- Accuracy in Media recently submitted a request to the
FBI for a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of United Flight
93, the hijacked Boeing 757 that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11. No
information about what the two black boxes revealed has been made public,
which is certainly not standard operating procedure. The FBI's response
to AIM's FOIA request was that the transcript is exempt from the Freedom
of Information Act because "it could reasonably be expected to interfere
with enforcement proceedings." What enforcement proceedings?
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- The purpose of installing the CVR and the flight data
recorder on aircraft is to provide information that may explain the cause
of the crash. In the case of United Flight 93, there are three possible
scenarios. The one favored by the government seems to be that several male
passengers tried to overpower the hijackers and take control of the plane,
but it crashed as they struggled in the cockpit. This is based on reports
of what was said in cell-phone conversations, but those calls all stopped
about eight minutes before the plane crashed. If the passengers succeeded
in getting into the cockpit, there should be evidence of the struggle on
the CVR. If that is what happened, why doesn't the FBI release the transcript
that would prove it?
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- FBI spokesman John Collingwood has explained their refusal
to release the transcript to those who had relatives on the plane, saying,
"While we empathize with the grieving families, we do not believe
that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them
in any way." That decision was made after FBI Director Robert Mueller
listened to the tape.
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- If the tape shows that the actions taken by some of the
passengers caused the crash, that would at least give their families the
satisfaction of knowing they behaved heroically, preventing the hijackers
from killing anyone except those aboard. The FBI's refusal to release even
an edited transcript seems to be a repudiation of that scenario without
explicitly saying so. Nevertheless, the FBI spokesman said that while the
FBI would not accede to the families' request for the tape, "we hope
that they will take comfort in knowing that all of America embraces the
passengers and flight crew of Flight 93 as heroes." That's what they
want us to believe, and what we would like to believe, but they refuse
to provide the proof.
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- A second scenario is also based on a cell phone conversation
in which a passenger said that one of the hijackers claimed to have a bomb
which he threatened to detonate. The recent bomb-in-the-sneakers incident
gives this increased plausibility. It shows how easily a powerful explosive
could be smuggled aboard a plane by a suicide bomber. It gets added credibility
from a passenger's 911 phone call reporting an explosion on the plane.
That would explain why papers and other light material from the plane was
scattered over several miles. A bomb would open a hole in the fuselage
or blow out windows, creating havoc from the sudden decompression. It would
probably kill some of the passengers and make it hard for the hijackers
to fly the plane.
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- The third scenario is that the airliner was shot down
by an F-16 fighter plane dispatched to intercept and shoot down the airliner,
an action authorized by President Bush. Interesting material supporting
this scenario can be found on www.flight93.com. An article from the Philadelphia
Daily News of November 15, reports that a number of people near the area
where the plane crashed believe that it was shot down. One of them, Laura
Temyer, was surprised when she heard a plane because she understood that
all flights had been grounded. She told the Daily News, "I heard like
a boom and the engine sounded funny. I heard two more booms, and then I
did not hear anything."
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- The mayor of Shanksville, a village near the crash site,
said that F-16 fighters were very, very close, and that two men he knew
claimed they had heard a missile. The FBI acknowledges that a half-ton
piece of one of the engines was found west of the crash site. It may have
been hit by a heat-seeking missile from an F-16. This refutes the claim
of eyewitnesses who say the plane was intact when it crashed, burrowing
deeply into the soft soil of an abandoned strip mine.
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- When American Flight 587 crashed in New York shortly
after takeoff, the government released detailed information from the CVR
within 36 hours. What are they hiding about United Flight 93?
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- Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org
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- http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2001/12/28.html
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