[WarrenC]

U.S. investigators now believe that a hijacker in the cockpit aboard United Airlines Flight 93 instructed terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the jetliner into a Pennsylvania field because of a passenger uprising in the cabin.

This theory, based on the government's analysis of cockpit recordings, discounts the popular perception of insurgent passengers grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls

Sentence 2 contradicts sentence 1.

[EllaMinnow]

Sentence 2 contradicts sentence 1.

It really does, and makes the whole article nonsensical.

[cinFLA]

How?

[Imperialist]

"U.S. investigators now believe that a hijacker in the cockpit aboard United Airlines Flight 93 instructed terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the jetliner into a Pennsylvania field because of a passenger uprising in the cabin.

This theory, based on the government's analysis of cockpit recordings, discounts the popular perception of insurgent passengers grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls

Sentence 2 contradicts sentence 1."(WarrenC)


Exactly. These passengers are heros.

[xm177e2]

Sentence 2 contradicts sentence 1.

No, it doesn't.

When the article refers to "the popular perception of insurgent passengers grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls," it is referring to the perception that the passengers were literally grappling with the controls--like they had the controls in their hands. It looks like they never got the chance to try to get that far because the terrorists crashed the plane first.