the struggle high over Pennsylvania

[Fester']

stand back for a minute.
being as all who frequent this board fly virtually or in real life.

a 737 hijacked and on its way to hit a civilian target.
yet this
airplane crashed in a field.

clearly the hijackers intention was to bomb a civilian target yet the attck using this aircraft has failed.
those who fly in real life know in the back of their mind that when their aircraft is crippeled or out of control they are going to aim it away fom populated areas if possible.

it would seem that their was a violent struggle in the cockpit of this doomed aircraft.

a struggle that can be broken down to good versus evil.

but only time will tell and only then if the voice recorders were left on and are still intact in the debri.

it would seem this particular airliner, its crew and passengers made the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of others.

[Voss]

I was thinking the same thing, Fester/Citabria. Either, the pilot was one very brave man and said, "Screw you, you bastard" and flew into the ground, or there was a security officer on board that shot the son-of-a-squeak flying, or something similar. Either way, I feel Pennsylvania was fortunate. I happen to know there are two very large ammunition depots just to the west of where that plane augered.

Time will tell.

[funkedup]

There are also some indications that USAF may have downed that one.  CVR/FDR on all of these birds is going to tell the story.  Not a fun one to read I am afraid.  

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: funkedup ]

[MadBirdCZ]

After I heard about the 4th Airliner crash I immediately thought about the brave crew that instead of handing the plane to the madmen so they could crash it possibly into a Empire State Building or the UN Building just sacrificed their lives and crashed the plane in an uninhabited area.... Let God svae their souls...

btw I heard rummors that US Fighters shot down 2 Airliners who failed to identify themselves on landing? Is it true or just a rumor?

[Thirdup]

Madbird, it may be the two Korean planes that landed in Canada that your talking about:

*it later turned out They just took them down for saftey. They were actually "escorted" down by two USAF F-15 Eagles

The airliner declared an emergency because of low fuel. So that was the whole thing was not a hijacking.
-----------------------------

"A transport plane and a passenger airliner have been forced down at
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in Northern Canada by Canadian Air Force CF-18s.
Word is that the airliner is being treated as a hijack situation. "

"2 Korean Aircraft. 1 Cargo plane and 1 Airliner. The airliner was bound for
Alaska. The passengers are still aboard. 3 CF-18's still circling the
airport there, loitering in relay. RCMP have both a/c cordoned off. They've
been there for hours. The RCMP have not been able to communicate with the
crews. "
 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/09/11/can_travel010911

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: Thirdup ]

[WxMan]

I live 25 miles south of Pittsburgh. I could see the smoke from the crash from my house. I do believe as many you do, that the Pilot did a heroic deed and crashed his aircraft. However, about 2 hours later near noon local time, I did hear a couple of jets go to afterburner nearby.

[Ghosth]

Heard that it was Camp David that the 4th plane was headed for.

Pentegon deny's shooting it down. That leaves control in the hands of the flight deck crew.
Anyway you look at it they made the ultimate sacrifise and safeguarded untold numbers of innocent people by their actions.

[capt. apathy]

i sure hope it wasn't shot down. i would hate for some fighter pilot to have to live with that, doing whats necesary is not always easy to live with.  
 either way all those on that plane where heros sacrificed to save the lives of many others

[Wlfgng]

Salute to the crew and/or interceptors.. whichever is appropriate.

If it was the crew then it's obvious they made the ultimate sacrafice.

It was the AirForce, then it must have been very difficult indeed to pull the trigger knowing you were killing many innocents to save even more.

Heroes either way.

[Zigrat]

the 4th plane was on a direct course for DC. i think it must have been the capitol or white house

[Ozark]

I hope the NTSB/FBI will make the CVR public.

<edit>If the PIC or FO stopped the aircraft from reaching the DC area.... I hope his/her family will receive the Medal of Freedom.</edit>

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: Ozark ]

[batdog]

Might of been a back up plane... the first ones made thier target so this hijacker simply ended it vie killing himself,the crew and the passangers...

 I hope the crew was the reason it crashed so to speak. I hope they had the satisfaction of spoiling one bombers dream and he thought of failing his mission and going to hell... I hope he felt alot of terror and fear as well.

xBAT

[Dinger]

Sorry, no such thing as a backup plane in an operation like that.  A hijacked plane would have a target.  There are plenty of buildings to hit.
For all we know, the plan could have involved a dozen hijackings, but some were intercepted, and others were foiled by closing down the airports.

[SKurj]

Wish they would decide what kinda plane, heard 757, 737, 747..

I believe it was shot down..  several reports I heard stated a plane was intercepted, and then proceeded to say a plane crashed near pittsburgh.  Then later reports, that the plane crashed before interceptors left the ground???
Reports that an explosion was heard before the crash.

It crashed in a rural area .. sacrifice the few to save the many..

To me its obvious, and if you think that the gov't or the military will ever admit to giving the order.....

SKurj

[ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: SKurj ]

[Ghosth]

Skurj, from what I've heard there were 2 767's and 2 757's. They say cockpits are virtually identical, they may have been picked for that reason.