Bret08

Mar 2 2008, 07:54 PM

Woody Box

Mar 2 2008, 03:31 PM

Bret08

Mar 1 2008, 02:06 PM

Boston Center controllers followed AA11 all the way into the north tower. Even though the transponder was turned off, they followed it all the way to lower Manhattan where it disappeared. They knew immediately that it was the aircraft that hit the north tower.

Hmmmmm? With all respect, Bret08, do you know what you're talking about?

Boston Center handed off Flight 11 to New York Center when it left their airspace (which doesn't include New York City). If you have any evidence that Boston Center "followed it all the way to lower Manhattan", I'm very interested.

And New York Center, as I said already, didn't identify immediately Flight 11 as the plane that hit the North Tower. Just to the contrary: even minutes after the North Tower hit, they were still watching Flight 11. They thought it was still airborne. Just take a look at the 9/11 Commission report.

That is incorrect. Boston Center still had control when the hijacking happened. They are the ones who alerted the FAA. They are the ones who picked up the hijackers saying "we have some planes". They continued to track the flight until it disappeared over lower Manhattan.

Quote:

 

But minutes after Flight 93 takes off, uneventfully, something does grab the attention of Newark controllers, whose view from the top of the tower is a panorama of New York’s skyline. Working alongside Callahan is Rick Tepper.

Rick Tepper: I just happened to glance up and I saw a mushroom cloud coming off the first tower. We knew it was an explosion type of fire. I said, "Greg, look at that."

Callahan: He was off my left shoulder, and he points out the window and said, “Look at the World Trade Center”.

Tepper: And he’s going “Oh, my god, look at that.” And so we were just standing there staring and just in disbelief. Watching it. Watching it burn.

The initial reports: a small private plane appears to have crashed into the tower.

Bob Varcadapane was the supervisor in Newark tower that morning, in charge of eight controllers.

Bob Varcadapane: You could see the smoke billowing from the side of the building, and we didn’t know what it was. I got on the phone to the en route air traffic control facility out in New York on Long Island and I asked them if they’d lost any airplanes, and they said, “No, but Boston Center lost an airplane. They lost an American 767...”

Brokaw: Did it occur to you at that point that it could have been that plane that went into the World Trade Center?

Varcadapane: Well, that’s exactly what I said to myself then. I said to the controller that I have a burning building. And you have a missing airplane. This is very coincidental.

As Bob Varcadapane trades calls with the New York and Boston centers, a horrific realization dawns on controllers. American Flight 11, still missing from radar, finally has been found.