“To this day I cannot fathom how so many people just sat in abject fear while their deaths were handed to them on a silver platter.”
Flying airliners into buildings was a whole new thing. I’m sure they could not fathom it. They thought, like almost all other hijackings, they’d land in some other country and be let go. Of course, the people in Pennsylvania learned the plan. That very moment was the turning point for those of us who are vigilent.
Hopefully, enough of us will know “the plan” when the time comes and we will not “simply go quietly”, as you well put it.
Actual phone transmission from Flight 175...the second plane:
A Mr. Lee Hanson receives a second call from his son Peter, aboard Flight 175: "It's getting bad, Dad. A stewardess was stabbed. They seem to have knives and Mace. They said they have a bomb. It's getting very bad on the plane. Passengers are throwing up and getting sick. The plane is making jerky movements. I don't think the pilot is flying the plane. I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it'll be very fast. My God, my God." The call ends abruptly, as Lee Hanson hears a woman scream.
They knew. And yet did nothing except await their deaths.
God Bless their souls but, as I said, I can't imagine reacting in that manner in such a situation.