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Investigating the hijackings { July 23 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/23/MNGEO7S1221.DTLhttp://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/23/MNGEO7S1221.DTL
INVESTIGATING 9/11: THE HIJACKINGS
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Friday, July 23, 2004
“Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the twin towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Others went to Arlington, Va., to the Pentagon. Across the Potomac River, the Congress was back in session. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, people began to line up for a White House tour. In Sarasota, Fla., President Bush went for an early morning run. For those heading to an airport, weather could not have been better for asafe and pleasant journey. Among the travelers were Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine.”
So begins the Sept. 11 commission’s report detailing how 19 men easily defeated America’s civil aviation security system, hijacked four jetliners filled with fuel and, in the case of Flight 93 bound for San Francisco, violently rocked the jet’s wings to knock attacking passengers off balance.
The commission offers a chilling account of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, with fresh details about the hijackings and what occurred aboard each of the four airliners. It also details the security lapses, the lack of communication among government agencies and the horror unfolding aboard the planes.
What follows are excerpts on each of the four hijackings, in the words of the authors:.
American Airlines Flight 11
(Mohamed) Atta and (Abdulaziz) Alomari boarded a 6:00 a.m. flight from Portland to Boston's Logan International Airport.
When he checked in for his flight to Boston, Atta was selected by a computerized prescreening system known as CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System), created to identify passengers who should be subject to special security measures. Under security rules in place at the time, the only consequence of Atta's selection by CAPPS was that his checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded the aircraft. This did not hinder Atta's plans.
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Between 6:45 and 7:40, Atta and Alomari, along with Satam Al Suqami, Wail Alshehri, and Waleed Alshehri, checked in and boarded American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:45.
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While Atta had been selected by CAPPS in Portland, three members of his hijacking team -- Al Suqami, Wail Alshehri, and Waleed Alshehri -- were selected in Boston. Their selection affected only the handling of their checked bags, not their screening at the checkpoint. All five men cleared the checkpoint and made their way to the gate for American 11. Atta, Alomari and Al Suqami took their seats in business class (seats 8D, 8G and 10B, respectively). The Alshehri brothers had adjacent seats in row 2 (Wail in 2A, Waleed in 2B), in the first-class cabin.
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On Sept. 11, Captain John Ogonowski and First Officer Thomas McGuinness piloted the Boeing 767. It carried its full capacity of nine flight attendants. Eighty-one passengers boarded the flight with them (including the five terrorists).
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The plane took off at 7:59. Just before 8:14, it had climbed to 26,000 feet, not quite its initial assigned cruising altitude of 29,000 feet.
Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin, Betty Ong and Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, tell us most of what we know about how the hijacking happened. As it began, some of the hijackers -- most likely Wail Alshehri and Waleed Alshehri, who were seated in row 2 in first class -- stabbed the two unarmed flight attendants who would have been preparing for cabin service.
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About five minutes after the hijacking began, Betty Ong contacted the American Airlines Southeastern Reservations Office in Cary, N.C., via an AT&T air phone to report an emergency aboard the flight.
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At 8:19, Ong reported: "The cockpit is not answering, somebody's stabbed in business class -- and I think there's Mace -- that we can't breathe -- I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked." She then told of the stabbings of the two flight attendants.
At 8:26, Ong reported that the plane was flying erratically. A minute later, Flight 11 turned south. American also began getting identifications of the hijackers, as Ong and then Sweeney passed on some of the seat numbers of those who had gained unauthorized access to the cockpit.
Sweeney calmly reported on her line that the plane had been hijacked; a man in first class had his throat slashed; two flight attendants had been stabbed -- one was seriously hurt and was on oxygen while the other's wounds seemed minor; a doctor had been requested; the flight attendants were unable to contact the cockpit; and there was a bomb in the cockpit. Sweeney told (Michael) Woodward (an American manager on the ground) that she and Ong were trying to relay as much information as they could to people on the ground.
At 8:38, Ong told (Nydia) Gonzalez (an American employee who received Ong's call) that the plane was flying erratically again. Around this time Sweeney told Woodward that the hijackers were Middle Easterners, naming three of their seat numbers.
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At 8:44, Gonzalez reported losing phone contact with Ong. About this same time Sweeney reported to Woodward, "Something is wrong. We are in a rapid descent ... we are all over the place." Woodward asked Sweeney to look out the window to see if she could determine where they were. Sweeney responded: "We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low." Seconds later she said, "Oh my God we are way too low." The phone call ended.
At 8:46:40, American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. All on board, along with an unknown number of people in the tower, were killed instantly.
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United Airlines Flight 175
In another Logan terminal, (Marwan) Al-Shehhi, joined by Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Ahmed Alghamdi and Hamza Alghamdi, checked in for United Airlines Flight 175, also bound for Los Angeles. A couple of Al-Shehhi's colleagues were obviously unused to travel; according to the United ticket agent, they had trouble understanding the standard security questions, and she had to go over them slowly until they gave the routine, reassuring answers. Their flight was scheduled to depart at 8:00.
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Al-Shehhi and his team, none of whom had been selected by CAPPS, boarded United 175 between 7:23 and 7:28 (Ahmed in 2A, Alshehri in 2B, Al-Shehhi in 6C, Hamza Alghamdi in 9C and Ahmed Alghamdi in 9D).
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Captain Victor Saracini and First Officer Michael Horrocks piloted the Boeing 767, which had seven flight attendants. Fifty-six passengers boarded the flight.
United 175 pushed back from its gate at 7:58 and departed Logan Airport at 8:14. By 8:33, it had reached its assigned cruising altitude of 31,000 feet.
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The flight had taken off just as American 11 was being hijacked, and at 8: 42 the United 175 flight crew completed their report on a suspicious transmission overheard from another plane (which turned out to have been Flight 11) just after takeoff. This was United 175's last communication with the ground.
The hijackers attacked sometime between 8:42 and 8:46.They used knives (as reported by two passengers and a flight attendant), Mace (reported by one passenger) and the threat of a bomb (reported by the same passenger). They stabbed members of the flight crew (reported by a flight attendant and one passenger). Both pilots had been killed (reported by one flight attendant).The eyewitness accounts came from calls made from the rear of the plane, from passengers originally seated further forward in the cabin, a sign that passengers and perhaps crew had been moved to the back of the aircraft.
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At 8:51, the flight deviated from its assigned altitude, and a minute later New York air traffic controllers began repeatedly and unsuccessfully trying to contact it.
At 8:52, in Easton, Conn., a man named Lee Hanson received a phone call from his son Peter, a passenger on United 175. His son told him: "I think they've taken over the cockpit -- An attendant has been stabbed -- and someone else up front may have been killed. The plane is making strange moves. Call United Airlines -- Tell them it's Flight 175, Boston to LA." Lee Hanson then called the Easton Police Department and relayed what he had heard.
At 8:58, the flight took a heading toward New York City.
At 8:59, Flight 175 passenger Brian David Sweeney tried to call his wife, Julie. He left a message on their home answering machine that the plane had been hijacked. He then called his mother, Louise Sweeney, told her the flight had been hijacked, and added that the passengers were thinking about storming the cockpit to take control of the plane away from the hijackers.
At 9:00, Lee Hanson received a second call from his son Peter:
"It's getting bad, Dad -- A stewardess was stabbed -- They seem to have knives and Mace -- They said they have a bomb -- It's getting very bad on the plane -- Passengers are throwing up and getting sick -- The plane is making jerky movements -- I don't think the pilot is flying the plane -- I think we are going down -- I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building -- Don't worry, Dad -- If it happens, it'll be very fast -- My God, my God."
The call ended abruptly. Lee Hanson had heard a woman scream just before it cut off. He turned on a television, and in her home so did Louise Sweeney. Both then saw the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center.
At 9:03:11, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. All on board, along with an unknown number of people in the tower, were killed instantly.
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American Airlines Flight 77
Hundreds of miles southwest of Boston, at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., five more men were preparing to take their early morning flight. At 7:15, a pair of them, Khalid Al-Midhar and Majed Moqed, checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight 77, bound for Los Angeles. Within the next 20 minutes, they would be followed by Hani Hanjour and two brothers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Salem Alhazmi.
Hani Hanjour, Khalid Al-Midhar and Majed Moqed were flagged by CAPPS. The Alhazmi brothers were also selected for extra scrutiny by the airline's customer service representative at the check-in counter. He did so because one of the brothers did not have photo identification nor could he understand English, and because the agent found both of the passengers to be suspicious. The only consequence of their selection was that their checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that they had boarded the aircraft.
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At 7:50, Majed Moqed and Khalid Al-Midhar boarded the flight and were seated in 12A and 12B in coach. Hani Hanjour, assigned to seat 1B (first class), soon followed. The Alhazmi brothers, sitting in 5E and 5F, joined Hanjour in the first-class cabin.
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The aircraft was a Boeing 757 piloted by Captain Charles F. Burlingame and First Officer David Charlebois. There were four flight attendants. On Sept. 11, the flight carried 58 passengers.
American 77 pushed back from its gate at 8:09 and took off at 8:20. At 8: 46, the flight reached its assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet.
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The hijacking began between 8:51 and 8:54. As on American 11 and United 175, the hijackers used knives (reported by one passenger) and moved all the passengers (and possibly crew) to the rear of the aircraft (reported by one flight attendant and one passenger).
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At 9:12, Renee May called her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas. She said her flight was being hijacked by six individuals who had moved them to the rear of the plane. She asked her mother to alert American Airlines. Nancy May and her husband promptly did so.
At some point between 9:16 and 9:26, Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson, the solicitor general of the United States. She reported that the flight had been hijacked, and the hijackers had knives and box cutters. She further indicated that the hijackers were not aware of her phone call, and that they had put all the passengers in the back of the plane. About a minute into the conversation, the call was cut off.
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At 9:34, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport advised the Secret Service of an unknown aircraft heading in the direction of the White House. American 77 was then 5 miles west-southwest of the Pentagon and began a 330- degree turn. At the end of the turn, it was descending through 2,200 feet, pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. The hijacker pilot then advanced the throttles to maximum power and dove toward the Pentagon.
At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour. All on board, as well as many civilian and military personnel in the building, were killed.
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United Airlines Flight 93
Between 7:03 and 7:39, Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Alnami, Ahmed Alhaznawi and Ziad Jarrahi checked in at the United Airlines ticket counter (in Newark, N.J. ) for Flight 93, going to San Francisco. Two checked bags; two did not. Alhaznawi was selected by CAPPS. His checked bag was screened for explosives and then loaded on the plane.
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The four men boarded the plane between 7:39 and 7:48. All four had seats in the first-class cabin; their plane had no business-class section. Jarrahi was in seat 1B, closest to the cockpit; Alnami was in 3C, Alghamdi in 3D and Alhaznawi in 6B.
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At 8:42, United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark (New Jersey) Liberty International Airport bound for San Francisco. The aircraft was piloted by Captain Jason Dahl and First Officer Leroy Homer, and there were five flight attendants. Thirty-seven passengers, including the hijackers, boarded the plane. Scheduled to depart the gate at 8:00, the Boeing 757's takeoff was delayed because of the airport's typically heavy morning traffic.
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The hijackers attacked at 9:28. While traveling 35,000 feet above eastern Ohio, United 93 suddenly dropped 700 feet. Eleven seconds into the descent, the FAA's air traffic control center in Cleveland received the first of two radio transmissions from the aircraft. During the first broadcast, the captain or first officer could be heard declaring "Mayday" amid the sounds of a physical struggle in the cockpit
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The cockpit voice recorder data indicate that a woman, most likely a flight attendant, was being held captive in the cockpit. She struggled with one of the hijackers who killed or otherwise silenced her.
Shortly thereafter, the passengers and flight crew began a series of calls from GTE air phones and cellular phones. ... During at least five of the passengers' phone calls, information was shared about the attacks that had occurred earlier that morning at the World Trade Center. Five calls described the intent of passengers and surviving crew members to revolt against the hijackers. According to one call, they voted on whether to rush the terrorists in an attempt to retake the plane. They decided, and acted.
At 9:57, the passenger assault began.
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In response, Jarrahi immediately began to roll the airplane to the left and right, attempting to knock the passengers off balance. At 9:58:57, Jarrahi told another hijacker in the cockpit to block the door. Jarrahi continued to roll the airplane sharply left and right, but the assault continued.
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At 10:00:03, Jarrahi stabilized the airplane. Five seconds later, Jarrahi asked, "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?" A hijacker responded, "No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off." The sounds of fighting continued outside the cockpit. Again, Jarrahi pitched the nose of the aircraft up and down. At 10:00:26, a passenger in the background said, "In the cockpit. If we don't we'll die!" Sixteen seconds later, a passenger yelled, "Roll it!" Jarrahi stopped the violent maneuvers at about 10:01:00 and said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!" He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?" to which the other replied, "Yes, put it in it, and pull it down."
The passengers continued their assault and at 10:02:23, a hijacker said, "Pull it down! Pull it down!" The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them. The airplane headed down; the control wheel was turned hard to the right. The airplane rolled onto its back, and one of the hijackers began shouting "Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest." With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pa., at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C.
Jarrahi's objective was to crash his airliner into symbols of the American Republic, the Capitol or the White House. He was defeated by the alerted, unarmed passengers of United 93.
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