Hi,
I am a blogger and novelist, and have been published in Lew Rockwell, Inforwars and Pravda among others. I am currently working on a piece that specifically deals with how Hani Hanjour performed his final maneuver into the Pentagon. I want the piece to specifically cover the time from which he walks into the cockpit until the final impact. Interspersed with this will be flashbacks to his aviation training in order to compare what his skills were and what he supposedly accomplished.
I sent an email to the webmaster, Rob, and he told me I could post the question in this section (I believe this is the section he was referring to)
I want to make clear that I am not entering this with an agenda, I am an agnostic on this topic, but want to dig into it and write something that will clear up some things with me, and hopefully for others.
Some of the things I am interested in really understanding are:
How difficult would it have been for Hanjour to use the autopilot, did he use the autopilot for the final maneuver? What would it be like for someone who had never flown a jet, but had practiced on a simulator? Would it be overwhelming, or more or less the same? What type of procedures would he have had to accomplish, and could he have learned them well enough on a simulator to carry them out effectively?
I know some will say this has been gone over too much, but I don't believe that there is an article written yet for the layman, and written well, that goes over this in detail. I want to stick the facts, and let the reader make his conclusions. I realize this will be a long article, in the 10,000 word range, long form, so I am willing to go into a lot of detail.
Ideally, I would like to be able to interview, by email, chat or Skype, a pilot with extensive experience flying a 757 and someone very familiar with Hani Hanjour's training and the actual maneuvers of that day. I understand this is asking quite a lot, but I feel that with the right sources, I can write an important piece that could help clarify, at least somewhat, this still very confusing episode.
Since this is a forum, maybe it would be better to just ask the questions here and create a discussion. I will not need names, I will just refer to pilots experienced with the 757.
I really want to stress that I am not looking to cause a stir, I really just want to write a good piece on something that has been gnawing at me for a long time, and keep focused just on this episode. I don't know much about planes or flying, but am very willing to spend months on this, as I did on my financial articles, to really create something worthwhile.
You can see more about me on my blog,
This is the Dead Land, this is Cactus Land
Thanks very much for you help.
Best,
Robert