passengers struggled in the cockpit, and in the end forced the plane into the ground.

Given the "not an executive jet" claim, here's a better candidate. Although i don't believe the story either, just like posting pics of obscure aircraft (and still think the Skyfox conversion of the T-33 made a lot of sense)

Boeing Skyfox

The description sounds like an F-14 or F-15 except for the color.

And the sound, and the "...had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side."

Two rear engines sounds like pods, and the big fin on the back sounds like a T-tail of some sort - two upright fins sound like winglets.

"Why even give credibilty to this twaddle?

The answer to your question is simple. It might have happened that way. Why on earth would it be hard to believe that the government, knowing what was happening and knowing that the White House might be the next target, would do anything to bring that plane down? The bigger question is, why don't they have the decency....and the honor to tell the truth? The answer is that it would not be politically prudent to do so. And if this scenario is true....then this is the greatest danger facing America.

I have heard first hand from 2 contacts at Toledo Express Airport that one of the F-16's from there shot the jet down with cannon fire.

Oh - and I also heard them fly from the ANG base their, over my house on 9/11/01, on their way to PA. And they were not going slow.

Its pretty hard to mistake pods usually found on fighters with engines....not to mention most pods would either be on the wing tips, under the wings or on the centerline pylons.

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