How did the 9/11 Hijackers Navigate?
 

Granted, the Twin Towers weren't exactly a small target but how did they manage to hit both of them? The same goes for the Pentagon.

I don't think a response to that is a good idea. What if it helped to other crazies do it again? Nope.

If You Are So Inclined
 

LooseChange.com. A veritable smorgasbjord of conspiracy posits and counterposita. A grain of salt is necessary, but as a pilot, I have a personal difficulty believing a non English speaking Saudi young man with a grand total of twenty-one hours in a C-172 could have manouvered that behemoth, switched off transxpdr, and turned perfectly at 500 AGL at a speed of 400 knots (a LEFT turn) to sever a corner of a building hardly wider than "his" wingspan. Just Sayin'.

@Glacier: I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or serious.


airfoilmod: Well clearly they DID do that. So how did they manage it? Pot luck?

They clearly had B757/767 cockpit knowledge so I guess inputting a PBD into the FMS wouldn't be too difficult. The required coordinates could be obtained with any handheld GPS (or just look it up on a map!)

It being a lovely sunny morning I'd have thought they just looked out of the window.

Even 'big' planes fly the same as little ones so where's the drama there?

They weren't being asked to do anything requiring a great deal of skill - point plane at one of the world's largest buidings and hit it, as mentioned before, on a perfectly clear day.

There's plenty of information out there that would have assisted them in navigating the aircraft towards the city itself, albeit it tuning in a basic navaid or as Ka8 mentions, bunging something into the FMC.

But - I suppose - they were lucky in having gin clear visibility that day. Did they take a chance on this - some days in New York the ceiling could be half the height of the WTC.......

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Been in the cockpit of an AA B767 on the same type of clear mornings more than once. From where they took over, you can see straight down the Hudson river to Manhattan. The streets also gave a perfect aimpoint for flight 11.

The Pentagon plane was a little different. They obviously knew the basic FMS steps to go direct to DCA. There was some talk that the circle maneuver there was due to them being unable to find the White House. It is tough to see the first time from the air. The Pentagon is easy to pick out though.

My bet is they had a decent FMS program simulator, or had some late night access to a middle east carrier's 767 or sims from a sympathetic employee. It would'nt take much to learn the basic steps to point a Boeing the right way despite what the loose change idiots think.

Whatsalizad....you still believe that was a large aircraft that hit the Pentagon.........!!!!! as posted earlier loosechange.

I suppose you are going to have to ask them!!

Mk 1 eyeballs are pretty reliable unless there was heavy smog/cloud.

The sheer stupidity of people buying the conspiracy theories from 9/11 honestly makes my head hurt.

Here is the debunking of what I can only label the embarrassment 'Loose Change', a film so absurd that even other 9/11 conspiracy nut websites have posted their own rebuttals to distance themselves from it.

http://www.loosechangeguide.com/LooseChangeGuide.html

There are plenty of others.

On topic I have never flown a 767 before but when I had a go in the sim it was no different to any other aircraft I've ever flown. If something on the ground is stationary in the windscreen, you're gonna hit it. Fairly straight forward.

Oh dear. :{

Don't confuse them with science. :p

Indeed.
It's up (down?) to version three or four now, and has toned down from the first version, which featured such delights as the aircaft that hit the towers either being holograms or having rockets fitted underneath the fuselage.


My personal theory of how they hit fairly accurately is they just put a dot on the windscreen right in front of the pilot, and used that to line the plane up. Keep the dot on the target, and you will hit it.

So did the Turbines really disintagrate in the pentagon?

'Direct' to KJFK and LNAV perhaps?

On a day like that they didn't need any help with the navigation. New York isn't hard to find and WTC was easy to spot. But like someone said above, was that just their luck or did they expect it? Did the forecasts from the day they bought their tickets already show CAVOK conditions in both NY and Washington for 9/11? Maybe they were waiting for a VFR day since I am not sure a low hour pilot could hit their targets using just instruments.

Just a rough guess mind you, they might have. Depends of course what turbines you are referring to. :hmm:

Who said they did?
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