15:26 EDT Tuesday Taylor Lincoln
Potomac Tech Journal
A Fairfax, Va., company that tracks and records the flight paths of airplanes has released dramatic animated illustrations of the flight path of the Boston-Los Angeles American Airlines flight that is believed to be the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center Tuesday morning.
The recording by Flight Explorer, a Fairfax-based subsidiary of Alexandria, Va.-based Flight Dimensions International Inc., shows the path of American Airlines Flight 11 heading west from Boston, then making an abrupt left turn in the vicinity of Albany, N.Y., and heading due south to New York City.
The plane crashed into the World Trade Center at about 8:45 a.m., about 15 minutes before a separate commercial plane crashed into the other World Trade Center tower.
The illustrations were depicted through a series of digital radar images that play back in a computer browser. Flight Explorer planned later Tuesday to distribute animated illustrations of the three other commercial flights that crashed Tuesday morning, said Jeff Krawczyk, chief operating officer of Flight Explorer.
Flight Explorer, which received requests for the illustrations from about 12 news agencies including all the major networks, also has learned that a United Airlines plane bound from Newark to San Francisco that crashed near Pittsburgh, Pa., at 10:10 a.m. had its flight path diverted. The flight was changed to arrive at Reagan National Airport, in Northern Virginia, Krawczyk said.
"When it got outside of Pittsburgh, it actually had a flight plan change to DCA," said Krawczyk said. "We hardly ever get a flight plan change. Very unusual."
Until the past few years, Flight Explorer was the only company that recorded flight paths and received frequent requests from the Federal Aviation Administration for recordings of flights, Krawczyk said.
After the death of golfer Payne Stewart in 1999, the FAA began recording flight paths, Krwczyk said. The company had not heard from the FAA by Tuesday afternoon.
September 11, 2001 12:31 pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York City primary election was called off on Tuesday after an attack that collapsed both massive towers of the city's World Trade Center. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told local broadcaster NY1 that he called off the election after consulting with the governor of New York, and they will decide later when it will be rescheduled.
The mayor said that all available police and fire personnel have been deployed to Lower Manhattan to aid in rescue operations and it would be impossible to go ahead with the election in the immediate wake of the attack.
Among the key races in the poll where Democratic and Republican party primaries to elect candidates to replace Giuliani, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
Five candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination in a closely watched race that is likely to produce the next mayor in the predominantly Democratic city of 8 million people.
Two candidates, including media mogul Michael Bloomberg, are competing for the Republican nomination. Polls during the summer showed nearly all of the Democrats defeating either of the Republicans in a face-to-face contest.
After months of tepid campaigning among the candidates, who are promoting similar agendas to keep down crime rates and boost public education, both races heated up on Sunday during a final round of public debates.