Excuse me, but

[AfricanSkies]

Please pardon my ignorance if I have missed something, but I seem to be finding it extraordinarily difficult to locate any factual news regarding the crash of the aircraft in Pennsylvania on September 11th.

Apparently the tail section of this particular aircraft is several miles from the main crash site, in Kentucky.

This rather scuppers any tale of passengers deliberately crashing the machine, I would have thought?

Were any FDR's found at the scene of the crash? If so, were they serviceable? If so, what did they reveal?

TIA

[spagiola]

CVR and FDR have been found, I've read, but nothing has been said yet about what's on them.

I read that some parts were found separated from the main wreck, but hadn't heard it was the tail. Is this verified?

I rather doubt any passenger would have deliberately crashed the aircraft -- more likely that control was lost during the fight with the hijackers. If that resulted in some particularly violent maneuvers, there might have been structural failure which would explain some parts being separated.

What puzzles me about this flight is -- where was it going? According to the reports I've read, it flew due west for an hour before turning back towards Washington. But if the whole point was to have an aircraft with a heavy fuel load, surely flying one hour away from your target and then an hour back makes no sense? Plus the time it would take would negate any benefit of surprise -- and indeed, both the passengers in the aircraft and the air force were by then ready to resist. So: was this flight going somewhere else, towards another target, and then re-routed towards Washington when the flight from Dulles missed the White House and went for the Pentagon instead? But what could that other target have been? Chicago's Sears Tower? But if so, surely hijacking a flight out of ORD would have made more sense for that rather than flying an airplane two hours from EWR?

[rustbucket732]

AfricanSkies
Your not the only one. After brief word that it may have been shot down by an F16, the scenario of the passenger saying he saw white smoke and then was abrubtly cut off (and this was the last recorded call apparently from the a/c - possibly negating the commandeering by the other passengers, why has this not been correlated and reported by the press??) and then the FBI refusing to deny that it had been downed followed by an almost complete news blackout..

Around 9.45am the President gave the order that any a/c may be downed if neccesary... I think its fairly safe to assume the a/c was intercepted by the airforce... given that at least an hour had passed since the attempted WTC F16 interception... come on.... *at least an hour* since the attempted WTC... it's blatant to me that interception had occured...

I'm not saying the downing was wrong (if indeed that was the case), although I think its best we were told the truth. Whats to bet the CVR/FDR come up a blank.

[ 21 September 2001: Message edited by: rustbucket732 ]

[Huck]

Like TWA 800, this investigation has been taken from the NTSB and given to the FBI. Like TWA 800, the rumors are already multiplying geometrically.

[Enter after the Virgin]

I agree that this aircraft was taken out by F16's,

If indeed the tail section is some distance apart from the main debris field, could it be that the F16's fired Air to Air which locked onto the nearest heat source, that being the exhuast, this would no doubt detach the tail section ?

I also heard the Pentagon aircraft was fired at causing in to impact short of the building, hitting the building after barrel rolling.

[Enter after the Virgin]

I agree that this aircraft was taken out by F16's,

If indeed the tail section is some distance apart from the main debris field, could it be that the F16's fired Air to Air which locked onto the nearest heat source, that being the exhuast, this would no doubt detach the tail section ?

I also heard the Pentagon aircraft was fired at causing in to impact short of the building, hitting the building after barrel rolling.

[rustbucket732]

Actually what may be more scary to those in power is that the downing occurred AFTER the pax managed to take control.

Now thats worrying :(

[Plastic Bug]

CRAP!

The exhaust from a 757 is not from the tail you nit wit, it from the engines bolted to the wings.

The pax overpowered the hijackers and died in the process.

If the USAF shot down the plane, they would have copped to it.

Besides, what makes you think the intercept airplanes were actually armed?

PB

[Trash 'n' Navs]

Huck: You wouldn't be suggesting that there's a conspiracy because of the FBI being involved are you?

The NTSB would investigate any aircraft incident/accident occuring in US territories. If it occurs to a US registered A/C in another country then they may run an investigation at the other countries request or provide a liaison officer to the investigation team. If the incident/accident results from a criminal act (or even suspected to have), then the FBI are responsibe for the investigation and the NTSB would provide specialist investigators to assist them.

No conspiracy here me thinks...

[AfricanSkies]

No conspiracy.... but no news either...and nothing on the CVR... :confused:

[Budgie69]

Reports of more than one debris site for this aircraft apparently relate only to bits of paper etc, which were blown about by the wind.

[RogerTangoFoxtrotIndigo]

White smoke? sounds like a sudden decompression not necessarily smoke from an explosive charge. now if you wanted that aircraft out of the sky, but wanted to give the pax some chance of survival (and leave as little evidence as possible) maybe you would consider a dummy round? radar guided so as to impact the structure not the engines which would probably lead to an explosion. with a hole in it things are going to start dropping off before the main crash site.

pure speculation but for me it seems to fit the limited evidence we have since as has been mentioned we do appear to have a news blackout. read one report that at least one body was found at secondary crash site.

overpowering hijackers is a good story and has been allowed to run without proper media scrutiny.

[Budgie69]

See also Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010914scene0914p2.asp)