- The original hearings of the National Transportation
Safety Board, N.T.S.B., into the crash of United Airlines Flight 553, near
Midway Airpport, were in February, 1973. From that point to May of that
year, I as the spokesperson of our investigation and research group, was
numerous times on late-night radio talk shows, by phone hook-up. Several
sizeable stations throughout the nation had me on the air. To use me as
their punching bag, some moderators purposely put me on the air, so they
could holler me down that I had no proof of airplane sabotage. It was a
way of limiting what I could say between commercials, thus using up the
time. It prevented me from going into too many details. I mentioned, or
vainly tried to mention, the substance of our numerous interviews with
witnesses, without divulging their names, to avoid risking our eyewitnesses.
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- Since I am an independent and not one of the media "favorites",
they persistently heckled me, "Where are your documents?" In
that period, I never publicly divulged that we had already "liberated"
and had in our possession, a copy of the entire original file of the N.T.S.B.
on Flight 553. It consisted of some 1300 pages of documents and reports
and pictures. [Months later, the N.T.S.B. to try to down me, released a
censored, sanitized version of their original file. We were in a position
to show they were using fraud to cover up airplane sabotage, a forbidden
subject. BUT, at that point, the monopoly press did not permit me to be
further heard on radio talk-shows and such.]
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- In that period up to May, 1973, the American CIA, through
their front, Katharine Graham, supposed head of the Washington Post, dispatched
to Chicago the Post's super-duper expert on CIA matters, Ronald Kessler.
We picked him up at O'Hare Airport and went with him to a reassonably nearby
restaurant. After an interview of only a few minutes, Kessler said he wanted
to be driven back to the airport. He said he wanted to be back in the District
of Columbia. I asked him why he had come such a distance and yet only talked
to me for a couple of minutes. He did not explain.
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- Kessler wrote a two-part series about me that ran on
the front page of the Washington Post. It condemned me for having no details
of the sabotage. Savvy folks, however, from all over North America, called
me, stating, "Sherman, you must really have something for the Post
to have you on the front page twice, heckling you for your investigations
of the Watergate plane crash."
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- [For more about the Washington Post and Ronald Kessler,
visit our website story, "The Late Grand Dragon of The Washington
Post".]
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- In the 1970s, the major owner of UAL, Inc., parent of
United Air Lines, were the Rockefellers and they also owned all three news
networks (and to this day, still have a large ownership), of CBS, NBC,
and ABC. The bosses of United Air Lines were getting increasingly disturbed
by my public statements. So, in May, 1973, the general counsel of the air
lines, sent a letter of demand to the N.T.S.B., contending that Sherman
H. Skolnick had no proof whatever of sabotage. United Air Lines demanded
that N.T.S.B. subpoena me to take my deposition. This would prove, they
contended, that I was making unfounded statements. [The various wire services
ran the letter of demand of United Air Lines.] After being served with
the subpoena, I arranged with the Safety Board, and they agreed, that I
was going to represent myself and supply and direct the testimony of others.
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- The Safety Board panel figured that the way to handle
this was through the subpoena. They arranged for re-opened public hearings
at the same large motel meeting room in Chicago, as in February, 1973.
They set two full days for my deposition, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with very short
recesses for lunch, for June 13 and 14,1973.
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- On the scheduled time and day, I rolled in with my wheelchair,
with a large suitcase. Accompanying me were eight of my eyewitnesses. As
the hearings began before the five-person N.T.S.B. panel, I informed them
I have two preliminary matters to bring to their attention. First, I demanded
that three of the Safety Board panel disqualify themselves because they
and/or their immediate family are substantial stockholders in various air
lines that have a joint interest that air sabotage remain a secret, forbidden
subject. That they have an interest to hem me in to prevent the truth from
coming out.
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- Without referring to federal statutes, administrative
proceedures, or reasons, to support her ruling, the Chairperson proclaimed,
"Mr. Skolnick, your motion to disqualify, is denied." Then, with
the assistance of my associates, I opened up the large suitcase and spread
out on a good-sized table in front of myself and the Safety Board panel,
the entire N.T.S.B. file we had "liberated".
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- I stated to the panel, "Secondly, I am telling you
straight in front, that I have the possession of a copy of your entire
original file on Flight 553. I admit responsibility of purloining your
records. I challenge you to now arrest me for so doing. Arrest me right
here, in front of this audience of mostly reporters from all over the world."
The audience was estimated at 250 persons.
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- The woman chairperson, with as much shock on her face
as when we had a deputy sheriff serve her a copy of my lawsuit against
her in the midst of a Safety Board hearing in February, said only one word
in a low voice: "Proceed".
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- The CBS Network as well as their local TV station, WBMM-TV,
Channel 2 Chicago, was by close circuit videoing and observing the entire
proceedings. It was primarily to immediately inform the Rockefellers and
other bigshots, of what is being presented. The network did NOT use any
of the video on the air. Their local TV station used only a meaningless,
sanitized few seconds of the proceedings, revealing almost nothing.
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- I started out by stating, "I will show from your
own records that all the air tower and airport instruments for guiding
in Flight 553, which I call the Watergate plane, were turned off just as
that plane approached. They were all turned back on, the moment after the
plane was steered falsely into the ground short of the designated runway
at Midway Airport. Contrary to established rules and procedures, Midway
tower steered a small private plane to go right in front of Flight 553
as Flight 553 was on the path of in-coming, thus obstructing the commercial
plane. The flight recorder in the tail of the plane was arranged to stop
at a key point, censoring all that happened to Flight 553 as it was on
the flight-path for landing. The electric buss bar of the plane was arranged
to short out, burning out key instruments, and the plane was coming in
dark, as shown by your own pictures, records, and reports and by a witness.
The altimeter was sabotaged, so the pilot and co-pilot were at a lower
altitude than they should have been, causing the plane to pancake on top
of some residences, killing some onnoard and some on the ground. Persons
in Midway Control Tower as well as those in charge of the hand-off signals
from O'Hare, caused false and erroneous signals to be relayed to Flight
553."
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- [During the hearings, I mentioned that the small private
red plane, according to our investigations, which was falsely steered in
front of Flight 553, had onboard known mafioso from Indiana and had let
loose right in front of 553 a blizzard of thin metal chaff to screw up
553.]
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- With a series of enlarged charts, documents from the
original N.T.S.B. file, and supporting eyewitness testimony, I step by
step began to present the proof of air sabotage. [The specific technical
details will be in a later part of this series.]
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- During a short lunch break, the national correspondent
of the Hearst Publication chain stopped me in the hallway. "Mr. Skolnick,
you don't have anything", he contemptuously proclaimed. Puzzled, I
answered, "What? Were you watching everything I was presenting or
were you asleep?"
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- Starting to shout at me, he blurted out, "Nowhere
have you demonstrated that there was a bomb aboard that plane. No bomb.
No proof. Period."
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- Trying to contain my own anger, I said "Where did
you get the idea that the only way to sabotage a plane is to plant a bomb
onboard?" He quickly retorted, "No bomb. No proof. No sabotage."
I rapidly responded, "And that is what YOU are going to report for
YOUR chain of publications?" He dismissed me, "That's right.
You have mislead the public."
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- Toward the end of the day, during a short recess, the
Chicago Tribune Transportation Editor, Tom Buck, arranged to photograph
me sitting at the table with all the N.T.S.B.'s documents, reports, and
pictures there spread out. Guess what? The Tribune later ran his story
stating that Chicago legal researcher Sherman Skolnick (which is what they
called me in those years) has shown no proof whatever to support his allegations
that a United Air Lines plane crashed last December near Midway Airport
because of sabotage. With the story, they ran a picture showing me only
head and shoulders. The part of me sitting at the table with all the documents,
reports, and pictures of the N.T.S.B. was cropped out. [The Rockefeller
Family, at the times owners of United Air Lines, were also major owners
of Tribune Company, parent firm of the Chicago Tribune.]
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- After a long day, later in the hearings, to sort of relieve
the tension in the air, I told what I thought would be a little joke. I
referred to United's general counsel, Mr. Streit, as Mr. Alley, as if I
had made a Freudian slip. I quickly said I am sorry. Then I said, "I
am here to categorically ADMIT that I have no proof whatever that Richard
Nixon and the head of United Air Lines were on the plane with guns and
shot dead Mrs. E. Howard Hunt, the Watergate bag-lady." Guess what?
Donald Schwartz, covering the hearings for the Chicago Sun-Times, under
his byline later ran a story with a big headline, "SKOLNICK ADMITS
HE HAS NO PROOF WHATEVER". The story went on to state that Sherman
Skolnick at a Safety Board hearing into the crash last December of a United
Air Lines plane near Midway Airport, said he categorically admits he has
no proof whatever of sabotage.
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- [At that time, the Chicago Sun-Times was owned by Field
Enterprises, owned by a combination of the Marshall Field Family and the
Rockefellers.]
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- After the publication of that fraudulent story, when
I next saw Donald Schwartz, I did not restrain myself. "Look, I am
going to take my metal crutch and twist it around your neck, you lying
crook." He just smiled and walked away.
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- On the other hand, the wireservice, Associated Press,
to their credit, in a Chicago date-lined story stated that "Chicago
legal researcher Sherman Skolnick in a heavily-documented presentation
of sabotage has appeared before a re-opened hearing of the National Transportation
Safety Board inquiring into the crash last December of a United Air Lines
plane near Midway Airport, Chicago." This story ran on AP's "A"
wire, their national and international wire. Guess what? Only ONE newspaper
in the United States ran this story. A newspaper in Seattle, Washington.
All the other press outlets, print, radio, and television ignored the AP's
straight forward, factually correct story. All the rest of the monopoly
press went with a combination of the false stories of the Tribune and the
Sun-Times and the Hearst Publications.
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- Several news outlets overseas, however, did use the Associated
Press story. Following up on that was Swedish National Television, their
major network. They sent a film crew to Chicago and arranged to meet me
in the crash site, right where several residences were destroyed by the
pancaking Flight 553 coming down. They interviewed me again at a later
date. It was made into a 90-minute documentary with me talking in English,
and below my picture, Swedish subtitles. I became a volunteer, unpaid
consultant to the project which was quite a sensation in parts of Europe.
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- In later years, a highly-skilled journalist, Tom Valentine,
started and ran a magazine exposing the real stuff, called REEL-NEWS. It
was successfully distributed, some 150 thousand copies each issue, at places
like airports. Then they printed an issue with the usual press-run, about
the story of the sabotage of Flight 553 with references to the specific
technical details. By a strange combination of events, the magazine was
blocked in the printer's warehouse and was not distributed. It became the
death warrant of the magazine which then went under.
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- [Please note, a very skilled writer with a long background
in aviation, Rodney Stich, has written and privately published a book,
"The Unfriendly Skies" which details the incompetence and blundering
of the airlines. He also has books of his documented work in exposing high
level fraud in the government.]
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- The next part of this series will deal with the specific
details of sabotage.
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- Stay tuned.
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