Flight 93 - The Three-Minute Gap: What Happened in the Last 180 Seconds?

AirDisaster.com/Philadelphia Daily News ^ | September 16, 2002 | William Bunch

[Timesink]

To be published in Monday's PDN; this is an advance copy.

[Timesink]

By the way, the above article does not necessarily reflect my own personal views yadda yadda yadda. I'm merely offering fodder.

[gcruse]

Excellent. Congrats, mon.

[The PeteMan]

good read, heads up, I see a small correction that needs to be made: "But the relatives of Flight 93 passengers who heard the cockpit tape at a Princeton, N.J., hotel last April 18 said they government officials laid out a timetable for the crash in a briefing and in a transcript that accompanied the recording."

**I think you meant to have "that" instead of "they" but I say just take out the "they" but don't replace it with anything.

[Fred Mertz]

But the FBI has clamped a tight lid of secrecy on the flight data recorder — which could best show how Flight 93 actually crashed — and on the cockpit voice recorder.

I agree with the author; the real story will never be told.

[EternalVigilance]

You're good, my friend.

Very well done.

[EternalVigilance]

You're good, my friend.

Very well done.

[LibWhacker]

Good work, sir! And thanks for the sneak peek.

[Timesink]

(I think I should add that I am not William Bunch. I'm just the reposter.)

[Jeff Head]

Congrats on your story being published.

I established my own record of events in the weeks following the 9-11 attack.

THE HEROES OF FLIGHT 93

All of it was based on news reports at the time.

I believe there is no doubt that the passengers attacked the terrorists. I believe there is no doubt that they were struggling with them for control of the aircraft at the end.

I also believe there is no doubt that military aircraft were aloft and had orders to not allow Flight 93 to reach Washington DC. Either way, that aircraft was not going to the Capitol.

The folks on the aircraft could not have known of the fighters IMHO or their orders. They acted on their own and they did fight those terrorists. That is enough for me as regards their status as heroes and their deserving a National Monumnet.

Best FRegards.

[Jeff Head]

Oops ... I see it is not your story. Well then, thanks for posting it here.

[BlackVeil]

Asked a business jet to inspect the crash crater! That explanation, if true, is so awful. No security response. Planes hijacked, crashing into the nations most important buildings here there and everywhere. Minutes pass, hours pass, more planes hijacked, flying about with their transponders off. No a single airforce jet put up to do anything. No point in having an air force!

"Swissair Flight 111, which crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in September 1998 ... " was also missing the last part 6 mins of the black box tape. Ah, that crash was another strange one - part of the series in the 1990s, like TWA800 and all the rest. I await a full explanation. I suspect that a covert war was being fought all through the 1990s, a full ten years before Sept 11.

[Jeff Head]

See my post number ten.

We probably will never know the whole story ... but I believe what we do know is enough as regards those passengers who attacked the bastard terrorists on that flight.

[Fred Mertz]

I believe you and I are on the same sheet of music....again.

[Howlin]

Minutes pass, hours pass, more planes hijacked, flying about with their transponders off. No a single airforce jet put up to do anything.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but most of that is simply not true.

[Amore]

NBC at their 8 o'clock hour on Sept. 11th (Dateline?) interviewed a number of air traffic controllers involved in the days' events. One of them DID state that they asked a nearby pilot if he would mind checking out the scene.

(& timesink, there's a couple of other typos besides the "they" previously mentioned, if you can do anything about getting them fixed, one of which was "transcipt," but maybe they're both the sort that will be fixed by spellchecking)

[Jeff Head]

Ya buddy.

[CIApilot]

Asked a business jet to inspect the crash crater! That explanation, if true, is so awful.

Not unusual for ATC to request reports from nearby aircraft. We were flying overhead when Valujet crashed near Miami, and were asked to inspect/report. I'm sure there were jets in the area that could have provided eyes and ears on Flt 93, too. We'll probably never know the real story about any military action.

[sjeann]

My stepson just today was telling me the tail section of the plane was found 5 miles from the crash site. I have not heard this before. Anyone know if this is true?

[prisoner6]

Excellent read, thanks for the post.

It's been my opinion 93 was shot down, mainly because of the reported debris field. Remember the reports of a farmer finding a cargo door in a pond? That was several miles from the impact point. I might believe paper or insulation being carried on the wind after a crash and intense fire, but not a cargo door.

There were early reports, including video, of other plane parts found nearby as well. Mysteriously all those reports, along with the people who found debris, seem to have vanished.

There was also an early report, and noted in this article as well, of a phone conversation. The operator said the caller was near the tail of the plane and he was saying a group of passengers was going to storm the cockpit. But, BEFORE or JUST AS, the attack began there was a loud sound, the caller saying something abou the plane pitching and him seeing sky. The operator heard a rushing noise and the phone went dead.

Admittedly that was an early report, and I may have some of the details a bit wrong, but that's how I remember it.

prisoner6