Flight 175: quite a mysterious flight ...

[John Doe II]

What’s so mysterious about Flight 175 ?


Flight 175 was certainly the least mysterious of all four flights on 9/11. Literally billons of people saw it crash into the WTC. Flight 175 was the only plane that was to be seen live on television.
Also the last minute of this flight seem to contain no mystery:
At 8:40 happened the last transmission from UA 175. It stated that they had heard a suspicious transmission (most likely from Flight 11). Minutes later it turned southwest without clearance from air traffic control. At 8:47 it’s transponder code changed, and then changed again.
(Commission Report, p. 21)

Also Michael McCormick, the FAA's New York air traffic manager had nothing mysterious to tell in “a press conference in which air traffic controllers in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., made their first extensive public comments since the attacks.”
(Boston Globe, 8/13/02)

Mr. MIKE McCORMICK (New York Air Traffic Manager): We tracked that aircraft as it turned southbound and then back northeast-bound, back toward Manhattan. I assumed at that point that that target of that aircraft was, in fact, the World Trade Center.
ORR: Controllers tracked the hijacked jet for 11 agonizing and helpless minutes.
Mr. McCORMICK: For those 11 minutes, I knew, we knew, what was going to happen, and that was difficult.
(CBS, 8/13/02)

''Probably one of the most difficult moments in my life was the 11 minutes from the point I watched that aircraft when we first lost communication to the point that aircraft hit the World Trade Center.
(Boston Globe, 8/13/02)
(Ottawa Citizen, 8/13/03)

So contrary to Flight 77 which disappeared completely from the radar there was never a big problem with Flight 175. And the Commission Report states:
9:20 UA headquarters aware that Flight 175 had crashed into WTC (p. 32)
Unfortunately this is simply not true. To put it mildly.
While the confirmation that Flight 11, 93 and 77 crashed didn’t take long United Airlines seemed to have big problems to figure out what was going on with their Flight 175.
So in the ABC Special News Report from 11:00 – 12:00 United Airlines is quoted:

“United is also saying now that they are concerned about a further flight that apparently is still missing, flight 175. It is a Boeing 767. It was scheduled from Boston to Los Angeles. That flight apparently is still unaccounted for, according to officials from United.”
(ABC, 9/11/01 11:00 – 12:00)

So at least two hours after Flight 175 crashed into the WTC and being no mystery to the controllers UA still has no clue where his airplane is!


And things will become even stranger:
UA confirms that Flight 175 crashed but ….:
“United Airlines Flight 175: A Boeing 767 crashes. The flight was bound from Boston to Los Angeles. It carried 56 passengers, two pilots and seven flight attendants. The airline would not say where that plane crashed.”
(Seattle Times, 9/11/01)
(San Francisco Chronicle, 9/11/01)
(AP, 9/11/01)
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/11/01)
(ABC, 9/11/01 11:00 – 12:00)

Uups! Now they know that it crashed but not where or don’t want to say it??


So, excuse me dear Commissioners, United Airlines was certainly NOT aware at 9:20 that Flight 175 had crashed into the WTC.

The first one to mention that Flight 175 crashed is NBC minutes before noon. (Until 11:30 they only had three confirmed flights that had been involved in 9/11).
CNN states on September 12, 2001 that United Airlines confirmed at 11:59 that Flight 175 had crashed. (The other three flights had been already confirmed long before).
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack /

So, it took almost three hours to figure that out.


But the mystery hasn’t finished here:

The first guess which airplane had hit the second tower was not Flight 175 but surprise surprise:
Let’s switch on the television:

“So we believe that the two aircraft have flown into the Trade Towers, both belonged to American Airlines, and they had both been hijacked and there were 90 passengers and crew on the first plane and 60 passengers and crew on the second plane.”
ABC, 9/11/01 10:00

So, the first information was that AA 77 had hit the WTC (and not the Pentagon).
Two hours after the second attack:

“And Flight 77, a Boeing 757 offering from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles with 58 passengers and four flight attendants and two pilots, may--that--that--that aircraft is a little more uncertain. That is not a huge--it's a big aircraft, a 757, but we have--we're not certain whether that's the one that went into the Pentagon or whether it's one of the other aircraft that went into the Twin Trade Towers.”
ABC, 11:00

Three hours after the second attack:

“We have the two at the trade towers in New York City, we're not certain but we believe both of those are somehow connected to American Airlines but we're not sure of that, absolutely sure.”
ABC, 12.00

Four hours after the second attack the confusion reaches its climax:

LYNN SHERR: That--what--what you're seeing is the north tower. Behind it there's a second identical tower, as you know. That plane crashed right into it. All morning we have been told by American Airlines, among others, that that flight, that airplane, was actually American Airlines Flight 77 going out of Dulles to Los Angeles. We were told 58 passengers, four flight attendants, two pilots on that plane. It was hijacked at 9:03--I'm sorry, it was hijacked right after takeoff. Crashed into the tower at 9:03 AM.

JENNINGS: Let me stop you right there, Lynn, because I just--I have had different information so I'm going to rely on you here. You now believe the American Airlines Flight 77 which took off from Dulles on its way to Los Angeles, crashed into the Trade towers, not into the Pentagon?

SHERR: We were told that originally. What I'm about to tell you is the FBI is now saying that that's the one that went into the Pentagon. The FBI spokesperson is saying that the flight that went into World Trade Center tower number two, that's south tower, was, in fact United Airlines 175, a Boeing 767 that left Boston for LAX, departed at 7:58 AM this morning; 56 passengers, two pilots, seven flight attendants. This is confusing, I apologize. We are getting two different answers to our questions.
(ABC, 9/11/01 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.)


And although NBC reported “already” at 11:59 that Flight 175 crashed into the WTC this confusion between Flight 77 and 175 is not simply a problem of ABC. Just two further examples:


“We know for sure at least 92 people were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 676--excuse me, 767, en route from Boston to Los Angeles, which crashed into the building. Another 64 were aboard the second flight that crashed into the building, American Airlines Flight 77. That's a Boeing 757 that was en route from Dulles airport near Washington, DC, to Los Angeles.”
(National Public Radio, 9/11/01)

“A second aircraft that crashed into the Trade Center is said also to have been an American Airlines aircraft with 60 passengers. It was apparently flying from Washington Dulles bound for Los Angeles before being hijacked.”
(Air Transport Intelligence, 9/11/01)


Confusion might help explain a bit (although McCormick didn’t seem to be very confused about Flight 175) but how is it possible to confuse Flight 77 with Flight 175?
While Flight 175 never vanished completely from the radar Flight 77 switched off its transponder only at 8:56. Anybody ready to explain how Flight 77 could have managed to fly to New York within 7 minutes? Or how on earth can one possibly confound Flight 77 and Flight 175

Why was the most visible of all hijacked flights so mysterious?