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Life is the most precious of all treasures. Even one extra day of life is worth more than ten million ryo of gold. – Nichiren Daishonen "On Prolonging One's Life Span" (WND, 955)
In 2013, the world was abuzz about a shocking and tantalizing story: a young woman's body found in a water tank, on the roof of a historic Los Angeles hotel. The story makes for a fascinating read, and there are certainly many unaccountable circumstances within the account which make it one to tell over the campfire or at a slumber party. How did she manage to climb into that tall water tank and pull up that heavy lid? Why wouldn't the elevator close right away? Who was she talking to? What were those hand gestures? It's all a strange, creepy mystery that makes you want to pull the covers up, right?
If you dare, you can look at the spooky elevator footage, or the pictures of the workers excavating her body from the water tank, three weeks after her death.
But I won't.
Because I've lived what she was possibly going through at that time – a psychotic breakdown. I'm on three of the same medications she was on at the time of her death: Welbutrin, Lamictol, and Seroquel. It's acknowledged on the Wiki page about her death that she may have been having a psychotic episode. Elisa Lam could have been me. It could have been anyone who suffers from psychosis. When I read this story, I can't be roused to curiosity about what happened between the elevator ride and her climbing into the water tank, because I already know about the short-circuiting that might have been happening in her brain, and I know that, at the moment in time, whatever she was doing felt like the most logical and important thing in the world, no matter how weird it seemed to everyone else, or how "creepy" and "strange" it looked on security footage.
What many non-psychotic people don't realize is that you can have a psychotic breakdown even when you are taking your medicines faithfully. Just like when antidepressants stop working, medications for bipolar with psychosis like Lamictol, Seroquel and Welbutrin can lose their potency, and since many patients don't hallucinate all the time, that means that a psychotic break can happen without warning. Elisa may have been acting fine and happy to her friends and family just a few days ago, and then everything went off the rails within the course of a two or three days. It's entirely possible.
When you're psychotic, you think you're acting normally, or if you're aware that you're acting unnaturally, you don't think it's as bad as it really is. You're not thinking about how you look to other people: your self-consciousness is usually totally gone as it's the very first thing to go (at least in my experience). If Elisa was having a psychotic break, she wouldn't think about the fact that her behavior looked strange or spooky to other people. There might not have even been anyone there in reality that she was talking to.
It's very common for people to talk to themselves, or to imaginary people, during a psychotic episode. I know that I mutter a lot or talk out loud to myself when I'm psychotic, and I do things I would never do when I'm "normal:" dance in public, sing to myself, stare at other people, and etc. I also get paranoid and worry that other people might hurt me or are out to get me. It's definitely possible that Elisa felt the same.
The police report suggested that Elisa committed suicide, but her friends and family said that she wasn't sad and was happy and excited about her trip. If she did have a psychotic episode, that doesn't automatically make it suicide. It might mean that she made a decision while mentally impaired that led to her death. That's not suicide: she didn't actively want to kill herself. She simply died as a result of her mental illness. And there is a big difference. Neither action deserves shame, but it's important to understand that dying because of actions related to your mental illness is not the same as intentionally dying as a result of your mental illness. It helps loved ones process their loss and also helps to educate others about the realities of bipolar disorder, psychosis, and related disorders.
It saddens me every time that I read another story of someone dying because of psychosis, and then having their life and death labeled as "weird," "bizarre," and "spooky" because they were having a psychotic breakdown and were behaving strangely. Psychotic disorders are constantly treated as "bizarre" and treated like a petting zoo for other people. Elisa is now known as little more than how she died and a viral YouTube video of her worst moments, when she was suffering from her mental illness the worst. I know that if I had died during a psychotic episode, and someone had taken the surveillance footage from buses or trains I had been on right before and shared them with the internet – that's not how I would want to be remembered.
I don't think that's how Elisa wants to be remembered either.
What's interesting is that in other cases, the victim is remembered for their life. This isn't always true, and of course sometimes other victims are also remembered for their strange or mysterious death, but in other accounts, everything is done to humanize them and focus on much of their life before death, rather than their final moments and their demise.
I am not saying this is specifically because Elisa (possibly) had psychosis, and thus she was singled out for it. Likely, the author never even considered this bias, but merely wanted to focus on the sensational aspects of the story. However, it's important to remember that just because someone is acting strangely, that doesn't negate that they are still a person. Mentally ill people are still humans, and even in their final moments – and after – they deserve dignity and humanizing characterization. This author did better than other writers at acknowledging that Elisa had a life and interests, but, when considering that she had a history of mental illness, it may have been appropriate to consult individuals who have that mental illness and ask their opinion about her behavior on the day of her death.
What also saddens me is that people are more interested in developing conspiracy theories around her death, and postulating about everything from the Men In Black to the creepy history of the Cecil Hotel, rather than discussing the tragic fact that psychosis can directly lead to someone's death when they are actively having a psychotic episode. Temperature-related death, suicide, and even cardiovascular failure related to medication are all risks for patients with bipolar disorder. The scary thing is that even if she had not had a psychotic episode before, even situations of excited stress ("eustress") could have triggered a brief psychotic episode that led to her death.
The thing is that we simply don't know, but as someone with bipolar disorder with psychosis, this case has all the hallmark symptoms of a psychotic episode – not the paranormal. But we are simply more comfortable thinking that some scary force beyond our control took this woman, rather than a mental illness that people don't like to talk about, and that anyone could struggle with during their lifetime, even if they don't have bipolar. It's easier to shift the blame to something beyond our control than to discuss the lack of resources and support for mentally ill people.
Regardless, I find it hard to view this as simply another "spooky mystery story." For me, this is a tragic tale of a young woman with psychosis meeting an early death because her medications stopped working when she didn't have a psychiatrist available, and her support system was far away. If she hadn't been on that trip, maybe she would be alive today – who knows? There is little mystery beyond logistics. All that remains is the horrible loss of another soul to mental illness.
When you're performing gongyo and praying for the beloved dead today, please consider adding Elisa Lam, and all those who have lost their lives to mental illness, to your prayers.
Shakyamuni taught that the shallow is easy to embrace, but the profound is difficult. To discard the shallow and seek the profound is the way of a person of courage. – Nichiren Daishonin


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Hope you like action, just started this one so improvements are still to be made. Would like some feedback.
Basically, just comic strips
Sci-Fi/Action Webcomic and printed comic. OVER 128 PAGES already!Full colored, mix of American,Japanese and caricatural styles.
Oooh..there's some comics listed here I didn't know about! This is why I love threads like this. Too many get lost off the front 'fresh' page and I miss out!
Mine's here and on Webtoons and at nearly 600 pages, it takes around 4-5 days to read it all So, if you're looking to kill some time...it's a Fantasy rom/com
If you're interested @ryoko in a humorous, action/adventure, time travel story about a trio of "Stop Watchers" whose job it is to stop time criminals from changing the past, and the early 90s woman they accidentally bring three years into the future with them, look no further than --
Og My Ghost has 200+ episodes ^_^THis is my Second Work ^_^
Here's the first chapter of my teams work on webtoons ->
We update here ever few months entire chapters at a time. Because chapters include anywhere from 15 to over 30 pages it takes a while for us to update. For ppl who want to keep up to date we point them here or to our website proper. ->
Here you go! Thanks for checking it out!
Here's mine! Title: RookiesSypnosis: (summary is included below, but here's a little more of that summary Brenda tried to form a group of people which include con artists, a hacker, and an informant. However, things gone bad to worst when they try to act out the "supposed to be a perfect plan" together. But hey, nobody starts off great. So then the group called "Rookies" is born.
I can feel the darkness within me!.....It really is a wonderful read and something I'm bound to follow...already at ep 10 and loving it! I also have to mention your art ain't too shabby...I mean a little rough around the edges sometimes but overall it really sets in the tone....great work Merle. The only advice I can give is for you to sharpen your art but I bet as I continue the art will also improve...so for reals awesomely done
Scythe....your art literally slashes me in half....Would I be wrong to say you do this professionally?......your regulars are epic...I mean bruv you don't need me to tell you you're the ffing bomb...your subs alone scream that....literally this is what I live for
That bifurcated feeling your getting is curtesy of my Scimitar of Death. (My second favourite method of clefting and cleaving)
Far from a pro though. I was able to withdraw $25 bucks from this site once, but that was years ago, and my Patreon, while humble, is nonetheless hugely appreciated. In reality I'm just a dad with a day job, who loves to draw and write when I'm not changing diapers or having dinner.
Thank you though! Truly Your words are manna to me.
Also, today's my birthday, and thanks to the web spotlight I'm currently being inundated with praise, so I'm on a CRAZY high right now.
Sarah couldn't read everything today but after I started reading my DNA girlfriend..I'm officially a junkie for your stuff...like for real the note you started on is literally every guy's worst fear....I hope Stelia get's what coming to her....real soon in fact she better or else you and me have a real beef young lady
you deserve it ...Happy birthday...this is truly a day to be celebrated...it's the day your kids got a wonderful gift. You've got a fan for life here....getting ready to taste the Scimitar of death again and this time...I'll be ready
oh man...some one should murder that demon called Jake..like for real....please create a character called Kofi who kills him....that way I can have the satisfaction of knowing I killed him
and right there Tyson ends him...know what I'm just going to keep quiet and read your awesome manga now
Nice one Mappy ....keep speeding your way to the top, you were made for this
Guys I swear this IS funny....give it time Kudos to you Nes...you're a genius
Rowein I've got only one thing to tell you.... .......I'M GONNA BE YOUR FRIEND!!!


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!! History Commons Alert, Exciting News
We are planning some big changes! Please follow us to stay updated and be part of our community.
Project: Complete 911 TimelineOpen-Content project managed by matt, Derek, Paul, KJF, mtuck, paxvector
add event | references
In the tiny town of Boswell, about ten miles north and slightly to the west of Flight 93's crash site, Rodney Peterson and Brandon Leventry notice a passenger jet lumbering through the sky at about 2,000 feet. They realize such a big plane flying so low in that area is odd. They see the plane dip its wings sharply to the left, then to the right. The wings level off and the plane keeps flying south, continuing to descend slowly. Five minutes later, they hear news that the plane has crashed. Other witnesses also later describe the plane flying east-southeast, low, and wobbly. [New York Times, 9/14/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 205-206]
"Officials initially say that it looks like the plane was headed south when it hit the ground."
[News Channel 5 (Cleveland), 9/11/2001]
Entity Tags: Brandon Leventry, Rodney Peterson
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Paula Pluta, a resident of Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, sees Flight 93 crashing behind some trees about 1,500 yards from her home and then calls 9-1-1, becoming the first person to call the emergency services to report the crash. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/12/2001; East Bay Times, 9/10/2005] Pluta is at her home, watching television, unaware of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon. Everything has been quiet and normal. Suddenly, though, her house starts to vibrate, and things in it start rattling and shaking. She hears a roar coming from the skies above her that gets louder and louder. "I heard this noise like a dive bomber; you know, one of those planes they use in war," she will later recall. When she looks out the living room window, though, she sees nothing unusual outside. She then goes out onto the front porch. From there, she sees a "silver streak" plummeting toward the ground at an angle of about 45 degrees. "It looked like a silver bullet," she will describe. [Los Angeles Times, 9/12/2001; McMillan, 2014, pp. 106; Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, 3/17/2016] Flight 93 crashes into the ground at 10:03 a.m. (see (10:03 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [New York Times, 9/9/2011; National Park Service, 5/2013, pp. 13 ] Pluta is unable to see the impact, since the plane disappears behind a line of trees before hitting the ground, but she feels the ground shaking when the plane crashes. "It hit so hard that it almost took my feet out from underneath me," she will recall. [Los Angeles Times, 9/12/2001; McMillan, 2014, pp. 106; Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, 3/17/2016] She also sees a huge fireball about 150 feet up in the air and a plume of smoke coming from behind the trees. [Chicago Tribune, 9/12/2001; National Park Service, 3/2017, pp. 15 ] The explosion damages the outside of her home. Pluta notices that a garage door has buckled and a latched window has been sucked open. She immediately calls 9-1-1 to report the incident. "Oh my God!" she tells the operator. "There was an airplane crash here!" She is the first of about 20 local residents to report the crash of Flight 93 to the authorities. She will promptly head to the site where the crash occurred and be surprised at the lack of wreckage there (see (After 10:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/12/2001; McMillan, 2014, pp. 106-107; Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, 3/17/2016]
Entity Tags: Paula Pluta
Smoke rising, minutes after Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania. [Source: CNN]Exactly when Flight 93 crashes is unclear. According to NORAD, Flight 93 crashes at 10:03 a.m. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/18/2001] The 9/11 Commission gives an exact time of 11 seconds after 10:03 a.m. It will claim this "time is supported by evidence from the staff's radar analysis, the flight data recorder, NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] analysis, and infrared satellite data." It does note that "[t]he precise crash time has been the subject of some dispute." [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] However, a seismic study authorized by the US Army and drafted by scientists Won-Young Kim and Gerald Baum to determine when the plane crashed will conclude that the crash happened at 10:06:05 a.m. [Kim and Baum, 2002 ; San Francisco Chronicle, 12/9/2002] The discrepancy is so puzzling that the Philadelphia Daily News will publish an article on the issue, titled "Three-Minute Discrepancy in Tape." This notes that leading seismologists agree on the 10:06 a.m. time, give or take a couple of seconds. [Philadelphia Daily News, 9/16/2002] The New York Observer will note that, in addition to the seismology study, "The FAA gives a crash time of 10:07 a.m. In addition, the New York Times, drawing on flight controllers in more than one FAA facility, put the time at 10:10 a.m. Up to a seven-minute discrepancy? In terms of an air disaster, seven minutes is close to an eternity. The way our nation has historically treated any airline tragedy is to pair up recordings from the cockpit and air traffic control and parse the timeline down to the hundredths of a second. However, as [former Inspector General of the Transportation Department] Mary Schiavo points out, 'We don't have an NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation here, and they ordinarily dissect the timeline to the thousandth of a second.'" [New York Observer, 2/15/2004]
Entity Tags: 9/11 Commission, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Federal Aviation Administration, Won-Young Kim, Mary Schiavo, Gerald R. Baum
According to the 9/11 Commission, the NMCC learns about the Flight 93 hijacking at this time. Since the FAA has not yet been patched in to the NMCC's conference call, the news comes from the White House. The White House learned about it from the Secret Service, and the Secret Service learned about it from the FAA. NORAD apparently is still unaware. Four minutes later, a NORAD representative on the conference call states, "NORAD has no indication of a hijack heading to Washington, D.C., at this time." [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, Federal Aviation Administration, National Military Command Center
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Key Day of 9/11 Events
Several local people believe they hear a missile overhead just before Flight 93 goes down. Barry Lichty, a US Navy veteran and mayor of Indian Lake Borough (just to the east of where Flight 93 crashes), is watching television with his wife. He says he hears "a loud roar above the house that sounded like a missile.… Shortly thereafter, we heard an explosion and a tremor. My first reaction, as a former utility employee, was that maybe someone shot a missile into the substation." He says Flight 93 "did not come over my house. I don't know what we heard." [Kashurba, 2002, pp. 158-159] Joe Wilt, who lives a quarter-mile from the crash site, hears a "whistling like a missile, then a loud boom." He says, "The first thing I thought it was, was a missile." [Boston Globe, 9/12/2001; Washington Post, 9/12/2001] And Ernie Stuhl, the mayor of Shanksville, later says, "I know of two people - I will not mention names - that heard a missile. They both live very close, within a couple of hundred yards.… This one fellow's served in Vietnam and he says he's heard them, and he heard one that day." [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/18/2001] Officials will emphatically deny that Flight 93 was shot down, as some people later suggest (see September 14, 2001). [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/14/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 264] However, a number of witnesses report seeing a small, white jet plane near the crash site, around the time Flight 93 reportedly goes down (see (Before and After 10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Barry Lichty, Joe Wilt
The military liaison at the FAA's Cleveland Center calls NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) and alerts it to the hijacked Flight 93. According to the 9/11 Commission, this is the first notification NEADS receives about Flight 93, but it comes too late, since the plane has already crashed (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 30; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 46] 'Bomb on Board' Flight 93 - At 10:05 a.m., the military liaison at the Cleveland Center, who is unaware that Flight 93 has just crashed, calls NEADS to inform it that Flight 93 is heading toward Washington, DC. Even though communicating with NEADS is not one of his responsibilities, he wants to make sure it is in the loop. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 224] At NEADS, the call is answered by Tech Sergeant Shelley Watson. Shortly into the call, at 10:07, the military liaison tells her: "We got a United 93 out here. Are you aware of that?" He continues, "That has a bomb on board." Watson asks: "A bomb on board? And this is confirmed? You have a mode three [beacon code], sir?" The military liaison replies, "No, we lost his transponder" (see (9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The news about Flight 93 is shouted out to Major Kevin Nasypany, the NEADS mission crew commander. Nasypany responds: "Gimme the call sign. Gimme the whole nine yards.… Let's get some info, real quick. They got a bomb?" Liaison Wants Fighters Sent toward Flight 93 - The military liaison continues, asking Watson if NEADS scrambled fighter jets in response to Delta 1989, an aircraft that was mistakenly reported as having been hijacked (see (9:28 a.m.-9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). Watson replies: "We did. Out of Selfridge and Toledo" (see (9:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 10:01 a.m. September 11, 2001), and says these jets are airborne. When the military liaison asks if the fighters can be directed to where Flight 93 is, Watson asks him if the Cleveland Center has latitude and longitude coordinates for this aircraft. The military liaison replies that he has not got this information available right now. All he knows is that Flight 93 has "got a confirmed bomb on board… and right now, his last known position was in the Westmoreland area.… Which is… in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area." [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/11/2001; Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] NEADS Searches on Radar - The news of a bomb on board Flight 93 spreads quickly at NEADS, and personnel there search for the aircraft's primary return on their radar screens. But because the plane has already crashed, they will be unable to locate it. NEADS will only learn that Flight 93 has crashed at 10:15 a.m., during a call with the FAA's Washington Center (see 10:15 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 30-31] FAA Failed to Notify Military Earlier - The Cleveland Center's notification to NEADS about Flight 93 comes 39 minutes after the plane was hijacked (see (9:28 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and 33 minutes after FAA headquarters was alerted to the hijacking (see 9:34 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 11, 28] At the time NEADS is alerted to Flight 93, NORAD is similarly uninformed about this aircraft, according to the 9/11 Commission. The Commission will state, "At 10:07, its representative on the air threat conference call stated that NORAD had 'no indication of a hijack heading to DC at this time.'" According to the Commission, the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon learned about the Flight 93 hijacking slightly earlier on, at 10:03 a.m. (see 10:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). However, the NMCC was notified by the White House, not the FAA. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 42] A former senior FAA executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, will later try to explain why it takes the FAA so long to alert NEADS to Flight 93. He will say, "Our whole procedures prior to 9/11 were that you turned everything [regarding a hijacking] over to the FBI." [Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] Yet military instructions contradict this, stating, "In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA." [US Department of Defense, 7/31/1997 ; US Department of Defense, 6/1/2001 ] NORAD Commanders Claim Earlier Awareness of Flight 93 - Two senior NORAD officials will contradict the 9/11 Commission's conclusion, and claim they were aware of Flight 93 well before it crashed (see Shortly Before 9:36 a.m. September 11, 2001 and (9:36 a.m.-10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 68, 71-73] Colonel Robert Marr, the NEADS battle commander, will tell the Commission that, while the flight was still airborne, "his focus was on UAL 93, which was circling over Chicago," and he "distinctly remembers watching the flight UAL 93 come west, and turn over Cleveland." [9/11 Commission, 10/27/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/23/2004 ] Major General Larry Arnold, the commander of the Continental US NORAD Region, will recall, "[W]e watched the [Flight] 93 track as it meandered around the Ohio-Pennsylvania area and started to turn south toward DC." [Filson, 2003, pp. 71]
Entity Tags: Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Kevin Nasypany, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Shelley Watson
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93
Shortly after 9/11, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will say the nearest fighter jets to Flight 93 at the time it crashes are the F-16s from Langley Air Force Base that are flying a combat air patrol over Washington, DC (see (Between 9:49 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/18/2001; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 34] Other accounts will conflict over whether or not there are any fighter jets near Flight 93 when it goes down: Two days after the attacks, it will be reported that an unnamed New England air traffic controller has ignored a ban on controllers speaking to the media, and this controller claims "that an F-16 fighter closely pursued Flight 93.… [T]he F-16 made 360-degree turns to remain close to the commercial jet." The controller adds that the fighter pilot "must've seen the whole thing." He reportedly learned this from speaking to controllers who were closer to the crash. [Telegraph (Nashua), 9/12/2001; Associated Press, 9/13/2001] Five days after the attacks, on September 16, CBS News will report that two F-16s are tailing Flight 93 and are within 60 miles of it when it goes down. [CBS News, 9/16/2001; Independent, 8/13/2002] But, also on September 16, Major General Paul Weaver, the director of the Air National Guard, will say that no military planes were sent after Flight 93. [Seattle Times, 9/16/2001] In April 2002, Anthony Kuczynski will tell the University of St. Thomas's weekly newspaper that he had flown toward Pittsburgh alongside two F-16s on 9/11. He says he was piloting an E-3 Sentry AWACS plane, which has advanced radar and surveillance equipment that can be used to direct fighter jets to their targets. He was just about to intercept Flight 93 when it crashed. He says, "I was given direct orders to shoot down an airliner." (E-3s are unarmed, so, if this account is accurate, the order presumably applied to the fighters Kuczynski was accompanying.) [St. Thomas Aquin, 4/12/2002; US Air Force, 9/22/2015] A year after the attacks, ABC News will report that the "closest fighters" to Flight 93 when it crashes "are two F-16 pilots on a training mission from Selfridge Air National Guard Base" near Detroit, Michigan. These are ordered after Flight 93, according to some accounts, even though they are unarmed. [ABC News, 8/30/2002; ABC News, 9/11/2002] However, other accounts will state that these jets are in fact ordered to intercept another aircraft, Delta 1989, or are simply told to return to their base (see (9:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:56 a.m.-10:29 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28; Mount Clemens-Clinton-Harrison Journal, 9/6/2006; Spencer, 2008, pp. 178] Stacey Taylor, an air traffic controller at the FAA's Cleveland Center, will claim not to have seen any fighter jets on radar around the area of the crash. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] Five years after 9/11, Bill Keaton, a Cleveland Center controller who tracked Flight 93 as it flew eastward (see (9:41 a.m.-10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001), will be asked whether there were fighter jets in the vicinity of the plane when it crashed. He will reply, "[T]hat goes beyond the scope of what I can comment on." (Air traffic controllers reportedly can lose their security clearances if they discuss the movements of military aircraft.) [Cleveland Free Times, 9/6/2006]
Entity Tags: Stacey Taylor, Anthony Kuczynski, Bill Keaton, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Paul Weaver
Flight 93 apparently starts to break up before it crashes, because debris is found very far away from the crash site. [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/2001] The plane is generally obliterated upon landing, except for one half-ton piece of engine found some distance away. Some reports indicate that the engine piece was found over a mile away. [Independent, 8/13/2002] The FBI reportedly acknowledges that this piece was found "a considerable distance" from the crash site. [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/2001] Later, the FBI will cordon off a three-mile wide area around the crash, as well as another area six to eight miles from the initial crash site. [CNN, 9/13/2001] One story calls what happened to this engine "intriguing, because the heat-seeking, air-to-air Sidewinder missiles aboard an F-16 would likely target one of the Boeing 757's two large engines." [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/2001] Smaller debris fields are also found two, three, and eight miles away from the main crash site. [Independent, 8/13/2002; Mirror, 9/12/2002] Eight miles away, local media quote residents speaking of a second plane in the area and burning debris falling from the sky. [Reuters, 9/13/2001] Residents outside Shanksville reported "discovering clothing, books, papers, and what appeared to be human remains. Some residents said they collected bags-full of items to be turned over to investigators. Others reported what appeared to be crash debris floating in Indian Lake, nearly six miles from the immediate crash scene. Workers at Indian Lake Marina said that they saw a cloud of confetti-like debris descend on the lake and nearby farms minutes after hearing the explosion…" [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/13/2001] Moments after the crash, Carol Delasko initially thinks someone had blown up a boat on Indian Lake: "It just looked like confetti raining down all over the air above the lake." [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/14/2001] Investigators say that far-off wreckage "probably was spread by the cloud created when the plane crashed and dispersed by a ten mph southeasterly wind." [News Journal (Wilmington, DE), 9/16/2001] However, much of the wreckage is found sooner than that wind could have carried it, and not always southeast.
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Carol Delasko
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Key Day of 9/11 Events, Shanksville, Pennsylvania
John Fleegle, a manager at the Indian Lake Marina about 1.5 miles from where Flight 93 crashes, is indoors with some colleagues, watching the televised coverage of the World Trade Center attack. Then, as he later describes, "All of a sudden the lights flickered and we joked that maybe they were coming for us. Then we heard engines screaming close overhead. The building shook. We ran out, heard the explosion and saw a fireball mushroom," following the crash. When he later describes this incident while on a training course in Atlanta, Fleegle will be told that what happened means Flight 93 "was shot down." A man there who says he is a retired Air Force officer will tell Fleegle, "[W]hen your lights flickered, [it was because] they zap the radar frequency on everything before they shoot. Your lights didn't flicker from the impact—your lights flickered because they zapped the radar system before they shot it." However, William "Buck" Kernan, a retired four-star Army general, will dispute this claim, saying, "[R]egarding an aircraft engaging an airborne target having an electrical disruption on the ground, no, this would not be a result of lock on or any electromagnetic pulsing." He will suggest it is "possible that overpressure from explosions could momentarily disrupt microwave connections or cause sensations on ground relays, wiring, etc." that might result in the lights having flickered. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/14/2001; Lappe and Marshall, 2004, pp. 35-36] But, consistent with Fleegle's allegation, a number of local residents—including military veterans—say they heard the sound of a missile overhead just before the time of the crash (see Just Before 10:06 a.m. September 11, 2001). Another local resident, Val McClatchey, will report her lights and phone going out around the time of the crash. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/11/2002] According to Barry Lichty, the mayor of Indian Lake Borough, the town's electricity goes out around this time. He later learns that the plane crash had disrupted service to the borough. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/12/2001] Interestingly, one alternative theory later suggested is that Flight 93 could have been brought down using "electromagnetic interference" (see August 13, 2002). The US Air Force and Pentagon have in fact "conducted extensive research on 'electronic warfare applications' with the possible capacity intentionally to disrupt the mechanisms of an airplane in such a way as to provoke, for example, an uncontrollable dive." [Independent, 8/13/2002]
Entity Tags: Barry Lichty, Val McClatchey, John Fleegle, William Kernan
The military liaison at the FAA's Cleveland Center is informed that Flight 93 has been hijacked and is given information about its location. It is unclear when the liaison first receives this information, but it must happen before 10:07, as he telephones NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) at this time to pass on the information (see 10:05 a.m.-10:08 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 30] Military liaison officers at the FAA's Command Center are also said to be informed of the hijacking of Flight 93 (see After 9:34 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93
Flight 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside. Resue vehicles arrive in the distance. [Source: Keith Srakocic/ Associated Press]Flight 93 crashes into an empty field just north of the Somerset County Airport, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, 124 miles or 15 minutes from Washington, D.C. Presumably, hijackers Ziad Jarrah, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Saeed Alghamdi, and all the plane's passengers are killed instantly. [CNN, 9/12/2001; North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/18/2001; Guardian, 10/17/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; USA Today, 8/12/2002; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; MSNBC, 9/3/2002] The point of impact is a reclaimed coal mine, known locally as the Diamond T Mine, that was reportedly abandoned in 1996. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/12/2001; St. Petersburg Times, 9/12/2001; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/11/2002] Being "reclaimed" means the earth had been excavated down to the coal seam, the coal removed, and then the earth replaced and planted over. [Kashurba, 2002, pp. 121] A US Army authorized seismic study times the crash at five seconds after 10:06 a.m. [Kim and Baum, 2002 ; San Francisco Chronicle, 12/9/2002] As mentioned previously, the timing of this crash is disputed and it may well occur at 10:03 a.m., 10:07 a.m., or 10:10 a.m.
Entity Tags: San Francisco Chronicle, Ziad Jarrah, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Saeed Alghamdi, NBC, Ahmed Alnami
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Ziad Jarrah, Other 9/11 Hijackers
Looking straight down onto the Flight 93 crash site. North is to the top. Note the impact point north of the road, and the burned trees to the south of it. [Source: FBI]A second plane, described "as a small, white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings," is seen by at least ten witnesses flying low and in erratic patterns, not much above treetop level, over the crash site within minutes of United Flight 93 crashing. [Independent, 8/13/2002] Lee Purbaugh: "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon." [Mirror, 9/12/2002] Susan Mcelwain: Less than a minute before the Flight 93 crash rocked the countryside, she sees a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swoop low over her minivan near an intersection and disappear over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge. [Bergen Record, 9/14/2001] She later adds, "There's no way I imagined this plane—it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look. It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the Internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around.… But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40 feet above my head. They did not want my story—nobody here did." [Mirror, 9/12/2002] John Fleegle and two work colleagues arrive at the crash site "before any fireman or paramedics or anybody." According to Fleegle, "When we got there, there was a plane flying up above and he was smart, he flew straight for the sun so you couldn't look at it and see exactly what type of plane, if it was a fighter or what it was." However, Fleegle claims the plane "was decent sized. It wasn't just a little private jet or something like that, from what we could see." [Lappe and Marshall, 2004, pp. 35-36] Dennis Decker and/or Rick Chaney, say: "As soon as we looked up [after hearing the Flight 93 crash], we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast. It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out." Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Learjet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings. "It was a jet plane, and it had to be flying real close when that 757 went down. If I was the FBI, I'd find out who was driving that plane." [Bergen Record, 9/14/2001] Kathy Blades, who is staying about quarter of a mile from the impact site, runs outside after the crash and sees a jet, "with sleek back wings and an angled cockpit," race overhead. [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/18/2001] Anna Ruth Fisher says, "After the crash, another jet went near over to look." Her mother, Anna B. Fisher, adds, "We were looking at the smoke cloud when we saw the jets circling up there." [Kashurba, 2002, pp. 27] Jim Brandt sees a small plane with no markings stay about one or two minutes over the crash site before leaving. [Pittsburgh Channel, 9/12/2001] Bob Page sees a large plane circling the crash site for about two or three minutes, before climbing almost vertically into the sky. He cannot see what kind of plane it is or if there are any markings on it, but says, "It sure wasn't no puddle jumper." [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/12/2001] Tom Spinelli: "I saw the white plane. It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for something. I saw it before and after the crash." [Mirror, 9/12/2002] The FBI later claims this was a Fairchild Falcon 20 business jet, directed after the crash to fly from 37,000 feet to 5,000 feet and obtain the coordinates for the crash site to help rescuers (see 10:07 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Pittsburgh Channel, 9/15/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/16/2001] The FBI also says there was a C-130 military cargo aircraft flying at 24,000 feet about 17 miles away (see 10:08 a.m. September 11, 2001), but that plane wasn't armed and had no role in the crash. [Pittsburgh Channel, 9/15/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/16/2001] Note that this is the same C-130 that flies very close to Flight 77 right as that planes crashes into the Pentagon (see 9.36 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Anna B Fisher, Dennis Decker, Anna Ruth Fisher, Bob Page, Susan Mcelwain, Kathy Blades, Federal Bureau of Investigation, John Fleegle, Tom Spinelli, Lee Purbaugh, Jim Brandt, Rick Chaney
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania
The local structure most severely damaged when Flight 93 crashes in rural Pennsylvania is a stone cottage, an estimated 1,000 feet from the crash site. Located within thick trees, the cottage belongs to Barry Hoover who is away at work at the time of the crash. Reportedly, "every window and door" has been "blown off and obliterated, its ceilings and floor tiles had been blasted loose and much of the interior was wrecked." Hoover describes it as "like what you see after a tornado or hurricane goes through—a total ruin." The garage adjacent to it has its door blown off by the shockwave from the crash. According to Somerset County Solicitor Dan Rullo, "The way it was described to me was that it must have been blown up, the springs snapped, and it came back upside down." The surrounding area is scattered with remains and debris. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/14/2001; Kashurba, 2002, pp. 122; Washington Post, 5/12/2002]
Entity Tags: Barry Hoover
A local resident is able to take the only photo showing the Flight 93 crash in the seconds after the plane went down. Val McClatchey lives just over a mile away from the crash site. [Wall Street Journal, 9/12/2006] She is at home watching television when she hears the surge of a plane engine, sees a silver flash outside, and then hears a loud boom that causes her house to shake. Luckily she has her new digital camera ready by her door. She was planning to photograph a friend who had promised to fly over in a helicopter on this day. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/29/2003; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/6/2006; Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown), 9/9/2006] She grabs it and from her front porch manages to take a picture of the smoke cloud rising into the sky, "approximately five seconds after impact," she says. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/11/2002; Windsor Park Stories, 3/23/2003] Her photo will appear in numerous newspapers and magazines. According to the FBI, it is the only known image taken within seconds of the crash. Considering the sparsely populated area in which Flight 93 went down, Pittsburgh FBI agent Jeff Killeen calls it "one-of-a-kind." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/6/2006; Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown), 9/9/2006; Wall Street Journal, 9/12/2006]
Entity Tags: Val McClatchey
Soon after Flight 93 has crashed, Sherry Stalley, who is a reporter with a Johnstown, Pennsylvania, television station, is traveling in a car and hears a dispatch over the scanner (a type of radio receiver used by reporters), reporting that apparently another plane, possibly with a bomb onboard, is heading towards the Johnstown airport (located about 14 miles north of the Flight 93 crash site). According to Stalley, "The scanner was jammed with talk. Emergency crews and firefighters were being sent to the airport. Police were being dispatched to shut down roads. Every available unit within a thirty-mile radius was asked to help." [Gilbert et al., 2002, pp. 111] The control tower at the Johnstown airport was evacuated at around 10 a.m., following reports of a suspect aircraft heading towards it (see (Between 9:40 and 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Sherry Stalley
"Up above, a fighter jet streak[s] by," just after Flight 93 crashes, according to ABC News. [ABC News, 9/15/2002] It isn't clear what evidence this ABC News claim is based on. There are other accounts of a fighter or fighters in the area before the crash, mentioned previously.
At some point after Flight 93 crashes, NORAD diverts "unarmed Michigan Air National Guard fighter jets that happened to be flying a training mission in northern Michigan since the time of the first attack."
[Associated Press, 8/30/2002] The 9/11 Commission concludes these fighters and fighters from Ohio are scrambled for Delta Flight 1989, a flight that was never hijacked or even out of contact. Meanwhile, reportedly, no fighters are scrambled after Flight 93 at all, which has already crashed. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Falcon 20 business jet. [Source: Portuguese Air Force]According to some accounts, following a request from the FAA's Cleveland Center, a Fairchild Falcon 20 business jet reports seeing puffs of smoke in the area of Flight 93's last known position. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/16/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ] The FBI later says the business jet was within 20 miles of Flight 93 when it crashed, at an altitude of 37,000 feet, and on its way to Johnstown. It was asked to descend to 5,000 feet to help locate the crash site for the benefit of the responding emergency crews. [Pittsburgh Channel, 9/15/2001] Stacey Taylor appears to be the Cleveland Center controller who made the request. She later recalls: "I had another airplane [other than Flight 93] that I was working. And I told him, I said, 'Sir,' I said, 'I think we have an aircraft down.' I said, 'This is entirely up to you, but if you'd be willing to fly over the last place that we spotted this airplane—and see if you can see anything.'… So he flew over and at first he didn't see anything and then he said, 'We see a great big plume or a cloud of smoke.'" [MSNBC, 9/9/2006] The business jet belongs to VF Corp, a Greensboro, North Carolina clothing firm. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/16/2001] According to David Newell, VF Corp's director of aviation and travel, Cleveland Center contacted the plane's copilot Yates Gladwell when it was at an altitude "in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 4,000 ft," rather than 37,000 feet, as claimed by the FBI. He will add: "They got down within 1,500 ft. of the ground when they circled. They saw a hole in the ground with smoke coming out of it. They pinpointed the location and then continued on." [Popular Mechanics, 3/2005] This incident occurs around 40 minutes after the FAA initiated a nationwide ground stop, which required planes in the air to land as soon as reasonable (see (9:26 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Time, 9/14/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 25] The FBI will claim the VF Corp business jet is probably the plane some witnesses on the ground see up above, shortly after the crash of Flight 93 (see (Before and After 10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Pittsburgh Channel, 9/15/2001] However, at least two witnesses say they saw a plane overhead even before the time of the Flight 93 crash, and one of them describes it as "definitely military," rather than a business jet. Also, some will describe it as flying much lower than the Falcon 20 was—just "40 feet above my head," according to one witness. [Bergen Record, 9/14/2001; Mirror, 9/12/2002]
Entity Tags: Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Stacey Taylor, Yates Gladwell
Hank Krakowski. [Source: Unisys]After seeing Flight 93's radar track stopping over Pennsylvania, a senior United Airlines official contacts an airport in that area and receives confirmation of what appears to be an airplane crash nearby. Along with other United Airlines managers, Hank Krakowski, United's director of flight operations, has just been watching Flight 93 on a large screen in the crisis center at the airline's headquarters, outside Chicago (see (9:36 a.m.-10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). A dispatcher has determined the plane's last position was south of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, so Krakowski tries phoning the Johnstown airport. However, due to an apparent power failure, there is no reply. He has to call the airport manager's cell phone number. He asks the manager: "We might have a plane down in your area there. See anything unusual?" The manager reports a black smoke plume visible about 30 miles to the south of the airport. Krakowski thinks, "We just watched one of our airplanes crash." [Longman, 2002, pp. 214; USA Today, 8/13/2002] Therefore, by 10:15 a.m. according to the 9/11 Commission, United Airlines headquarters has "confirmed that an aircraft [has] crashed near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and [it] believed that this was Flight 93." [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 47]
Entity Tags: United Airlines, Hank Krakowski
The FAA's Cleveland Center, which had the last contact with Flight 93 before it crashed, suggests that no distress signal indicating a plane crash has occurred was picked up at the time Flight 93 went down. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001] Flight 93 reportedly crashed in rural Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. (see (10:03 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Transportation Safety Board, 2/19/2002 ; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 30; USA Today, 9/11/2008] An air traffic controller at the Cleveland Center now says, apparently over an FAA teleconference, that someone has reported seeing black smoke in the vicinity of Flight 93's last known position, near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The controller then says, "We're trying to see if we can get an ELT check." [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001] An "ELT" is an emergency locator transmitter, a device carried on most general aviation aircraft in the US that is designed to automatically start transmitting a distress signal if a plane should crash, so as to help search and rescue efforts in locating the downed aircraft. [Federal Aviation Administration, 3/23/1990; Federal Aviation Administration, 7/12/2001; Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 1/22/2009] The Cleveland Center controller's information, as an FAA timeline will later state, therefore indicates that "[n]o ELT" signal has been picked up in the area where Flight 93 apparently crashed "at this time." [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001] Someone at the FAA's Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, acknowledges the controller's communication, responding, "Copy that, Command Center." [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001] Whether anyone will subsequently report picking up an ELT signal in the area where Flight 93 apparently crashed is unclear. Major Allan Knox, who works at the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, which is "the contact for credible" ELT signals, will tell the 9/11 Commission that he "does not recall an ELT detection being brought to his attention" today. [9/11 Commission, 10/1/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 10/6/2003 ] However, an ELT signal was picked up in the New York area by the pilot of an aircraft minutes before Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (see 8:44 a.m. September 11, 2001) and another ELT signal was picked up in the New York area by the same pilot minutes before Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower (see 8:58 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001 ; New York Times, 10/16/2001]
Entity Tags: Federal Aviation Administration, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Allan Knox
Counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke is told by White House Situation Room Deputy Director Ralph Seigler, "Secret Service reports a hostile aircraft ten minutes out." Two minutes later, he is given an update: "Hostile aircraft eight minutes out." In actual fact, when Flight 93 crashed at 10:06 a.m., it was still about 15 minutes away from Washington. Clarke is also told that there are 3,900 aircraft still in the air over the continental US (which is roughly accurate); four of those aircraft are believed to be piloted by terrorists (which is inaccurate by this time). Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Richard Myers then reports: "We have three F-16s from Langley over the Pentagon. Andrews is launching fighters from the DC Air National Guard. We have fighters aloft from the Michigan Air National Guard, moving east toward a potential hostile over Pennsylvania. Six fighters from Tyndall and Ellington are en route to rendezvous with Air Force One over Florida. They will escort it to Barksdale." [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/18/2001; Clarke, 2004, pp. 8-9] However, fighters do not meet up with Air Force One until about an hour later (see (11:29 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Franklin Miller, a senior national security official who is working alongside Clarke on 9/11, and another official who is also in the Situation Room, will later fail to recall hearing any warning that a plane could be only minutes away. [New York Times, 3/30/2004] The time of this incident is unstated, but the Michigan fighters are not diverted until after 10:06 a.m. (see (After 10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). If it takes place after 10:06 a.m., this would parallel similar warnings about Flight 93 after it has already crashed provided to Vice President Dick Cheney elsewhere in the White House (see (Between 10:10 a.m. and 10:18 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Richard B. Myers, Franklin Miller, Richard A. Clarke, US Secret Service, Ralph Seigler
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Richard Clarke
According to Newsweek, "shortly after the suicide attacks," US intelligence picks up communications among bin Laden associates relaying the message: "we've hit the targets." [Newsweek, 9/13/2001]
Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, US intelligence
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Remote Surveillance, 9/11 Investigations, FBI 9/11 Investigation
Counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke is told by an aide, "United 93 is down, crashed outside of Pittsburgh. It's odd. Appears not to have hit anything much on the ground." The timing of this event is unclear. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 14-15]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke
President Bush is told that Flight 93 crashed a few minutes after it happened, but the exact timing of this notice is unclear. Because of Vice President Cheney's earlier order, he asks, "Did we shoot it down or did it crash?" Several hours later, he is assured that it crashed. [Washington Post, 1/27/2002]
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Cheney, George W. Bush
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, George Bush
According to the 9/11 Commission, the FAA Command Center reports to FAA headquarters at this time that Flight 93 has crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside. "It hit the ground. That's what they're speculating, that's speculation only." The Command Center confirms that Flight 93 crashed at 10:17 a.m. [Guardian, 10/17/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Entity Tags: Federal Aviation Administration
Armed agents deploy around the White House. [CNN, 9/12/2001]
Lt. Col. Steve O'Brien standing in front of a C-130. [Source: CBC]Cleveland Center air traffic controller Stacey Taylor has asked a nearby C-130 pilot to look at Flight 93's last position and see if he can find anything. Remarkably, this C-130 pilot, Lt. Col. Steve O'Brien, is the same pilot who was asked by air traffic control to observe Flight 77 as it crashed into the Pentagon earlier on (see 9.36 a.m. September 11, 2001). O'Brien tells Taylor that he saw smoke from the crash shortly after the hijacked plane went down. [Guardian, 10/17/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] An article in the London Independent will later suggest that Flight 93 might have been brought down by the US military using "electronic warfare applications" that can disrupt the mechanisms of an airplane (See August 13, 2002); it will refer to this C-130, since "in 1995 the Air Force installed 'electronic suites' in at least 28 of its C-130s—capable, among other things, of emitting lethal jamming signals." [Independent, 8/13/2002]
Entity Tags: Stacey Taylor, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Steve O'Brien
Unaware the aircraft has crashed, United Airlines flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger instructs Flight 93 not to divert to Washington. At 10:10, he sends a text message to Flight 93, stating: "Don't divert to DC. Not an option." A minute later, he resends this same message to it. [9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 46] Someone on Flight 93 had contacted the FAA at 9:30, requesting a new flight plan with the destination of Washington (see 9:30 a.m. September 11, 2001), and at 9:55 the pilot hijacker reprogrammed the plane's navigational system for the new destination of Washington's Reagan National Airport (see 9:55 a.m. September 11, 2001). United Airlines will not confirm that Flight 93 has crashed until around 10:15 (see (10:07 a.m.-10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and will notify its employees of this at 10:17 (see 10:17 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Ed Ballinger
The 9/11 Commission later concludes that if Flight 93 had not crashed, it would probably have reached Washington around this time. The commission notes that there are only three fighters over Washington at this time, all from Langley, Virginia. However, the pilots of these fighters were never briefed about why they were scrambled. As the lead pilot explained, "I reverted to the Russian threat… I'm thinking cruise missile threat from the sea. You know, you look down and see the Pentagon burning and I thought the b_stards snuck one by us.… You couldn't see any airplanes, and no one told us anything." The pilots knew their mission was to identify and divert aircraft flying within a certain radius of Washington, but did not know that the threat came from hijacked planes. In addition, the commission notes that NEADS did not know where Flight 93 was when it crashed, and wonders if they would have determined its location and passed it on the pilots before the plane reached Washington. They conclude, "NORAD officials have maintained that they would have intercepted and shot down United 93. We are not so sure." [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Entity Tags: North American Aerospace Defense Command, Northeast Air Defense Sector
With reports of another airplane headed toward Washingon, fire and rescue workers were directed to temporarily move away from the Pentagon. [Source: Jon Culberson]At around 10:15 a.m., fire and rescue workers at the Pentagon in response to the attack there are evacuated away from the site, due to a warning of another hijacked aircraft flying towards Washington, DC, currently 20 minutes away. The warning is passed on by Special Agent Chris Combs, the FBI's representative at the Pentagon crash site. Assistant Fire Chief James Schwartz then orders the fire and rescue personnel to evacuate to a highway overpass several hundred yards from the Pentagon. Combs receives the information about the inbound aircraft from the FBI's Washington Field Office, which is in direct contact with the FAA. He then confirms it with the control tower at Washington's Reagan National Airport. According to a report put out by the government of Arlington County, Virginia, updates are announced of the approaching aircraft "until the last warning when [it] went below radar coverage in Pennsylvania, an estimated 4 minutes flying time from the Pentagon." [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A16 and A30 ; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 315] Yet if the timing of this account is correct, the approaching plane could not have been Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania considerably earlier (see (10:03 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Finally, Combs is informed by Jim Rice, his boss at the Washington Field Office, "You're all clear." Rice adds, incorrectly, "The plane hit Camp David." [Creed and Newman, 2008, pp. 131] At 10:38, firefighters and rescue workers are allowed to return to the Pentagon and resume their activities. [Fire Engineering, 11/2002] There will be two more evacuations of the Pentagon site in the following 24 hours, also due to false alarms over reports of unidentified inbound aircraft (see (2:00 p.m.) September 11, 2001 and (10:00 a.m.) September 12, 2001).
Entity Tags: Chris Combs, Jim Rice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Schwartz
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Pentagon
According to the 9/11 Commission, NEADS calls Washington flight control at this time. Asked about Flight 93, flight control responds, "He's down." It is clarified that the plane crashed "somewhere up northeast of Camp David.… That's the last report. They don't know exactly where." [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] The crash site is in fact about 85 miles northwest of Camp David. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001]
Entity Tags: Northeast Air Defense Sector
Andy Studdert, the chief operating officer of United Airlines, sends out an operational alert message to the airline's personnel, informing them of the crash of Flight 93. The message states: "UAL 93-11 EWR-SFO has been involved in an accident. Crisis center has been activated." [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 47] Along with other United Airlines managers, Studdert watched Flight 93's radar track as it came to a halt on a screen in the airline's crisis center, at its headquarters outside Chicago (see (9:36 a.m.-10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). By 10:15, United had learned from the manager of the Johnstown airport in Pennsylvania of a plume of smoke rising up in the area where Flight 93 crashed (see (10:07 a.m.-10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Longman, 2002, pp. 77 and 214]
Entity Tags: Andrew P. Studdert, United Airlines
F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft at the 180th Fighter Wing. [Source: Jodi Joice / US Air Force]Two F-16 fighter jets take off from a military unit in Toledo, Ohio, in response to the morning's attacks, but accounts will conflict over what their mission is and who the pilots are. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/2001; Filson, 2003, pp. 71; WTOL, 9/11/2006] The 180th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard is based at Toledo Express Airport. Although the unit is not one of NORAD's seven alert facilities around the US, it has recently received a call from NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), requesting that it launch two of its fighters (see 10:01 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Airman, 12/1999; Toledo Blade, 12/9/2001; WTOL, 9/11/2006; Spencer, 2008, pp. 178-179] The 180th Maintenance Squadron, which is responsible for maintaining the unit's aircraft and equipment, was also contacted, and has loaded the F-16s' guns with 500 rounds of 20-caliber ammunition. [180th Fighter Wing, 9/19/2001; WTOL, 9/11/2006] Jets Head East - The two F-16s, which were being set up for training missions, now take off and head east. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/2001] According to author Lynn Spencer, they are piloted by Scott Reed and Ed Rinke. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 179] However, a local television station will report that the pilots are Scott Reed and Keith Newell. [WTOL, 9/11/2006] Mission Unclear - It is unclear what role the two jets play in defending the nation. Toledo Air National Guard officials will later refuse to talk about this morning's events, even in the general terms permitted by the military. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/2001] According to Spencer, NEADS wanted the 180th FW jets to respond to Delta Air Lines Flight 1989, which is incorrectly thought to have been hijacked and will land in Cleveland at around 10:18 (see (10:18 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The 9/11 Commission will similarly say the Toledo jets are ordered to intercept Delta 1989. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/16/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 27-28; Spencer, 2008, pp. 177-178] But Larry Arnold, the commander of the Continental United States NORAD Region, will say the 180th FW was contacted "because we thought [Flight] 93 or Delta Flight 1989 might be headed toward Chicago." [Filson, 2003, pp. 71] NEADS battle commander Colonel Robert Marr will say the two F-16s "never had a track close enough that they were directed to engage. [But] if a valid direction had come from the appropriate level to engage a target, or shoot down a target at some time, they could have done that." Response Is 'Very Quick' - Marr will describe the 180th FW's response to NEADS's request for assistance as "very, very, very quick." [Toledo Blade, 12/9/2001] However, the fourth hijacked aircraft, Flight 93, has already crashed by the time the two jets take off (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 30]
Entity Tags: Ed Rinke, Keith Newell, 180th Fighter Wing, Robert Marr, Scott Reed, Larry Arnold
United Airlines contacts American Airlines and notifies it of the crash of Flight 93. [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 47] Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania shortly after 10:00 a.m. (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). United Airlines received confirmation of this by 10:15 (see (10:07 a.m.-10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: United Airlines, American Airlines
Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, wants his fighter jets to intercept a suspicious aircraft coming down the Potomac River toward the capital, which is apparently thought to be Flight 93, although that plane has already crashed (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Filson, 2003, pp. 79-81; 9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003] Numerous Suspicious Aircraft - According to the Washington Post, the DCANG has learned there are "about a half-dozen suspicious aircraft in the air across the country, among them hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, on a path toward Washington." Wherley will add: "Nobody knew it had crashed. We just knew there was an airplane out there that could be coming to Washington. We knew the threat was real." Fighters Launched due to False Report - The first three DCANG fighters to take off in response to the attacks are ordered to go after this alleged inbound aircraft. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002] Lieutenant Colonel Phil Thompson, the chief of safety for the DC Air National Guard, will later recall: "We had something coming down the Potomac at low altitude. Brigadier General Wherley is standing here, and we've got the tower with the Secret Service agent, and they want us to launch anything we've got. And the general said, 'Do it.'" [Filson, 2003, pp. 81] DCANG pilot Billy Hutchison, who takes off at 10:38 a.m. (see (10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001), will describe, "There was an aircraft coming down the Potomac that they needed me in the air for" that had to "be prevented from reaching the DC area." He is told this aircraft is "coming from Pennsylvania." [9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004] And pilot Marc Sasseville, who, along with Heather Penney Garcia, takes off at 10:42 a.m. (see 10:42 a.m. September 11, 2001), later says: "We all realized we were looking for an airliner—a big airplane. That was Flight 93; the track looked like it was headed toward DC at that time." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] Incorrect Report Comes from Secret Service - According to Major David McNulty, the senior intelligence officer of the DCANG, his understanding is that "the information about the plane coming down the river" came from the Secret Service's White House Joint Operations Center. [9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ] FAA personnel are also receiving similar information from the Secret Service. At 10:32, an FAA employee tells John White, a manager at the FAA's Herndon Command Center, "Secret Service is reporting one unknown eight miles out, flying inbound." Two minutes later, this employee says they are "[t]rying to tell [the] Secret Service about [Flight] 93," because the Secret Service is "a little bit behind, still getting reports." They then tell White, "Secret Service is saying the aircraft they are talking is coming up the Potomac right now." [9/11 Commission, 11/4/2003] Fire and rescue workers are evacuated away from the Pentagon site around this time, in response to a report from the FBI of a hijacked aircraft flying toward Washington (see (10:15 a.m.-10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001). This may be the same alleged plane that the DCANG and FAA learn of. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A30 ; Fire Engineering, 11/2002] Aircraft Supposedly a Helicopter - The incoming aircraft is apparently a false alarm. [9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003] After searching for it, Hutchison will be instructed to fly back toward Washington because, he will say, "the plane had been lost." [9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004] According to a 9/11 Commission memorandum, "FAA tapes and transcripts" reveal the aircraft to be "an Army National Guard helicopter based out of Davison Field, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, which had become isolated in Maryland as events unfolded and which wanted to return to its home field." [9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ] Secret Service Thinks Plane Crashed at Camp David - However, at 10:36, the FAA employee relays that the "Secret Service is saying they believe United 93 hit Camp David." Seconds later, they add that the Secret Service is "confirming that UA 93 did go into Camp David." [9/11 Commission, 11/4/2003] Even President Bush is given an incorrect report of a plane going down near Camp David around this time (see (10:37 a.m.-11:09 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 108] So this erroneous information may be what leads to Hutchison being informed that the aircraft he was sent after has been lost. [9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, David Wherley, Billy Hutchison, Phil Thompson, David McNulty, John White, Marc Sasseville, District of Columbia Air National Guard, Heather Penney Garcia, Federal Aviation Administration
The FAA allows "military and law enforcement flights to resume (and some flights that the FAA can't reveal that were already airborne)." All civilian, military, and law enforcement flights were ordered at 9:26 a.m. to land as soon as reasonably possible. [Time, 9/14/2001] Civilian flights remain banned until September 13. Note that the C-130 cargo plane that witnessed the Flight 77 crash (see 9.36 a.m. September 11, 2001) and which came upon the Flight 93 crash site (see 10:08 a.m. September 11, 2001) right after it had crashed was apparently not subject to the grounding order issued about an hour earlier.
Billy Hutchison. [Source: Family photo]The first fighter jet to launch from Andrews Air Force Base, 10 miles southeast of Washington, takes off in response to the attacks. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004; GlobalSecurity (.org), 1/21/2006] The F-16 belongs to the 121st Fighter Squadron, which is part of the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, and is piloted by Major Billy Hutchison. It is one of three F-16s that were flying on a training mission in North Carolina, over 200 miles from Andrews (see 8:36 a.m. September 11, 2001), and which have finally been recalled to the base (see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; American Forces Press Service, 5/12/2005] Although the three jets met with a refueling plane, they did not fill their tanks up completely. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 216-217] Hutchison's aircraft is the only one of them with enough fuel remaining to take off again immediately, though he only has 2,800 pounds, which is equivalent to one-eighth of a tank in a car. His jet has no missiles, and only training ammunition. Pilot Takes Off, Instructed to Protect Washington - Immediately after landing at Andrews at 10:36 a.m., Hutchison takes off again at the instruction of Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard. He is instructed "to intercept an aircraft coming toward DC and prevent it from reaching DC," he will later recall. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Filson, 2003, pp. 79-81; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004] According to author Lynn Spencer, Lieutenant Colonel Phil Thompson, the supervisor of flying (SOF) at Andrews, tells Hutchison to "use whatever force is necessary to prevent [the aircraft] from getting to DC." Thompson adds: "You are weapons free. Do you understand?" "Weapons free" means the decision to shoot at a target now rests solely with Hutchison. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 219] However, according to the 9/11 Commission, the "weapons free" instruction goes out to other pilots that launch from Andrews at 10:42 and after, but apparently not to Hutchison. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 44] Thompson will tell Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine simply that he instructs Hutchison "to 'do exactly what [air traffic control] asks you to do.' Primarily, he was to go ID [identify] that unknown [aircraft] that everybody was so excited about" (see (10:30 a.m.-10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002] Hutchison takes off "without afterburner to conserve fuel, go across the White House over the Georgetown area and continue northwest up the Potomac," he will recall (see 10:39 a.m.-10:45 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 81] Conflicting Timelines - Conflicting times will later be given for when Hutchison takes off from Andrews. The pilots with the 121st Fighter Squadron will admit that their own recollection of the morning's timeline "is fuzzy." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002] According to 113th Wing operations desk records, Hutchison takes off at 10:33 a.m. [Filson, 2003, pp. 81, 89] Based on an interview with David Wherley, the 9/11 Commission states he is airborne at 10:38 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 44, 465] Recordings of air traffic controller transmissions confirm this time. [9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004] But in her 2008 book Touching History, Lynn Spencer will claim Hutchison took off significantly earlier, some time after 9:50 but before Flight 93 crashed (which was just after 10:00 a.m.). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 216-220] (However, she will later amend her claim, saying instead, "Radio data indicates that Hutchison's flight did not depart from Andrews… until just after 10:35." [Lynn Spencer, 2008] ) Two more fighters will take off from Andrews at 10:42 a.m. (see 10:42 a.m. September 11, 2001) and another two take off at 11:11 a.m. (see 11:11 a.m. September 11, 2001). Due to his plane's limited fuel, Hutchison will only be airborne for about 10 minutes, and he lands back at Andrews at 10:47 a.m. (see 10:47 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003; 9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] One Jet Landed Already - The first of the three F-16s to return from the training mission over North Carolina landed at Andrews at 10:14 a.m., but did not take off again to defend Washington (see 10:14 a.m. September 11, 2001). The other F-16, piloted by Lou Campbell, landed with Hutchison's jet at 10:36 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004] The 113th Wing is not part of NORAD's air sovereignty force and, according to the 1st Air Force's book about 9/11, does not have an alert mission. [Filson, 2003, pp. 76] According to Phil Thompson, "We've never been an air defense unit," but "We practice scrambles, we know how to do intercepts and other things." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002]
Entity Tags: Andrews Air Force Base, Billy Hutchison, Lou Campbell, 121st Fighter Squadron, David Wherley, District of Columbia Air National Guard, Phil Thompson
Having taken off after returning from a training mission, a pilot with the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) flies two loops up the Potomac River, reversing course near Georgetown and the Pentagon, but is unable to locate a suspicious approaching aircraft, and heads back to base less than 10 minutes after launching. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004; 9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ; Spencer, 2008, pp. 219-221] No Rules of Engagement - Major Billy Hutchison, a pilot with the 121st Fighter Squadron of the DCANG, had landed back at Andrews Air Force Base, 10 miles from Washington, but was ordered to take off again immediately (see (10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002] His plane has no missiles, and only training ammunition, and he has been given no specific rules of engagement other than being told to identify an aircraft that is coming down the river. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; 9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] Because the DCANG is not in the communication and command loops of NORAD or its Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), Hutchison is unaware that three fighter jets NEADS ordered into the air from Langley Air Force Base (see 9:24 a.m. September 11, 2001) are also flying over Washington, albeit at a much higher altitude than he is. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; 9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004] Controller Directs Hutchison - Hutchison calls the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) at Washington's Reagan National Airport. He says, "Bully 1 [his call sign] is looking for a contact." Victor Padgett, the operations supervisor at the TRACON, replies, "We have an intercept for you northwest of here and coming down the Potomac." [Spencer, 2008, pp. 219] Hutchison knows he is meant to be searching for a civilian aircraft, and will later recall that he is told it is coming from Pennsylvania. [9/11 Commission, 2/27/2004] In order to conserve fuel and gain airspeed, he flies low over the White House and Georgetown, reportedly staying between 500 and 1,000 feet above ground level. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Spencer, 2008, pp. 219] After Padgett gives him details of the approaching aircraft's location, Hutchison spots it on his jet's radar screen, but it quickly disappears. The aircraft reappears a minute later, but then both Hutchison and Padgett lose sight of it. Aircraft Claimed to Be Flight 93 - Some accounts will suggest the approaching aircraft is thought to be Flight 93 (see (10:30 a.m.-10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001), even though that plane has already crashed (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Spencer, 2008, pp. 219-221] Hutchison will later recall that the TRACON at Reagan Airport is "frantic with what they seem to think are aircraft coming their way.… There is another aircraft, and it's United Flight 93. They… apparently have been given information that it's coming their way." [Filson, 2003, pp. 81] Major David McNulty, the senior intelligence officer of the DCANG, will recall, "[I]t wasn't until later that they realized the plane [coming down the river] might be UAL 93." [9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ] However, John Farmer, John Azzarello, and Miles Kara, who are all staff members of the 9/11 Commission, subsequently rebut this claim. They will write: "[R]adar records of the day [of 9/11] indicate that Major Hutchison did not take off until more than a half-hour after United 93 had crashed near Shanksville, PA, and a good 20 minutes after the wreckage had been located. He could not have seen United 93 on his scope, and could not have intercepted it." [New York Times, 9/13/2008] Told to Investigate Other Aircraft - After the aircraft disappears off Hutchison's radar screen, Dan Creedon, an air traffic controller at the TRACON at Reagan Airport, is concerned about planes and helicopters that are taking off and landing across Washington, and tells Hutchison, "We have more contacts!" Hutchison confirms that he will investigate the targets Creedon alerts him to, but he keeps losing them among the ground clutter on his radar screen. According to author Lynn Spencer, "The flights are too close to the surface and, from what he can see, appear to be mostly helicopters flying medevac from the Pentagon." Flies over the Pentagon - Hutchison, who'd noticed the burning Pentagon before he landed at Andrews Air Force Base (see (9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001), then decides he should investigate it. He descends and flies a steep turn over the Pentagon. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 234-235] He will later recall: "I circled at a couple of hundred feet at the most just to, one, investigate, and two, give the people on the ground some semblance of security of an American fighter coming by. And apparently it changed the mood for a lot of people when they saw that" (see (10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Running out of Fuel - By now, Hutchison is almost out of fuel. He will recall, "After that point, I'm emergency fuel, the lowest I've ever been in an F-16, and tell [the FAA's] Washington Center I must leave, and they say I'm cleared to return to base and that two more aircraft are coming out of Andrews." [Filson, 2003, pp. 81-82] Hutchison will land at Andrews at 10:47 a.m. (see 10:47 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004]
Entity Tags: Victor Padgett, Dan Creedon, Billy Hutchison, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Pentagon, 121st Fighter Squadron, John Farmer, Miles Kara, David McNulty, John Azzarello, District of Columbia Air National Guard
Heather Penney Garcia. [Source: Johnathon Orrell]Two F-16 fighter jets belonging to the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) take off from Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, but they have no missiles and only training bullets for their guns. The pilots are Lieutenant Colonel Marc Sasseville and Lieutenant Heather Penney Garcia. [Filson, 2003, pp. 82; 9/11 Commission, 2004; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] Possibly Given Shootdown Authorization - Before they headed to their jets, Sasseville and Penney Garcia were given a short briefing by Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard. Wherley will later recall telling Sasseville that he has "weapons free flight-lead control," meaning he is responsible for deciding whether to fire on hostile aircraft (see (Between 9:40 a.m. and 10:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 82; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 44; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] But Sasseville will say he does not recall receiving any such rules of engagement until after he has taken off. [9/11 Commission, 3/8/2004 ] Jets Only Have Training Ammunition - The two pilots run out to their jets and climb into the cockpits. But their F-16s are armed only with "hot" guns and 511 rounds of non-explosive training practice (TP) ammunition. According to Sasseville: "They had two airplanes ready to go, and were putting missiles on numbers three and four. Maintenance wanted us to take the ones with missiles, but we didn't have time to wait on those." Rookie Pilot 'Never Scrambled Before' - Penney Garcia, who is a rookie pilot, will later say: "I'd never scrambled before, I'd never done this. I was screaming to the maintainers to pull the chocks, and the guys were pulling the pins to arm the guns. We were going without INS [inertial navigation system]." Sasseville and Penney Garcia are airborne about six minutes after reaching their jets. They are unaware that fighters launched from Langley Air Force Base are also flying over Washington, at around 20,000 feet (see (Between 9:49 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Filson, 2003, pp. 82] Told to Look for Hijacked Plane - Over their radios, Sasseville and Penney Garcia receive instructions from their squadron to look for a hijacked aircraft approaching from the northwest and heading toward Georgetown (see (10:30 a.m.-10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). But, Sasseville will later recall, "We didn't know what we were looking for—how high he was coming, or low, or where he was going." [Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] He will say, "I don't have the whole picture, but have word from Washington National Approach that something is coming." Pilot 'Making Things Up on the Fly' - The two jets will fly over Washington at low altitudes, around 5,000 or 6,000 feet. Sasseville will later say, "I didn't want to get too low for a good radar angle, and not too high, so we could get somewhere fast." He will admit that he is "making things up on the fly," as he has no precedent to draw upon. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Filson, 2003, pp. 82] Another DCANG pilot, Billy Hutchison, launched from Andrews four minutes before Sasseville and Penney Garcia take off, but he is airborne for less than 10 minutes (see (10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 10:47 a.m. September 11, 2001). The next DCANG jets to take off, which will be armed with missiles, launch at 11:11 a.m. (see 11:11 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446]
Entity Tags: Heather Penney Garcia, David Wherley, District of Columbia Air National Guard, Andrews Air Force Base, 121st Fighter Squadron, Marc Sasseville
Around this time (roughly), the FAA tells the White House that it still cannot account for three planes in addition to the four that have crashed. It takes the FAA another hour and a half to account for these three aircraft. [Time, 9/14/2001] Vice President Cheney later says, "That's what we started working off of, that list of six, and we could account for two of them in New York. The third one we didn't know what had happened to. It turned out it had hit the Pentagon, but the first reports on the Pentagon attack suggested a helicopter and then later a private jet."
[Los Angeles Times, 9/17/2001] Amongst false rumors during the day are reports of a bomb aboard a United Airlines jet that just landed in Rockford, Illinois. "Another plane disappears from radar and might have crashed in Kentucky. The reports are so serious that [FAA head Jane] Garvey notifies the White House that there has been another crash. Only later does she learn the reports are erroneous."
[USA Today, 8/13/2002]
Entity Tags: Federal Aviation Administration, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Jane Garvey
United Airlines issues a press release confirming that Flight 93 has crashed. Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvania shortly after 10:00 a.m. (see (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The release states: "United Airlines has confirmed one of its flights has crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 aircraft, is the flight number involved. The flight originated in Newark and was bound for San Francisco." The release adds, "United is deeply concerned about a further flight, United Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to Los Angeles." [United Airlines, 9/11/2001] Although Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), United Airlines will not publicly confirm it has crashed until 11:53 a.m. (see 11:53 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: United Airlines
The driver of a refueling truck at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, mistakenly concludes that one of the three F-16 fighter jets that launched from the base to defend Washington, DC (see (9:25 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and that recently landed back there (see (2:00 p.m.) September 11, 2001) shot down Flight 93. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 277] One Fighter Launched without Missiles - One of the F-16s that took off from Langley Air Force Base was piloted by Captain Craig Borgstrom. However, Borgstrom was not one of the two pilots at the base on "alert" duty this morning. Consequently, he had taken off in a third, spare fighter in response to the call for help (see (Between 9:10 a.m. and 9:23 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Unlike the F-16s belonging to the two pilots on alert duty, Borgstrom's plane carried no missiles. [Christian Science Monitor, 4/16/2002; Spencer, 2008, pp. 118-119] Driver Thinks Borgstrom Shot Down Flight 93 - One of the alert pilots, Major Brad Derrig, will later recall, "Confusion arose because Borgstrom had no missiles when he took off and that was noticed when he landed." [9/11 Commission, 12/1/2003] The driver of a refueling truck, who is unaware that Borgstrom had taken off without any missiles, now notices that Borgstrom's plane has no missiles hanging from its wings. According to author Lynn Spencer, the driver "knows that United 93 has gone down and now he surmises who took it down." The following day, the driver will voice his suspicion to Borgstrom, and Borgstrom will clarify to him what actually happened. But, according to Spencer, "in the interim, a rumor is started that makes its way onto the Internet and will haunt the pilots for years to come," that Flight 93 was shot down. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 277] Other Evidence Indicates Shootdown - However, there are other factors that lead to the suspicion that Flight 93 was shot down by the US military. For example, a number of early news reports—published hours before the three fighters landed back at Langley—stated the possibility of a plane having been shot down (see 11:28 a.m.-11:50 a.m. September 11, 2001), and what appears to be debris from a plane is discovered far away from the main Flight 93 crash site (see (Before 10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and September 13, 2001). [TCM Breaking News, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/13/2001; Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/2001; Mirror, 9/12/2002]
Entity Tags: Brad Derrig, Craig Borgstrom
No relatives of the Flight 93 passengers are waiting at San Francisco International Airport at the time when the plane is scheduled to have arrived there. A counseling center has been set up at the airport for any relatives that might show up, and dozens of clergy members gave gathered at United Airlines' VIP lounge to await the families. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has arranged to come and meet them. But at 11:15 a.m. Pacific Time (2:15 p.m. Eastern Time), when Flight 93 was scheduled to arrive, no family members have shown up, nor have any arrived by midday (3:00 p.m. ET). Willie Brown cancels his trip to meet the families when it appears none will show up. Knight Ridder will suggest the reason no relatives have come is that United Airlines employees contacted many of them before they left home. [Associated Press, 9/12/2001; Knight Ridder, 9/12/2001] Also, United Airlines publicly confirmed that Flight 93 had crashed several hours earlier (see 11:17 a.m. September 11, 2001), so passengers' relatives may have realized for themselves what has happened by now. [United Airlines, 9/11/2001] Another possible factor could be that many of the passengers—at least 16 out of a mere 33—were not originally scheduled to be on Flight 93, and only arranged to be on it at the last minute or switched from another flight (see Shortly Before September 11, 2001-Early Morning September 11, 2001), so their relatives may not initially realize they had been on the plane. [New York Times, 9/11/2002] In contrast, some relatives of passengers on the other three hijacked planes have gone to Los Angeles International Airport, the destination of those planes: The New York Times will describe "a few grieving relatives" there, and the Associated Press describes, "In Los Angeles, several dozen relatives met grief counselors at an airport hotel." [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; New York Times, 9/12/2001]
Entity Tags: San Francisco International Airport, Willie Brown
Key Events
Day of 9/11
The Alleged 9/11 Hijackers
Alhazmi and Almihdhar: Specific Cases
Projects and Programs
Before 9/11
Counterterrorism before 9/11
Warning Signs: Specific Cases
The Post-9/11 World
Investigations: Specific Cases
Possible Al-Qaeda-Linked Moles or Informants
Other Al-Qaeda-Linked Figures
Al-Qaeda by Region
Specific Alleged Al-Qaeda Linked Attacks or Plots
Miscellaneous Al-Qaeda Issues
Geopolitics and Islamic Militancy
Pakistan / ISI: Specific Cases
Terrorism Financing: Specific Cases
'War on Terrorism' Outside Iraq
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Episode Description
Yvonne, Angie & Shari
Renée finds the name of her first bride of the day so familiar that she decides to do a little investigating on the internet. A quick search reveals that Yvonne Pampellonne has a criminal past.
Coined as the "boob bandit" by international media back in 2008, Yvonne was accused and found guilty of stealing someone's identity to get a bigger pair of boobs. Yvonne says that she was just an innocent girl who fell in love with the wrong guy and she ended up paying the ultimate price…her reputation! Will a chance to tell her side of the story and find her dream wedding dress give Yvonne the fresh start she so desperately wants?
Meanwhile, bride Angie who is truly "mommy's little girl" realizes that both her and her mother are struggling with the concept of letting go while searching for the ultimate princess dress.
Then, Renee is surprised with a visit from Season 1 bride, Shari West who was forced to delay her wedding plans and is now looking for the perfect pair of shoes.
The day ends with great sales, as Sharaé finds a dress that puts a smile on Yvonne's face, Angie find the perfect princess gown to complete her fairytale and Shari walks away with more than just a new pair of shoes.


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