"Flight 93" - Comments by Commercial Pilot Who Flew on 9/11

Via E mail | 06/05/06 | vanity

[Leroy S. Mort]

"I turned to my Co-Pilot and said "I don't know what has happened, but I do know that things will never be the same","
I might just be too jaded for my own good, but I cannot imagine a pilot, in all that confusion and unknown saying that at that moment. It sounds like a line from a movie.

A friend of mine who lived near NYC called me that morning and told me to turn on the TV - a plane had hit one of the Towers. I was on the phone with her when the second plane hit and she said "What are they doing to my city!". I said "I don't know, but I do know life is never going to be the same."

Probably a pretty common reaction.

[Dallas59]

Some pics from the Memorial site we visited Last week...

Click here for Flight 93 Memorial Pics Shankville Pennsylvania

[archy]

Unlike Flight 93 he couldn't have gotten into the cockpit as the cockpit door is now armored and no passenger is going to sit still and let anyone interfere with the flight. I always felt that with the improved cockpit door that I would be totally safe, and that all my passengers in the cabin would act as Sky Marshals...

Unless, of course, the hijackers have guns and everyone else is disarmed. Like on Flight 11, the Boston-based plane that first hit the World Trade Center.

"The American Airlines FAA Principal Security Inspector (PSI) was notified by Suzanne Clark of American Airlines Corporate Headquarters, that an on board flight attendant contacted American Airlines Operations Center and informed that a passenger located in seat 10B shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B at 9:20 a.m.

"The passenger killed was Daniel Lewin, shot by passenger Satam Al Suqami. One bullet was reported to have been fired."

[archy]

I'm a veteran. This is where you tell me, "thanks for your service."

You're now added to the FR all veterans/all services ping list. It's infrequently used, but just FReepmail me if you want off it.

And thank you for your service.

[archy]

Scenarios with hijacked planes used for suicide purposes were gamed as far back at least as the Atlanta Olympics.

Further. On 21 February 1973, an Israeli aircraft shot down a Libyan Boeing 727 airliner with 106 passengers aboard over the Sinai as it was squawking a distress signal, fearing that it was about to be crashed into the Israeli Dimona Nuclear Research Facility or nearby nuclear separation plant, two extremely critical national security facilities. The aircraft was also near Israeli troop concentrations, and the Israelis had intelligence of possible suicide attacks using civil aircraft.

And of course in 1988 the USS Vincennes *RoboCruiser* shot down an Iranian airbus in the Gulf after mistaking it for an F-14 fighter which the commander believed was about to attack his vessel.

Why and how the Vincennes mistook the bulky, wide-bodied Airbus A300 for a sleek, supersonic F14 fighter plane barely a third the transport's size will be the subject of "a full investigation," Reagan promised.

A military team under the command of Rear Adm. William N. Fogarty of the U.S. Central Command will leave this week to begin that investigation, Defense Department officials said.

Following the investigation, the crew of the USS Vincennes was awarded the Navy Combat Action Ribbon for shooting down the commercial airliner and killing the 290 persons aboard.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Yes indeed, our thanks belong to him...
Thanks for passing it on.

[bigeasy_70118]

Great post. Thank you.

[genefromjersey]

Dazedcat,what do YOU think he might have said ? "Hey: How about that game last night ?" -or- "Wow ! That stew is HOT !" -or- what ?

What did YOU say when you first became aware of 9/11 ?
" I hope they're not going to pre-empt my favorite TV shows for THIS crap ?"

(Sarcasm now officially "off".)

[Old_Mil]

Even the pilots of UAL Flt 93 are given a data link message that the Towers have been hit and to beware of cockpit intruders...they brush it off in disbelief...as I'm sure any pilot would have prior to that date.

Let me make sure I understand you - the crew received an ACARS message warning them about the Towers and cockpit intruders PRIOR to the takeover of 93 by the terrorists...and they still opened the cockpit door?

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Hindsight is always 20/20 isn't it!

[EBH]

repeat?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1641478/posts

[Dazedcat]

I don't know what I would have said. Maybe a "holy ####" or probably more along the lines of "dear God help us". Then I would have focused on getting my plane down and my passengers with it.

It wouldn't have sounded like a movie line, that's for sure.

(sarcasm never off if required)

[beezdotcom]

Unless, of course, the hijackers have guns and everyone else is disarmed.

I don't think it's going to be that easy anymore. People respected bullets more BEFORE they knew the alternative was to get crashed into a building. The 9/11 hijackers have gone and ruined it for budding hijackers everywhere - used to be, everyone would sit quietly in their seat and hope the negotiators would get them out alive. I think now that the calculus has changed.

[El Gato]

I thought it sad that there were only 6 people viewing it including us, even at matineee.

It's not the sort of movie that attracts a large total audience. Folks who wanted to see it, saw it early. Theater was almost full when I saw it, and that was at least a week after it opened. Quietest crowd I've ever seen exiting a theater. My seat was very near the exit, when I got out in the hallway, I stepped to the side and watched the rest of the crowd exit. Only a couple of female 18 or 19 y/o ditzes had anything to say, and they were criticizing the military response. I live in a town that would be a one stoplight village if not for the Largest Military Base (population) in the Free World, that wraps around the town. (Of course it's an Army base, so maybe they felt free to criticize the Air Force/ANG)

[El Gato]

It just didn't act.

What would you have done with the information that Osama was "determined to strike inside US with suicide aircraft"?

Remember it has to be something the public will accept.

Arming the pilots comes to mind, but Bush's unfortunate choice of Transportation Secretary, and in turn his choice of Security Head (former BATFer), probably forestalled that choice, as it continues to, in effect, do.

[No Blue States]

Of note, out of the 6 who viewed it I did hear sobbing at the end...while at the same time my own eyes were watering.
Its the most powerful movie Ive ever seen, mostly because its based on reality..but it really was well made.

[genefromjersey]

Are you talking about the presidential daily briefing of 08/06/01 ?

You might want to look at it:

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/80601pdb.html

If you do look at it,and read both pages, I think you'll notice the idea anyone would use airplanes was considered "unlikely".

Had YOU been in the hot seat reading this briefing, please advise what actions you would have taken.

[genefromjersey]

Yup-yup-yup.

Then the little green men, who were in fact cleverly disguised Mossad agents,snuck in and changed the text of the PDB in order to cover up the machinations of the Zionist Neo-Cons who-with the help of the Tri-Lateral Commission-were really running things,and,and and...