9-11 timelines excerpt

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I know how it is with websites -- most of us just

don't have the time to

follow up every little thing. So I thought it would

be interesting just to

post a few short excerpts from the Paul Thompson 9-11

timeline I referred

to earlier. The extent of the detail here is a little

mind-numbing but I

think the author raises some relevant questions. It's

sort of puzzling why

it falls to independent researchers to ask these

questions rather than a

full enquiry of the failure of the US armed forces to

defend the country.

The only official enquiry that has occurred thus far

is a Senate enquiry

about the intelligence community's failures. I wonder

if there will ever

be an enquiry into what actually happened that day.

 

sorry about the formatting.

 

Chris

 

{here begins the excerpts from the timeline]

 

8:52 A.M. Two F-15's take off from Otis ANG Base, 6

minutes after being

ordered to go after Flight 11, which has already

crashed. [8:52, NORAD,

9/18/01, 8:52, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:53, Washington Post,

9/12/01, 8:52,

Washington Post, 9/15/01] This is 38 minutes after

flight controllers lost

contact with the plane. They go after Flight 175

instead. According to Maj.

Gen. Paul Weaver, director of the Air National Guard,

"the pilots flew

'like a scalded ape,' topping 500 mph but were unable

to catch up to the

airliner." [Dallas Morning News, 9/16/01] NORAD Major

Gen. Larry Arnold

says they were headed straight for New York City and

traveling about 1100

to 1200 mph. [slate, 1/16/02] "An F-15 departing from

Otis can reach New

York City in 10 to 12 minutes, according to an Otis

spokewoman." [Cape Cod

Times, 9/16/01] According to Lt. Col. Timothy Duffy,

one of the pilots,

before takeoff, a fellow officer had told him "This

looks like the real

thing." He says, "It just seemed wrong. I just wanted

to get there. I was

in full-blower all the way." A NORAD commander has

said the planes were

stocked with extra fuel as well. [Aviation Week and

Space Technology,

6/3/02] Full-blower is very rare - it means the

fighters are going as fast

as they can go. F-15's can travel over 1875 mph. [Air

Force News, 7/30/97]

An at average speed of 1600 mph, they would have

reached New York City in 7

minutes - 8:59. An at average speed of 1125 mph, they

would have reached it

in 10 minutes - 9:02 - still before Flight 175

crashes. Yet according to

the NORAD timeline, these planes take about 19 minutes

to reach New York

City - less than 600 mph. Why so slow??

 

(After 8:52) William Wibel, principal of a school

inside Otis Air National

Guard Base in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts, is

inside the Otis base

preparing for a meeting. He hears about the WTC

attack, and is told the

meeting is canceled. He says, "As I drove away, and

was listening to the

news on the radio, the 102nd was scrambling into

duty." [Cape Cod Times,

9/12/01] Given that the WTC story didn't break on

local news and radio

until about 8:52, and it must have taken him some time

to learn the meeting

is cancel, go back to his car and so forth, he must

have heard the fighters

take off well after 8:52. Yet NORAD says the fighters

took off from Otis at

8:52.

 

(8:55 A.M.)  Flight 77 turns around over northeastern

Kentucky, and heads

back towards Washington. The plane has already started

turning before the

transponder signal is lost. [Washington Post, 9/12/01,

Newsday, 9/23/01]

This actually probably occurred about 5 minutes later,

if one looks at the

flight path and calculates the timing. [see USA

Today's Flight 77 flight

path]

 

(8:56 A.M.)  Flight 77's transponder signal is turned

off. [8:56, Guardian,

10/17/01, 8:56, Boston Globe, 11/23/01, "six minutes

before" Flight 175

hits WTC, Newsday, 9/23/01] For some minutes the plane

is missing because

flight controllers are looking for the radar signal

towards the west and

don't realize the plane is headed east. Rumors

circulate that the plane

might have exploded in midair. [Newsday, 9/23/01]

 

(8:56 A.M.) According to the New York Times, by this

time (if not earlier),

it is clear Flight 77 has gone missing. Yet the same

newspaper points out

NORAD is not notified about it for another 28 minutes!

[New York Times,

10/16/01] Why were fighters not scrambled now to find

Flight 77?

 

(9:01 A.M.) Bush later makes the following statement.

"And I was sitting

outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an

airplane hit the tower

-- the TV was obviously on, and I use to fly myself,

and I said, 'There's

one terrible pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been a

horrible accident.'

But I was whisked off there -- I didn't have much time

to think about it."

[CNN, 12/4/01] He has repeated the story on other

occasions. [White House,

1/5/02, CBS, 9/11/02] Given that there actually was no

film footage of the

first attack on TV until much later (and no footage of

the plane actually

hitting the tower), isn't this a clear lie to make it

seem he didn't know

what was happening? By 8:38, NORAD knew that Flight 11

was hijacked, and by

8:43, they knew Flight 175 was hijacked. As the New

York Times points out,

they also probably knew Flight 77 was hijacked a few

minutes after 8:48.

[New York Times, 9/15/01] He's had time to think about

it - he's been

briefed by his National Security Advisor on the

situation. So by this time

Bush certainly knew two planes were hijacked and

headed towards New York

City, and probably knew of a third hijacking. Yet he

can only think

"There's one terrible pilot"?

 

(9:03 A.M. and After) The minute Flight 175 hits the

south tower, F-15

pilot Maj. Daniel Nash says that clear visibility

allows him to see smoke

pour out of Manhattan, even though he is 71 miles

away. However, he says he

can't recall actually being told of the Flight 11 hit.

And he isn't told

about the danger of Flight 175 until after it too has

crashed. And instead

of being ordered to New York City, the two F-15's are

ordered to hover in a

150-mile chunk of air space off the coast of Long

Island. "Neither the

civilian controller or the military controller knew

what they wanted us to

do." But then a few minutes later, they receive orders

to head to Manhattan

for combat air patrol, and they do that for the next

four hours. At no

point are these pilots given permission to shoot down

any airliners. Nash

points out that even if he had reached New York City

before Flight 175, he

couldn't shoot it down because only the President

could make that decision

and he was indisposed at a public event. [Cape Cod

Times, 8/21/02] Why are

the pilots not being told of their targets? Why are

they being sent out

into the ocean? Why IS Bush reading a book about a

goat when all this is

happening?

 

(After 9:03 A.M.) Shortly after the second WTC crash,

calls from fighter

units start "pouring into NORAD and sector operations

centers, asking,

'What can we do to help?' At Syracuse, New York, an

ANG commander [tells

Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) commander Robert]

Marr, 'Give me 10

min. and I can give you hot guns. Give me 30 min. and

I'll have heat-seeker

[missiles]. Give me an hour and I can give you

slammers [Amraams].'" Marr

replies, "I want it all." [Aviation Week and Space

Technology, 6/3/02] Yet

supposedly, the first fighters don't take off from

Syracuse until 10:44 -

over an hour and a half later. These are supposedly

the first fighters

scrambled from the ground aside from three at Langley,

two at Otis, and two

fighters that took off from Toledo at 10:16. [Toledo

Blade, 12/9/01] What

happened to all these volunteer fighters? Armed

fighters could have been in

the air from Syracuse by 9:20 or so, yet supposedly,

when NORAD needed

fighters to go after Flight 93 at least 20 minutes

after that, the only

ones they sent were two completely unarmed fighters on

a training mission

near Detroit! [ABC News, 8/30/02] The only likely

explanation is that these

fighters were prohibited from taking off. Aircraft

cannon (the "hot guns"

mentioned) would have been all that was needed in such

a situation, since

any fighter would presumably follow procedure and

intercept visually first,

tip their wings from a very short distance away, fire

a warning shot, and

so on, before firing on the plane.

 

(After 9:03 A.M.) A few minutes after 9:03, the Secret

Service calls

Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from

Washington. They are notified

to get F-16's armed and ready to fly. Missiles are

still being loaded onto

the F-16's when the Pentagon is hit over half an hour

later. [Aviation Week

and Space Technology, 9/9/02] The problem with this

account is that prior

to 9/11, The District of Columbia Air National Guard

(located at Andrews)

had a publicly stated mission "to provide combat units

in the highest

possible state of readiness." Shortly after 9/11 this

mission statement on

its website is changed, so it merely has a "vision" to

"provide peacetime

command and control and administrative mission

oversight to support

customers, DCANG units, and NGB in achieving the

highest levels of

readiness." [DCANG Home Page (before and after the

change)] Either Andrews

failed in its stated mission, or fighters were not

ordered to scramble so

early.

 

9:09 A.M. Supposedly, NORAD orders F-16's at Langley

Air Force Base,

Virginia, on battle stations alert. Yet the order to

scramble won't come

till 9:27 or so, and they won't take off until 9:30.

Around this time, the

FAA command center reports 11 aircraft either not in

communication with FAA

facilities, or flying unexpected routes. [Aviation

Week and Space

Technology, 6/3/02] So why aren't planes scrambled

immediately, at 9:09 or

even before, to find out what's going on? One of the

pilots who actually

took off from Langley says the battle stations alert

isn't sounded until

9:24. [The book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 64-65]

 

9:15 A.M. American Airlines orders no new takeoffs in

the US, United

Airlines follows suit 5 minutes later.[Wall Street

Journal, 10/15/01]

 

 

9:16 A.M.  The FAA informs NORAD that Flight 93 may

have been hijacked. No

fighters are scrambled in specific response, now or

later (there is the

possibility some fighters sent after Flight 77 later

headed towards Flight

93). Although this is what CNN learned from NORAD, its

not clear why NORAD

claims it was hijacked at this time (NORAD's own

timeline inexplicably

fails to say when the FAA told them about the hijack,

the only flight they

fail to provide this data for). [CNN, 9/17/01 , NORAD,

9/18/01] However,

there may be one explanation: Fox News TV reported

that "Investigators

believe that on at least one flight, one of the

hijackers was already

inside the cockpit before takeoff." Cockpit voice

recordings indicate that

Flight 93's pilots believed their guest was a

colleague "and was thereby

extended the typical airline courtesy of allowing any

pilot from any

airline to join a flight by sitting in the jumpseat,

the folded over extra

seat located inside the cockpit." [NewsMax, 9/25/01]

Note that all

witnesses later report seeing only 3 hijackers, not 4.

So perhaps one

hijacker tenuously held control of the cockpit as the

original pilots still

flew it, while waiting for reinforcements? Could this

have happened before

9:01, when Flight 93 got a warning to beware of

cockpit intrusions? Note

that the crash of Flight 77 is still 25 minutes away.

F-16 fighters from

the far off Langley Air Force Base could have reached

Washington in 6

minutes if they traveled at 1300 mph (maximum speed

for an F-16 is 1500

mph). Even if the fighters were traveling slower and

it took some minutes

to get the plane off the ground, they still could

easily have made it to

Washington in those 25 minutes and prevented the

Flight 77 crash.

 

9:24 A.M. The FAA notifies NORAD that Flight 77 "may"

have been hijacked

and appears to be headed towards Washington. [9:24,

NORAD, 9/18/01, 9:24,

AP, 8/19/02, 9:25, CNN, 9/17/01, 9:25, Washington

Post, 9/12/01, 9:25,

Guardian, 10/17/01] This notification is 34 MINUTES

after flight control

lost contact with the plane and well after two planes

have crashed, and

even then the FAA only says "may"? Is such a long

delay believable, or has

that information been doctored to cover the lack of

any scrambling of

fighters? Additionally, with the exception of Vice

President Cheney and

possibility a few others, no one is evacuated in

Washington until after the

Pentagon crash. A Pentagon spokesman says, "The

Pentagon was simply not

aware that this aircraft was coming our way." Even

Defense Secretary

Rumsfeld and his top aides in the Pentagon remain

unaware of any danger up

to the moment of impact 17 minutes later. [Newsday,

9/23/01] Yet since at

least the Flight 11 crash, "military officials in a

command center [the

National Military Command Center] on the east side of

the [Pentagon] were

urgently talking to law enforcement and air traffic

control officials about

what to do." [New York Times, 9/15/01] Is it

believable that everyone in

the Pentagon outside of that command center, even the

Secretary of Defense,

would remain uniformed?

 

(9:27 A.M.)  NORAD orders 3 F-16 fighters scrambled

from Langley Air Force

Base in Virginia to intercept Flight 77. Langley is

129 miles from

Washington. Ready aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base,

15 miles away, are

not scrambled. [Newsday, 9/23/01] [9:24, NORAD,

9/18/01, 9:27, CNN,

9/17/01, 9:25, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 9:35, CNN,

9/17/01, 9:35,

Washington Post, 9/15/01] Note that according to the

official NORAD

timeline, they ordered the F-16's scrambled the same

minute they were told

about the hijacking. A rare example of competence. But

earlier, according

to their own timeline, they waited 6 minutes before

scrambling fighters

after Flight 11. Why? Flight 77 had supposedly been

missing from the radar

screen since 8:56. Why wait 31 minutes to send a plane

and find out where

it is?

 

(9:41 A.M.)  Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. The

section of the

Pentagon hit consists mainly of newly renovated,

unoccupied offices.

Approximately 125 are later determined killed or

missing. The surface to

air missiles presumably surrounding the Pentagon are

not fired in defense.

Fighters are supposedly still 105 miles or 12 minutes

away. [Newsday,

9/23/01, NORAD, 9/18/01] [9:37, NORAD, 9/18/01, 9:37,

Washington Post,

9/12/01, 9:38, CNN, 9/17/01, 9:38, Guardian, 10/17/01,

9:39, Washington

Post, 1/27/02, 9:40, AP, 8/19/02, 9:43, CNN, 9/12/01,

9:43, MSNBC, 9/22/01,

9:43, MSNBC, 9/3/02, 9:43, New York Times, 9/12/01,

9:45, Boston Globe,

11/23/01] NORAD states the fighters took off from

Langley at 9:30, 129

miles away, yet when Flight 77 crashes they are still

105 miles away.

[NORAD, 9/18/01] So that means they must have been

flying at an average of

about 130 mph! Even if one uses the NORAD crash time

of 9:37 (which we know

is untrue), that still averages to only about 205 mph!

 

 

 

<Picture>

This photo was taken mere moments after the Pentagon

crash. [sIPA]

 

9:41 A.M. The F-16 pilot codenamed Honey later offers

a different

explanation of where the F-16's are when Flight 77

crashes into the

Pentagon. He says they are flying towards New York,

when they see a black

column of smoke coming from Washington, about 30 or 40

miles to the west.

He is then asked over the radio by the North East Air

Defense Sector of

NORAD if he can confirm the Pentagon is burning. He

confirms it. The F-16's

are then ordered to set up a defensive perimeter above

Washington. [The

book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 76] This contradicts

the official NORAD

claim that the F-16's were still 105 miles away when

the Pentagon was hit.

[NORAD, 9/18/01] If his account is true, it shows that

the F-16's would

have been over Washington in time to shoot down Flight

77 if they had been

given orders to fly to Washington, and not to New

York, which was already

defended by 2 F-15's! (additionally, subtract 8-10

miles (Sidewinder

missile) or 12-20 miles (Sparrow missile) from the

flight distance required

for the fighters [slate, 1/16/02]) Well before these

F-16's took off, NORAD

already knew there was a threat to Washington and that

New York was being

defended by F-15's, and yet they were ordered to New

York and Washington

was left undefended? At 9:36, a C-130, a slow and

large transport plane,

was ordered to intercept and identify Flight 77, and

these F-16's were not?

If Honey's account is true, and the F-16's took off

at, say, 9:34, they

would have been averaging a speed of about 1100 mph up

to the Pentagon

crash, much more reasonable than the crazy speeds of

200 mph and the like

if one follows the NORAD story. It would also explain

eyewitness claims of

fighters over Washington only a couple of minutes

after the Pentagon crash,

not at 9:56 when they supposedly arrived. At 1100 mph,

it would have taken

about 3 minutes for Honey to reach Washington from

where he says he was.

 

(9:49 A.M.)  3 F-16's scrambled from Langley at 9:30

reach the Pentagon.

The planes, armed with heat-seeking, Sidewinder

missiles, are authorized to

knock down civilian aircraft. According to NORAD, they

were flying at 650

mph. The official maximum speed for F-16's is 1500

mph. [9:49, CNN,

9/17/01, 9:49, NORAD, 9/18/01, 9:56: "15 minutes after

Flight 77 hit the

Pentagon", New York Times, 9/15/01, "just before

10:00," CBS, 9/14/01]

Using the New York Times arrival time and given that

Langley is 129 miles

away, this means the fighters were flying at an

average speed of about 300

mph! But using NORAD's official departure time of 9:30

and even the

generous CNN arrival time, the journey takes 19

minutes, or a speed of

about 410 mph!

 

(Before 10:06 A.M.) Numerous eyewitnesses see and hear

Flight 93 just

before its crash:

1) Terry Butler, at Stoystown: he sees the plane come

out of the clouds,

low to the ground. "It was moving like you wouldn't

believe. Next thing I

knew it makes a heck of a sharp, right-hand turn." It

banks to the right

and appears to be trying to climb to clear one of the

ridges, but it

continues to turn to the right and then veers behind a

ridge. About a

second later it crashes. [st. Petersburg Times,

9/12/01]

2) Ernie Stuhl, the mayor of Shanksville: "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."

He adds that based on

what he has learned, F-16's were "very, very close."

[Philadelphia Daily

News, 11/15/01]

Accounts of the plane making strange noises:

3) Laura Temyer of Hooversville: "I didn't see the

plane but I heard the

plane's engine. Then I heard a loud thump that echoed

off the hills and

then I heard the plane's engine. I heard two more loud

thumps and didn't

hear the plane's engine anymore after that" (she

insists that people she

knows in state law enforcement have privately told her

the plane was shot

down, and that decompression sucked objects from the

aircraft, explaining

why there was a wide debris field). [Philadelphia

Daily News,

11/15/01]----------

 

 

 

 

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