Conspiracy V: American Airlines Flight 77

1) On Hani Hanjour's skill as a pilot... A - Cell phone calls places from Flight 77 show that the hijackers took control of both the passenger cabin and the cockpit module, and then moved everyone, including the pilots, to the back of the plane. There is some doubt as to when the pilots arrived there, but Olson's question of "What should I tell the pilot to do?" (http://govinfo.library.unt.edu...) indicates that at some point in the hijacking the pilots were removed from the cockpit. B - The autopilot was engaged and disengaged multiple times during the flight, but was not disengaged for an extended period of time until the plane began the final maneuver. If you look on page 9 here (http://www.911myths.com...), you will see that the autopilot was disengaged mid-flight for about six minutes to make minor course corrections (compare autopilot track to compass track). C - This animation (http://www.youtube.com...) based on the flight recorder data from Flight 77 shows that Hanjour hardly had a "steady hand." Furthermore, landing a plane and crashing one into a building are very different things. Hanjour's instructors had more problems with his English skills than his piloting skills, and the head of one airport where he flew stated "There's no doubt in my mind that once that [hijacked jet] got going, he could have pointed that plane at a building and hit it." (http://911debunker.livejournal.com...). D - At 8:56 AM, Flight 77 disappeared from Indianapolis control - the transponder had been completely turned off. Indianapolis control assumed that the flight had crashed or suffered a severe mechanical failure. The answer to why no code 7500 was ever delivered is that there was no active transponder to deliver it WITH (http://www.9-11commission.gov...). By the time what was later identified as Flight 77 appeared on radar, it was only 6 minutes from the edge of Indianapolis airspace, and nonresponsive to attempts at communication. 2) On the disintegration of the plane / debris... A - On impact, the airframe of an aluminum plane would have shattered. The low pressure zone below the plane caused by its passage combined with the snapping action on impact would have then caused the debris to buckle down onto itself, effectively collapsing the tail section. Furthermore, the actual entrance hole in the Pentagon is very similar to what the plane would have caused. It was low enough to hit the generator on the lawn on its way in (http://www.youtube.com...) - and the height of the plane from GEAR DOWN to the tip of the tail was 44.5 feet. The Pentagon wall is 71 feet high (http://911review.com...), meaning the damage would have only extended a little more than halfway up the building even if the airframe hadn't shattered and left the tail section unsupported. B - In a crematorium, it takes 90 minutes at 1800 F to destroy DNA and Teeth. The fires in the Pentagon did not reach that temperature, and even if they had, they certainly did not last for 90 minutes at that temperature (http://www.911myths.com...). This image (http://www.911myths.com...) from the Moussaoui trial (http://www.911myths.com...) shows an unmelted engine component... in fact, the only people claiming the engines were melted are conspiracy theorists with no photos of these melted engines... (http://www.911myths.com...). C - As you can see here (http://www.911myths.com...), the interior walls of the Pentagon are not reinforced. Furthermore, the debris field of the crash would have been partially contained by the building itself and channeled towards the exit hole. This report (http://fire.nist.gov...) shows interior photos from the Pentagon detailing the damage and how it moved through the building. D - Green paint could easily have come from the interior of the plane - in fact, I'd be highly surprised if blue, and red were the only paint colors at the scene. The basis for stating that the wreckage doesn't match that of the plane is based on this photo (http://www.the7thfire.com...), which reveals the wreckage to be about half the height of a truck tire, and about twice as long. The fuselage is 13.5 feet high (http://files.abovetopsecret.com...), and the text covers only about 20% of the fuselage. So is it really surprising that the little tiny corner of the N in American is only a couple of feet high when the text itself is maybe 4 feet high at the most?? 3) On the flight path... A - The actual flight recorder shows the plane reaching a pressure altitude of 0. All charts here (http://www.911myths.com...) (starting on pg 20) which display the actual data from the flight recorder show the plane reaching pressure altitude 0. B - Look here (http://www.oilempire.us...) - you see any tall towers? Besides the huge Sheraton Hotel? C - What my opponent refers to here is called the "ground effect" (http://en.wikipedia.org...) which actually reduces drag and improves aircraft performance... not plow huge furrows in the ground. And if being close to the ground had any potential to cause huge craters, why is Midway airport in Chicago surrounded by houses (http://www.dbout.com...) ?? Do you see and craters in the lawn at Midway? 4) On a coverup... A - The lawn was covered with sand and gravel to build a road to bring pristine dumpsters for the wreckage so as not to contaminate it (http://www.911myths.com...). B - On arriving in DC, Hanjour realized he was too high to make an approach on his current side of the building... the awkwardness of his turn is further evidence of his inexperience as a pilot. The fact that the plane hit the reinforced side of the building comes down to which direction Hanjour decided to start his turn - in other words, there's a 50% chance he could have hit the other side. C - There are actually eighty-FIVE tapes submitted to the FBI or taken in the field. Of these 85, 56 do not show the Pentagon, the crash site, or the impact, 16 do not show the site or impact, and 12 only show the site after the crash. That's 84 tapes. The 85th is the fish-eye camera we're all familiar with. D - There was a great deal of confusion in the NORAD and FAA chains of command that morning. Unfortunately, controllers were mistaken about the identity of the flight headed towards Washington, calling it American Airlines Flight 11, even after that flight had already impacted the WTC. The FAA did not notify NORAD that Flight 77 was hijacked until 9:24. As mentioned above, in the time between the plane disappearing from Indianapolis Radar and being re-discovered in Washington, people were organizing parties to look for a crashed plane (as per the information from Indianapolis). NORAD had two F-16's in the air at 9:30 with a 12 minute flight time... unfortunately 5 minutes too late to shoot down Flight 77 (http://911debunker.livejournal.com...). ******************************************************* Much thanks to my opponent, though I might ask him to decrease the number of issues per round, as I'm consistently running out of characters =P AFFIRMED.