Reply #98: F77 did a downward spiral [View All]

[crispy]

> That version would appear to rely entirely upon the testimony of the pilot of the C130.

Why would they say "radar shows"? And do you mean Steve O'Brien? Are you sure he gave his account to ABC before the article was written in mid-October 2001?

This quote was from a TLC documentary which I'm quite sure was not aired before Oct 2001:

"We were at about 3,500 feet at the time that I first noticed this commercial airliner in our 12 o'clock position in about a 45-degree bank, which is unusual for a large aircraft to be descending and turning at a 45-degree bank turn like that, so that really got our attention. The next thing we saw was a fireball and a big plume of smoke."

Sounds pretty downward spiral-ly to me.


> The sufficiently definite eye witness reports that I found referred only to only to a B757 approaching low from the south west. Air traffic controllers saw nothing more than an unidentified blip that they'd thought was a military plane.

Eh, not really.

From Lexis-Nexis, ABC 20/20 transcript 10/24/01:

*snip*
Ms. O'BRIEN: And it went six, five, four, and I had it in my mouth to say three and all of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room it was almost a sense of relief. 'This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in--scrambled to patrol our Capitol and to protect our president.' And we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second. In the meantime, all of the rest of the planes are still flying and we're taking care of everything else. And the plane turned back. He continued in the right-hand turn, made a 360 degree maneuver.

ROSS: A big loop?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Correct. And we're telling the supervisor, 'He's turning back in, he's turning back eastbound.'

Mr. HOWELL: Then the turn kept going. And that's when I think I yelled to John. I said, 'Oh, my God, John, he's coming back.

Ms. O'BRIEN: We lost radar contact with that aircraft. And we waited, and we waited. And your heart's just beating out of your chest. And then the Washington National controllers came over our speakers in our room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic, the Pentagon's been hit.'
*/snip*


I will look for the Pierre Demoulins stuff. An analysis of the stuff the plane hit and plane dimensions is my next order of business.