United Flight 93, What actually happened ? [somewhat edited by JT]

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Originally Posted by eastern wiseguy

As I have said in a previous reply the transponder ,in normal circumstances ,remains ON throughout the flight.ATC do not NORMALLY ask anything about squawks(Transponder codes) before landing.

It is possible to use the transponder to ask the pilot questions eg "do you read this transmission,,,if so squawk ident" The questions are, by the nature of the replies likely to be recieved ,generally answered by YES or NO. It is used in a situstion such as a transmitter failure.

Assuming the transponder was off, and you were near or going to land to an airport. Remember assuming that you were flying a hijacked plane, either a knife was on your neck or there was a fighting in or near the cockpit, somehow, you gained the control of the pilot seat, what would you do?

Flight 93 was high jacked:
(9:25 a.m.) The Flight 93 pilots check in with Cleveland flight control, uttering "good morning." [Newsweek, 11/25/01]
9:27 am The plane was hijacked by 4 terrorists.
(9:30 a.m.) The transponder signal from Flight 93 ceases and radar contact is lost. [9:30, MSNBC, 9/3/02, 9:40, CNN, 9/17/01] However, the plane can still be tracked, and is tracked at least at United headquarters until shortly before the final crash (the exact time is not mentioned). However, altitude can no longer be determined. The plane's speed begins to vary wildly, moving between 600 and 400 mph before eventually settling around 400 mph. [Among the Heroes, by Jere Longman, 8/02, p. 77, 214]

At 10.00 the controller observes the plane is flying at 7,500 feet. Six minutes later the controller says the flight is down
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/s...575518,00.html

Cleveland air control received two tansponder signals (no time stamp), one was at 6400 ft, the orther 5800 ft.