Father of Flight 587 Co-Pilot Speaks Out

[gulfcoastliberal]

snip

Stan Molin says the conclusion is impossible to accept -- that the crash of Flight 587 was somehow his son's fault. His son Sten Molin was 34-years-old, the American Airlines co-pilot who was at the controls.

Stan Molin, Co-Pilot's Father: "I can't imagine him really creating this crash. I can't picture that. There was something that was happening to that airplane. I don't think that my son, or the captain, knew and understood what was going on, on that airplane. Regardless of what it was."

On November 12, 2001, the jet was cleared for takeoff, and rolled down the runway without a hint of what was coming. One minute, 47 seconds into the flight, the airframe began rattling, and the plane began to shake violently. The captain reported he was flying through wake turbulence from a jet up ahead.

As the pilots struggled to control the aircraft, the tail fin suddenly cracked off, then the engines were shaken loose, and the aircraft nose-dived into a neighborhood in Belle Harbor, Queens.

Also, check out this account by a retired firefighter who saw 587 explode in the air: http://www.usread.com/flight587/TomLynchVideo.html

[amazona]

1. thanks for that

I happen to agree with the father that his son is being scape-goated. The NSTB account is not believable to me.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. Ever since the TWA800 coverup/whitewash

with the NTSB promoting the CIA created, absolute bullshit zoom climb scenario to counter the 100 plus witnesses who reported a missile rising from the surface to hit the aircraft in midflight, I have taken any NTSB pronouncements on air crash investigations with a large dose of salt.

http://flight800.org/radar9.htm

http://raylahr.entryhost.com/

www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/CRASH/TWA/0-1_PR_Lahr_Nov03.htm

http://www.serendipity.li/more/twa800.html

[gulfcoastliberal]

11. This is another lie from a politicized NTSB, who is probably

suppressing evidence and allowing politics to direct policy.

The CIA TWA800 video was debunked by aeronautics people. The government let us down on that one. 747s don't spontaneously ignit or that would've happened before. The piece of wiring in the center fuel tank they blamed for the explosion was probably designed by CIA, not Boeing.

[high density]

22. That NTSB/CIA video makes me very skeptical of the TWA 800 crash

I'm no aeronautical engineer, but I can not imagine a 747 with no nose CLIMBING HIGHER into the air. That would be about as aerodynamic as a city bus. That animation makes the whole explanation of the crash highly suspect.

This latest thing of blaming 587 on the co-pilot does not sit well with me either. Now I'm supposed to believe that planes just snap apart because of aggressive pilot input? God help us!

[aeolian]

2. When the tail fin snaps and the engines fall off

it's generally not "pilot error."

[MacDo]

4. I don't know about,

the commericial world, but most military crashes are pilot error.

[aeolian]

5. But would a civilian pilot stress his aircraft

to the point of failure? Especially when he's carrying passengers? I doubt it.

Sure, I can see a guy pulling 10-g's and blacking out, or missing the deck on a carrier approach, or clipping another aircraft. Fighters fly at the very edge of stability anyway: an f-16 will tumble out of the sky if its computer fails.

But a passenger jet?

(not a pilot, so I am really just speaking out of my ass)

[soothsayer]

3. I'm still going with 'shoe bomb" n/t

[Nashyra]

7. Sten Molin was a great pilot

My husband flew with Sten Molin and his father is right. This was not pilot error. My heart goes out to his dad, it is easier to blame the pilot than to find out what really happened. If they improperly trained the pilots why haven't they retrained them. My husband who flew the same plane, THE SAME PLANE days before has not been "retrained". My thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims and Sten's family. And folks please becareful about what you post, When speaking about American Airlines, there is a big difference between the corporation and the family of American Airlines, we lost alot of crew members, part of our American Airlines family in the fall of 2001. This crash coming so close to 9-11, it devastated our base in New York. Sorry for the rant, this issue is very near and dear to me, I also flew with Sten, we used to fly to London together. He was a great guy.

[amazona]

8. my thoughts are with you and thanks so much for your insights

It has to be difficult to re-visit these tragic issues. I would hope no one here is blaming American Airlines or its crew for these tragedies. My heart goes out to you. I hope someday we get better closure. I honestly do not see where the crew could be at fault.

[elehhhhna]

9. t's aLWAYS pilot error. It's always baloney.

[gulfcoastliberal]

13. Thank you for sharing that

I am outraged the NTSB is trying the sully the life of a good man who died bravely life. I've done some research into this one and it sounds to me like Mr. Molin did everything he possibly could to save the airplane. CNN just showed a brief inerview with his family - I just learned he taught himself to fly, then CNN showed transcript of the CVR - CLEARLY there were 2 "bump" airframe noises, then Molin called for max poswer, they even put (strained voices) for Molin and the caption, finally Molin called "Lets fo to power please" - an emergency move to max out the throttles. God bless him.

CVR:

# 9:11:35: TOWER: American five eighty-seven heavy Kennedy tower, caution wake turbulence runway three one left, taxi into position and hold.

# 9:14: (Flight 587 begins its takeoff, getting off the ground by 9:15.)

# 9:15:28: STATES: Clean machine.

# 9:15:28: MOLIN: (sound similar to yawn) Thank you.

# 9:15:44: STATES: Little wake turbulence, huh?

# 9:15:44: MOLIN: Yeah.

# 9:15:47: (sound similar to five sets of stabilizer trim switch clicks)

# 9:15:48: MOLIN: Two fifty thank you.

# 9:15:51: (sound of a thump)

# 9:15:52: (sound of click)

# 9:15:52: (sound of two thumps)

# 9:15:54: MOLIN: Max power (spoken in strained voice)

# 9:15:55: STATES: You all right?

# 9:15:55: MOLIN: Yeah, I’m fine.

# 9:15:56: STATES: Hang onto it. Hang onto it.

# 9:15:56: (sound of snap)

# 9:15:57: MOLIN: Let’s go for power, please.

# 9:15:57: (sound of loud thump)

# 9:15:58: (sound of loud bang)

# 9:16:00: MOLIN: (sound similar to grunt)

# 9:16:00: (roaring noise starts and increases in amplitude)

# 9:16:01: Holy (expletive)

# 9:16:01: (sound similar to single chime)

# 9:16:02: (sound similar to single chime)

# 9:16:04: (sound similar to stall warning repetitive chime for 1.9 seconds)

# 9:16:06: (roaring noise decreases and ends)

# 9:16:07: What the hell are we into (unintelligible). We’re stuck in it.

# 9:16:07: (sound similar to continuous repetitive chimes for one second)

# 9:16:09: (sound similar to continuous repetitive chimes for three seconds)

# 9:16:12: STATES: Get out of it, get out of it.

END OF RECORDING

"Get out of it! Get out of it!" Capt. Edward States hollered as the cockpit recorder went silent.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/31405p-29761c.html

Notice how States is also conerned, asking Molin if he's ok with the emergency sitution they suddenly find themselves in. States has no problem with going to max power, he could've countermand Molin's control inputs if he had done something wrong. His "Lets go to power please" means he wanted to go to an emergency power level that is used as last resort since it spins the engines so fast they get damaged. This is a fucking cover-up. I agree with the shoebombing theory.

Edit: All pilots know the key to staying airborne is power, and that's exactly what Mr. Molin did -- what would've prevented the crashes of the Chicago Dc-10 accident, the 737 crossover speed rudder malfunction nosedives, etc means Molin is to blame.

[neebob]

10. Same here

I hadn't heard of the shoe bomb theory until this morning, when I started googling because of this thread. Here's a link that I tend to trust more than some of the others because I found it on buzzflash.com:

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2004/0923/Front_Page/129.html

Which is not to say the other pages don't make sense - just that this is the one I find most compelling.

[gulfcoastliberal]

12. Great link - thanks! If we had a media, this would be big news!

As it is I'm trying to keep it afloat here at DU so people can learn the truth. There are CIA disinfo operatives that try to ridicule these ideas by posting here on DU. Ignore them.

[neebob]

19. Well, I don't know about CIA disinfo operatives, but

for some reason I'm finding a shoe bomb the easiest of all the potential explanations to believe. And I'm not normally so inclined. Until this morning I would have been among the first to laugh at the idea of a shoe bomber.

[RobinA]

16. Just Out of Curiosity

Why wouldn't the administration be happy to paint this as terrorism if they possibily could? It seems to me they have more to gain by using this as yet another example of the horrendous threat to the world that is al-Qaida/Iran/Iraq/Syria/anythingArab.

[neebob]

18. Because they were warned that something might happen on Veterans' Day

and there's just no friggin' excuse for it to have happened on a plane.

[fwiff]

14. IMHO, it definitely wasn't pilot error, but

there was a documented airbus problem with the tailfin- (no link, sorry) Just like Boeing's 737 rudder, they'd prefer not to fix a problem.
I think it's more corporate protectionism than conspiracy (is there a difference?).
It never hurts to keep things in mind, though.

[neebob]

17. Well, yeah, the explanation in today's news makes sense, too -

if you forget about the engines also falling off and haven't read anything else - like, um, multiple eyewitness accounts that there was at least one explosion near the wing before the plane went down. The whole bit about Airbus and American fighting over their pilot training lends a lot of credibility to the official explanation. I thought it seemed plausible, too, until I started googling.

[OutsourceBush]

15. Happened right after 911, too big a co-incidence, it was terrorism IMO

[gulfcoastliberal]

20. Kick in memory of a good man scapegoated by the NTSB

nt

[Eloriel]

21. Thank heaven

I thought that explanation, as I heard it reported somewhere on TV, was totally bogus. In fact, I thought it was insulting.

Thank heaven he's speaking out.

And just what is it this administration is trying to hide here? I'm so sick of the lies. They couldn't tell the truth if their lives depended on it. It gets so old, so wearying.