Early report on the hijacking of Flight 11

[noise]

"The button was being pushed intermittently most of the way to New York," a controller told the Monitor. "He wanted us to know something was wrong. When he pushed the button and the terrorist spoke, we knew. There was this voice that was theatening the pilot, and it was clearly threatening."

During these transmissions, the pilot's voice and the heavily accented voice of a hijacker were clearly audible. At other times, the transmission was clear, but exactly what was happening in the cockpit was confused.

Early report of what happened in the Flight 11 cockpit

Has this account been disputed since? Have any details of these transmissions been released?

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Touching History, by Lynn Spencer

You don't have to buy it. I'm sure you can get a copy at your local library.

This is a confused telling of what happened. Atta keyed the mic himself. From what was broadcast, it's clear that he was trying to talk to the passengers in the back. He IDed himself as the pilot.

The details of what was said show that only the two Atta transmissions were the source of the story. The actual transmissions are available at the Moussaoui exhibit, I think. I know I've heard them. It might be in the Flash presentation of the victims aboard the planes.

[noise]

2. AFAICT, there were additional transmissions by way of the yoke mic

An article by Glen Johnson (11/23/01) mentions Atta's mistake and Ogonowski's keying of the microphone button on the yoke.

Under any scenario, it appears that the hijackers' entry was surprising enough that the pilots did not have a chance to broadcast a traditional distress call. Apparently at least one of the pilots on Flight 11 remained alive and at one of the cockpit's two control sticks, because he intermittently keyed the microphone button on the yoke so controllers could hear his conversation with a heavily accented hijacker.

The transcript of the air-traffic-control conversations shows that at 8:24 a.m., a controller heard a suspicious broadcast from Flight 11. Apparently, one of the hijackers confused the aircraft's radio with its public-address system.

"We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move," the speaker said.

"Who's trying to call me?" the controller responded.

There was no response. Then came another radio broadcast, the transcript shows.

"Everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet," the speaker said.

Glen Johnson article "Probe reconstructs horror, calculated attacks on planes"

Gail Sheehy covered the story on 2/15/04:

According to a timeline later adjusted by the F.A.A., Flight 11's transponder was turned off at 8:20 a.m., only 21 minutes after takeoff. (Even before that, by probably a minute or so, Amy Sweeney began her report to American's operations center at Logan.) The plane turned south toward New York, and more than one F.A.A. controller heard a transmission with an ominous statement by a terrorist in the background, saying, "We have more planes. We have other planes." During these transmissions, the pilot's voice and the heavily accented voice of a hijacker were clearly audible, according to two controllers. All of it was recorded by a F.A.A. traffic-control center in Nashua, N.H. According to the reporter, Mark Clayton, the federal law-enforcement officers arrived at the F.A.A. facility shortly after the World Trade Center attack and took the tape.

To this writer's knowledge, there has been no public mention of the pilot's narrative since the news report on Sept. 12, 2001. Families of the flight crew have only heard about it, but when Peg Ogonowski asked American Airlines to let her hear it, she never heard back. Their F.A.A. superiors forbade the controllers to talk to anyone else.

Gail Sheehy article "Stewardess ID'd Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show"

It sure sounds like Ogonowski was heard on some transmissions.

[Ghost in the Machine]

3. You're wasting your time giving facts to that one...

he knows everything... even more than the people who were there, witnesses, investigative reporters... *everyone*! If ya don't believe me, just ask him. Any report, or any witness, that doesn't agree with his world view, or opinions, is either "wrong", "mistaken" or "can't be relied upon"...

Facts just confuse him more... please don't tease the OCTabots... they get cranky...



By the way,.... thanks for all you do, great post!

Ghost

[KJF]

4. Audio here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUqXwsbJdbo

No pilot can be heard.

Initially, the story was that the pilot must have keyed the mike, then it changed and it was Atta keying the Mike by mistake. Make of it what you will.

[noise]

5. Was it changed because the initial accounts were off

or because the other transmissions (if indeed there were additional unreleased transmissions) didn't fit the desired narrative? The articles seem to indicate that Ogonowski's voice could be heard on a transmission. This would be a big deal because it calls the hijacking MO into question.

[JackRiddler]

6. A voice "in the background"

How is that determined? What makes them think, in initial reports, they're hearing Ogonowski, with an additional, threatening voice of a terrorist (later identified as Atta) "in the background"?

"the pilot's voice and the heavily accented voice of a hijacker were clearly audible..."

The official story as in Ch. 1 of the CR is, this was Atta all along, keying it by mistake. But in that case, who is he talking to, saying "don't do anything foolish"? Is this vague commandment a general message to the passenger compartment, an announcement? Is anything going on there? Hasn't he thought of a better, more specific line, like, "Remain in your seats. All be well..."?

Luckily no trace of the black boxes was ever found, says a definitive footnote in the CR.

Or maybe they were?
http://summeroftruth.org/groundzero.html

[noise]

7. One possibility

If Ogonowski was still in the pilot's seat then he would have been closest to the yoke mic, making his voice the loudest on the transmission. Atta's voice is loud because he is using the ATC radio.

Note: I don't know how the yoke mic works in relation to the ATC radio so this could be wrong.