Conspiracy V: American Airlines Flight 77

To respond: 1) On Flight 77: A - There is nothing to suggest either way that Capt. Burlingame cooperated/didn't with the hijackers. However, it seems that the hijackers physically moved the passengers to the rear of the plane. There's no reason they couldn't have simply dragged the Captain from his chair. As for the supposed Air Marshall... There were only 33 active duty Air Marshall service members on 9/11 - the expansions that increased their number did not take place until after 9/11/01 (http://en.wikipedia.org...). And as for the text about the 911 Commission... the Commission itself is usually criticized for ignoring the testimony of the FBI, NSA, and individual agents about how they had some forewarning. Even if the 911 Commission is guilty of a cover-uip, what they would be covering up would be the failures of US departments, which is NOT the same as the US being responsible for what happened OR lying to the public about the events of the day. A2 - According to my opponent's posted source phone calls could have been made from Flight 77 via onboard phones. However, the contention remains that the calls were faked. If this is the case, my opponent should demonstrate motive for faking calls, as well as reason for why the FAA took action on Renee May's word, yet Barbara Olson's is dismissed. B - As I explained before, the autopilot was disengaged, most likely for a minor course correction. The magnetic compass heading indicator in the tapes referenced above displays a minor course correction with only minute changes in altitude. In any event, my opponent must demonstrate the significance of this 6-minute disengagement. C - What I actually said in Round 2 was: "This animation () based on the flight recorder data from Flight 77 shows that Hanjour hardly had a "steady hand."" >> "Why does your animation show a flight path north of the reported flight path?" Easy - the animation was done with Google Earth, which uses true north. The FAA plots using magnetic north. >> "Why are there no system indication of any impact with any object up to and after :44?" If you recall, the plane was traveling at around 500 miles per hour, which would mean that any indication on the flight recorder would require a much higher resolution than either of us have found, as the plane would have crossed the distance from the highway to the ground in literally seconds. However, the damage to the light poles in photographs is entirely consistent with the animation. >> "Why does the csv file and animation show a right bank when the official report requires a left bank to be consistent with physical damage to the generator?" The generator was on the right side of the plane... The official report documents damage to the right engine, which can be seen in the smoke behind the engine in the fisheye camera at the Pentagon. >> "For a guy to just jump into the cockpit and fly like an ace is impossible - there is not one chance in a thousand," As seen above in the animation, Hanjour hardly "flew like an ace." And as his flight instructors noted, they had no doubts he could hit a building with the plane. D - Hanjour "spent hours online at a family-owned Internet cafe. He read voraciously about piloting" (http://www.boston.com...)... so he presumably would have known that planes have transponders. In planning a hijacking operation, deactivation of the transponder would have been a high priority. >> "BEFORE they had control of the plane how could they have done that? The transponder on/off switch is in the cockpit." When the cockpit door is opened, a secondary transponder activates outside the cockpit. Unfortunately, there's no way to confirm this hypothesis either way, but it's possible that if the hijackers opened the cockpit door before the pilots were aware that the crew had been overpowered, the transponder would then require confirmation before broadcasting a code. Furthermore, transponders (http://www.langleyflyingschool.com...) function by turning dials, so it would have hardly required only seconds to notify the ground controllers.