| |
|
MSNBC, 'Planes as Weapons':
quote:There is one unconfirmed report of a controller in New Hampshire, who overheard the first plane being hijacked, as pilots left their microphone on in the cockpit. The controller overheard a hijacker saying to a pilot, in English, “Don’t do anything foolish.”
Shortly after, the controller says the plane’s transponder, a locator device in the cockpit, was turned off, leaving controllers only a blip to watch — with no idea of the blip’s altitude.
There are several other reports of passengers placing chilling cell phone calls to relatives, saying their flights had been hijacked. And there is one unconfirmed report that an American Airlines flight attendant told her company by cell phone that the pilots on her plane had been killed. If the report is true, it came from the last of the planes to go down, the one in Pennsylvania.
consensus seems to be that the planes were hijacked at knifepoint - hostesses stabbed to lure out pilots etc - and the pilots themselves killed only in the final few minutes before striking the target.
there are patchy lists of confirmed passengers on the various planes - including one of the co-creators of Frasier, baseball talent scouts, firefighters and their chaplain...
authorities had realised security on airlines wasn't all it should be - in tests, they managed to smuggle weapons on board in 2 out of 3 attempts. but there hadn't been a commercial hijacking over the states since '91, so it didn't seem so urgent.
no one, but no one, saw this coming. |
|
|
