FLIGHT 175 TIMELINE

By Paul Thompson

Colored categories:
American Airlines Flight 11. Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles. 81 passengers, nine flight attendants, two pilots, Hijackers: Waleed Alshehri (Seat 2B), Wail Alshehri (Seat 2A), Mohamed Atta (Seat 8D, the likely pilot), Abdulaziz Alomari (Seat 8G) and Satam Al Suqami (Seat 10B).
United Airlines Flight 93. Flying from Newark to San Francisco. 38 passengers (out of 182 seats), five flight attendants, two pilots. Hijackers: Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrah (the likely pilot) and Saeed Alghamdi (had flight training).
United Airlines Flight 175. Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles. 56 passengers, seven flight attendants, two pilots. Hijackers: Marwan Alshehhi (the likely pilot), Fayez Ahmed Banihammad (Alshehri) (had flight training), Mohand Alshehri (had flight training), Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi.
American Airlines Flight 77. Boeing 757 flying from Dulles Airport outside Washington to Los Angeles. 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots. Hijackers: Khalid Almihdhar (Seat 12B), Majed Moqed (Seat 12A), Nawaf Alhazmi, Salem Alhazmi (Seat 5F), and Hani Hanjour (the likely pilot).
George Bush's movements and sayings.
All other events.

Approximate times are marked in parentheses.

(Before 7:59 A.M.) Atta in Flight 11 calls Alshehhi in Flight 175 as both planes sit on the runway. They confirm the plot is on. ["just before 8:00," Time, 8/4/02] How do investigators know what was said in this call even after the fact, and what does that say about their data collection abilities?

8:14 A.M.  Flight 175 takes off from Boston's Logan Airport, 16 minutes after the scheduled departure time. [CNN, 9/17/01, Washington Post, 9/12/01, Guardian, 10/17/01, AP, 8/19/02, Newsday, 9/10/02]

8:37 A.M. Flight controllers ask the Flight 175 pilots to look for a lost American Airlines plane 10 miles to the south, they respond that they can see it. They are told to keep away from it. [8:37:08, Guardian, 10/17/01, 8:37, Boston Globe, 11/23/01, the incident is not included in New York Times flight controller transcript of New York Times, 10/16/01]

8:40 A.M. Maj. Daniel Nash (codenamed Nasty) and Lt. Col. Timothy Duffy (codenamed Duff) are the two F-15 pilots who would scramble after Flight 11 and then Flight 175. Nash says that at this time, a colleague at the Otis Air National Guard Base tells him that a flight out of Boston has been hijacked, and to be on alert. They put on their flight gear and get ready. [Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02] Duffy also says that they were told in advance about the hijacking by the FAA in Boston. They are already halfway to their jets when "battle stations" are sounded. Duffy briefs Nash on what he knows, and "About 4-5 minutes later, we got the scramble order and took off." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] If this is true, why wasn't the order to scramble given now or even earlier, when the FAA called the pilots, instead of six minutes later? And even stranger, why did it take another six minutes (8:52) for the fighters to actually take off, if they had been given a heads up warning to get ready? Had the order to scramble been given now, there would have been plenty of time to reach New York before Flight 175.

8:41 A.M. The pilots of Flight 175 tell ground control, "We figured we'd wait to go to your center. We heard a suspicious transmission on our departure out of Boston. Someone keyed the mike and said: 'Everyone stay in your seats.' It cut out." [8:41, Guardian, 10/17/01, 8:41, Newsday, 9/10/02, 8:41:32, New York Times, 10/16/01] Alternate version, ''We heard a suspicious transmission on our departure from B-O-S [Boston's airport code]. Sounds like someone keyed the mike and said, 'Everyone, stay in your seats.''' [Boston Globe, 11/23/01]

8:42 A.M. Flight 175 veers from its official course. ["Within 90 seconds" of the above item, Boston Globe, 11/23/01] (CNN had an early report that the deviation happened at 8:50, but that's probably when the plane, already off-course, made a complete u-turn north.) [CNN, 9/17/01]

8:42 A.M. A flight controller says of Flight 175, "... looks like he's heading southbound but there's no transponder no nothing and no one's talking to him." [New York Times, 10/16/01]

(Before 8:43 A.M.) At some unknown time period, businessman Peter Burton Hanson calls his father from the plane and says, "Oh, my God! They just stabbed the airline hostess. I think the airline is being hijacked." Despite being cut off twice, he managed to report how men armed with knives were stabbing flight attendants, apparently in an attempt to force crew to unlock the doors to the cockpit. He calls again and says good-bye just before the plane crashes. [Toronto Sun, 9/16/01, BBC, 9/13/01] This appears to have been one of only two passengers who called from this flight. He also had a lot of trouble staying connected - was this flight too high up to enable people to easily call out?

8:43 A.M.  NORAD is notified that Flight 175 has been hijacked. [8:43, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:43, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:43, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:43, AP, 8/19/02, 8:43, Newsday, 9/10/02] Note that this means the controllers working Flights 77 and Flight 93 would have been aware of both Flight 175 and Flight 11's hijacking from this time.

8:44 A.M. The pilot of US Airlines Flight 583 tells flight control, regarding Flight 175, "I just picked up an ELT [emergency locator transmitter] on 121.5 it was brief but it went off." The controller responds, "O.K. they said it's confirmed believe it or not as a thing, we're not sure yet..." [New York Times, 10/16/01] This appears to have been the only plane where the emergency signal was triggered by the pilot.

8:46 A.M. According to Robert Marr, commander of NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), NORAD is unable to find the location of Flight 11. Finally, someone sees a "green dot that's not identified. Almost as soon as it's discovered, it disappears. It's 8:46 A.M." At the time, "there are no other missing aircraft." But then, at 9:02, they see a second unidentified aircraft on a screen, which is Flight 175 crashing into the WTC. The whole time, NORAD staff "were constantly on the phone with the FAA, airlines and others, looking for clues. 'If we could get good last-known-positions and tail numbers, that would help the fighters pick out the right aircraft,'" says one staff member. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] in another account, the plane is rediscovered at 8:42. [Newsday, 9/10/02] Recall this from a previous entry: Before a turn at 8:28, the FAA had tagged Flight 11's radar dot for easy visibility, and at American Airlines headquarters, "All eyes watched as the plane headed south. On the screen, the plane showed a squiggly line after its turn near Albany, then it straightened." [Wall Street Journal, 10/15/01] So American Airlines says Flight 11 was never lost, and this corresponds with other reports. For instance, "Controllers scrambled to direct other planes out of the way of both United 175 and American Airlines Flight 11", and several collisions were barely averted. [Washington Post, 9/17/01] The airlines would have no reason to lie about this, NORAD would have a very big reason to lie.

8:46 A.M.  Flight 11 slams into the north tower, 1 World Trade Center. Investigators believe it still had about 10,000 gallons of fuel and was traveling 470 mph. [New York Times, 9/11/02] Approximately 2662 people are killed on the ground between this crash and the crash of Flight 175. [AP, 8/19/02] [8:45, CNN, 9/12/01, 8:45, New York Times, 9/12/01, 8:46 (based on seismic data), New York Times, 9/12/01, 8:46, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:46, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:46, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:46, AP, 8/19/02, 8:46, USA Today, 9/3/02, 8:46, Newsday, 9/10/02, 8:47:00, Guardian, 10/17/01, 8:48, MSNBC, 9/22/01, 8:46:26, New York Times, 9/11/02, 8:46:26, seismic records]

8:46 A.M. Air Force General and acting Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers later claims that he is in Washington, talking to Senator Max Cleland at this time. He sees a television report that a plane had hit the WTC, but he claims, "They thought it was a small plane or something like that," so he goes back to his call. He remains obvious of what is happening until after the Pentagon is hit almost an hour later. [American Forces Press Service, 10/23/01] Yet, in testimony on September 13, he states, "after the second tower was hit, I spoke to the commander of NORAD, General Eberhart. And at that point, I think the decision was at that point to start launching aircraft." [Myers Confirmation Testimony, 9/13/01] Doesn't that expose his usual story that he didn't know what was happening until later as a lie? If the second statement is true, then doesn't that make all the details of planes being scrambled before 9:03 all lies?

(8:46 A.M.) Flight 175 stops transmitting its transponder signal. It is 50 miles north of New York City, headed towards Baltimore. [8:46:18, Guardian, 10/17/01, "about the same time" as Flight 11 crash, Newsday, 9/10/02] Another lie? Note that at 8:42, a flight controller said, "there's no transponder no nothing." [New York Times, 10/16/01] However, they turned the transponder off for only about 30 seconds, then returned the transponder to a signal that was not designated to any plane on that day. [Newsday, 9/10/02] This "allowed controllers to track the intruder easily, though they couldn't identify it." [Washington Post, 9/17/01]

(Between 8:46 - 9:03 A.M.) At some unknown point before Flight 175 crashes, flight controllers in Garden City on Long Island, New York, are still looking for Flight 11. Flight 175 is an unmarked blip. One controller stands up in horror. "No," he shouts, "he's not going to land. He's going in!" "Oh, my God! He's headed for the city," another controller shouts. "Oh, my God! He's headed for Manhattan!" [Washington Post, 9/21/01]

(After 8:46 A.M.) Shortly after the WTC is hit, the FAA has a open telephone line with the Secret Service, keeping them informed of all events. [Cheney: "The Secret Service has an arrangement with the FAA They had open lines after the World Trade Center was... " NBC, 9/16/01]

8:48 A.M. The first news reports appear on TV and radio that a plane may have crashed into the WTC. [New York Times, 9/15/01, CNN, 9/11/01]

(8:50 A.M.) Rich ''Doc'' Miles, manager of United's Chicago system operations center, receives a call from a mechanic at an airline maintenance center in San Francisco that takes in-flight calls from flight attendants about broken items. The mechanic says a female flight attendant from Flight 175 just called and said, ''Oh my God. The crew has been killed, a flight attendant has been stabbed. We've been hijacked.'' Then the line went dead. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01]

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

8:53 A.M. A flight controller says to other airplanes in the sky about Flight 175, "We may have a hijack. We have some problems over here right now." [Guardian, 10/17/01, 8:53:23, New York Times, 10/16/01]

(8:55 A.M.) A public announcement is broadcast inside the WTC South Tower, saying that the building is secure and people can return to their offices. [New York Times, 9/11/02, interactive popup] Such announcements continue until a few minutes before the building is hit, and "may have led to the deaths of hundreds of people." No one knows what exactly was said (though many recall the phrase "the building is secure") nor who gave the authority to say it. [USA Today, 9/3/02] Given that at 8:43 NORAD was notified Flight 175 was hijacked and headed towards New York City, why weren't people in the building warned?

8:58 A.M. Brian Sweeney on Flight 175 tries to call his wife but can only leave a message. "We've been hijacked, and it doesn't look too good." He calls his mother and tells her what's happening onboard. [Hyannis News, 9/13/01, Washington Post, 9/21/01

9:03 A.M.  Flight 175, hits the south tower, 2 World Trade Center. Approximately 2662 people are killed on the ground between this crash and the crash of Flight 175. [AP, 8/19/02] F-15 fighter jets from Otis Air National Guard Base are still 71 miles or eight minutes away. [9:02, CNN, 9/17/01, 9:02, NORAD, 9/18/01, 9:02, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 9:03, New York Times, 9/12/01, 9:03 (based on seismic data), New York Times, 9/12/01, 9:03, Guardian, 10/17/01, 9:03, CNN, 9/12/01, 9:03, AP, 8/19/02, 9:03, Newsday, 9/10/02, 9:03, USA Today, 9/3/02, 9:05, MSNBC, 9/22/01, 9:05, Washington Post, 1/27/02, 9:02:54, New York Times, 9/11/02, 9:02:54, seismic records] The Otis Air National Guard Base is 188 miles from New York City. According to NORAD's timeline, fighters left Otis 11 minutes earlier. If they were still 70 miles away, then that means they must have been traveling about 650 mph, when the top speed for an F-15 is 1875 mph!

(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?

9:59 A.M.  The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses. It was hit by Flight 175 at 9:02. [9:50, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 9:59, MSNBC, 9/22/01, 9:59, AP, 8/19/02, 9:59 (based on seismic data), New York Times, 9/12/01, 10:05, CNN, 9/12/01, 10:05, New York Times, 9/12/01 , 9:59:39, US Army authorized seismic study, 9:59:04, seismic records]