Flight 93, Part 2

  

This is Indian Lake Airport, only a few miles away from the crash side near Shanksville. 

Paul Freeman flew over Indian Lake airport in 2001.Both paved runways still existed in very good condition, along with a group of small hangars. In 2002, Indian Lake was advertised for sale as an airfield.The 2004 USGS aerial photo showed the Indian Lake Airport to remain in excellent condition - even with markings on Runway 14/32 which seemed to indicate an open runway (no closed-runway “X” symbols).Link

 

The Shootdown of KAL007

Korean Air Lines flight 007, flight of a passenger jet that was shot down by Soviet air-to-air missiles on September 1, 1983, near Sakhalin Island, Russia, killing all 269 persons on board. Link

The damaged plane continued flying for 12 minutes, spiraling toward the ocean below, until it "crashed into the sea, with most passengers smashed into pieces or drowning," Ephraimson-Apt said. CNN

 

This proves that a hit aircraft can still fly for some time if the missile has mainly hit the engine.

 

 Shootdown of Flight 93?

There are also indications that this plane was shot down:

 

Laura Temyer of Hooversville: "I heard like a boom and the engine sounded funny,"  "I heard two more booms - and then I did not hear anything." "I think the plane was shot down," What's more, she insists that people she knows in state law enforcement have told her the same thing, that the plane was shot down and that decompression sucked objects from the aircraft, explaining why there was a wide debris field. PhillyNews

Comment: According to the official flight path(see Part 1), United 93 had changed its route shortly before Hooversville. The FDR plane is therefore a hot candidate for a shootdown.

 

Follow the Paper/Debris Trail 

New Baltimore, 8 miles away from crash site:

When Andy Stoe glanced at the paper, ready to toss it in the trash, he saw it was a charred payroll check made out to Antonio B. Costa of San Jose, Calif. Investigators now concede the canceled check and a portion of a charred brokerage statement Stoe found nearby on Thursday afternoon are from the crash. Link

 

Melanie Hankinson: "He said there was a loud bang and smoke and then these papers started blowing through your yard," she said. "I said, 'Oh.' Then I went back to the TV."

 "And there was some black webbing -- a lot of people found that," she said. The webbing, flexible where it hadn't burned, crisp where it had, was from insulation lining the belly of the jetliner. Link

 

Indian Lake, 3 miles away from crash site:

A second debris field was around Indian Lake about 3 miles from the crash scene. Some debris was in the lake and some was adjacent to the lake....Investigators later said the debris was all very light material, such as paper and thin nylon the wind would easily blow. 

 

Comment: According to carol delasko(Part 1), the confetti rain was shortly after the crash. The wind could not have carried the paper and nylon 3 miles in that short time, much less 8 miles to New Baltimore.

 

Crash site:

When hijacked Flight 93 crashed at 10:03 in rural western Pennsylvania, 2,858 pounds of mail were scattered across the fields and forests, or burned in the aircraft’s fiery explosion. First responders reported seeing so much mail on the ground at the crash site that, at first, they thought (and hoped) that the plane might have been carrying only mail. Link

 

Comment: 

If it was not the wind that brought the paper to the 3 locations(New Baltimore, Indian Lake, Crash Site), then it must have been Flight 93. But which plane was it?

The Witness Plane: 

The witness plane could not have created the paper trail because it came from the opposite direction and was near the crash site at the time of the crash. According to the witnesses it was intact. 

To all appearances, however, it did not crash(see Part 1). Therefore, it must have flown on, and there are strong indications that it did:

 

Indian Lake Marina(in the direction of flight):
“All of a sudden the lights flickered and we joked that maybe they were coming for us. Then we heard engines screaming close overhead. The building shook. We ran out, heard the explosion and saw a fireball mushroom,” said Fleegle, pointing to a clearing on a ridge at the far end of the lake.

Comment: The witness plane was the only plane in the area and the Marina is 2,4 miles away from the crash site. The sound velocity needs about 11 seconds to do this. Assuming a speed of 500 mph(17 seconds), the witness plane must have flown over the crash site a few seconds before the explosion. It has not lost debris.

 

Transponder came back on 10:03:

 RICHARD J. KETTELL: 10:02:50 UA FLT. 93, transponder is GMT 14:02:50 reactivated for approximately 20 seconds. The aircraft reports an altitude of 8,200 feet. FBI

1405 (10:05 a.m.)
ntmo-e: ok united ninety three we're now receiving a transponder on and he is at eighty two hundred feet
doug: now transponder and he's eighty two-hundred
ntmo-e: southeastbound still
doug: eighty two hundred feet and now getting a transponder on him

1410 (10:10 a.m.)

doug: ya thirty nine fifty one north zero seven eighty four six west 

ntmo-e: that's the last known position of united ninety three  Link                                                       

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are reports of a fourth airliner had been brought down near Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, by U.S. military fighters. A fifth plane has crashed in Western Pennsylvania. Forbes

 

Comment: The transponder obviously did not come from the Witness plane, as the FDR plane had an altitude of approximately 8200 feet at 10:02. But it was obviously still primary from radar at 10:10 just before cumberland. The journey obviously ended in Camp David. 

The FDR Plane: 

If the fdr aircraft is a hot candidate for the shootdown, it is probably also a candidate for the paper trail. Let's assume that this aircraft was shot at the engine near Hooversville, then according to the fdr it could have continued its flight path. Keep in mind: If the left engine was hit, there might also be a leak on the left of the cargo hold.

If the crash time of 10:06(seismic signal) is correct, then this plane should have been near the crash site at 10:03. This means that this plane still had 3 minutes to crash if it actually crashed(around 6000 feet, Airspeed 400 Kts at 10:00 Link). So if it continued on its flight path it would have flown in the direction of New Baltimore. But why should it do that? 

 

The Traffic Circuit:

Let's look at this graphics - it looks like flight 93 has flown into a space round for the airport Indian Lake(the blue line after the NDB is fictional)

Debris field at New Baltimore and emergency landing at Indian Lake airport:

The official flight path leads directly to a NDB(Non Directional Bacon). This NDB at Stoystown is used to navigate the approach to Indian lake airport. More information is here. 

If you look at the debris fields, flight 93 flew the way(left downwind) to New Baltimore to make a 180 degree turn for final approach(final). This maneuver may have caused the mail to fly out of the damaged fuselage(cargo hold) over New Baltimore because it slipped out due to the aircraft's banked position. This is also confirmed by Mr. Oster, who has seen fighter jets flanking flight 93(see Part 1).

Fuel Dump before landing:

Because the runway is only 4488 feet long, dumping the fuel would be useful to reduce the weight of the aircraft. There was no kerosene fire as a result of the crash, as is usually the case in aircraft crashes: (see also first picture Part 1)

The Go-Around:

According to the paper route, the plane must have flown further over Indian Lake. Consequently, it did not land there, but must have go around. 

Witness Michael Merringer: "I heard the engine gun two different times and then I heard a loud bang and the windows of the houses all around rattled,"  Link 

It seems that he heard the engine of the FDR plane(Go-Around) as well as the engine of the Witness plane.

Last Turn: 

Possibly the aircraft wanted to fly back into the traffic pattern after the Go-Around, in any case, according to the paper path, it must have flown back to the right over the lake. It lost more debris this time due to the skew and this was seen by Jim Stop and other witnesses of Indian Lake. (see Part 1) 

The dumping of fuel could then have caused the kerosene to run out, which would then have caused the engines to fail, presumably leading to a stall and a downward spiral. This led to the 90 degree nosedive with impact, as shown by the damage pattern on the ground(see Part 1). I have shown this in the following graphic:

Comment: The FDR aircraft is flying from northwest to southeast descending at an altitude of about 6000 feet, presumably at a speed of less than 400 knots. The data from the FDR after 10 o'clock(Descend) must be doubted. (see also Part 1). After the base leg at New Baltimore, it was supposed to land at 2442 feet at Indian Lake airport, but this obviously went wrong and it probably crashed. This whole maneuver should be feasible in 3 minutes. So the "Secret plane", mentioned in part 1, is also the FDR plane.

Conclusion:

Two planes took off from newark, labeled as Flight 93(8:28 and 8:42). This was on the one hand the passenger plane or "Witness plane"(08:42), on the other hand the "FDR plane"(08:28). The Witness plane was hijacked as officially described. The FDR plane probably had the function of a training or attack aircraft for the military exercises taking place at the same time that morning and was presumably piloted from the outside. Assuming that the Witness plane should have been flying in the radar shadow of the FDR plane, something must have gone wrong with one aircraft. It looks like the Witness plane flew very low all the way from Akron respectivly Cleveland, to fly under the radar. It looks like the FDR plane was intercepted by fighter jets near Hooversville and hit at the engine by a missile. It then transitioned into the landing approach for indian lake airport to make an emergency landing. To do this, it turned the transponder back(10:02:50) on to get an accurate altitude reading for the landing. The Witness plane followed the flight path of the FDR plane, but the hijackers had to deal with the passengers' uprising at the same time. Meanwhile, the FDR plane was in the space pattern for indian lake airport and turned around over new Baltimore, loosing mail from the damaged cargo hold as it banked. Then it dumped fuel to land on the short runway with as little weight as possible. However, the emergency landing failed and the airplane had to go around. It probably tried to make another traffic circuit but the go-around required too much fuel, so it ran out during the climb. As a result, the airplane entered a stall and crashed at 10:06 in a downward spiral straight down. Shortly before this, the witness aircraft overflew the area because it followed the flight path of the FDR plane in low-level flight and at the same time disappeared behind a mountain ridge. Most witnesses did not see either aircraft in the mountainous area and thought that the witness aircraft had crashed. However, it continued on its flight path and was still located by radar just before cumberland. According to initial media reports, it landed at camp david. So the cockpit voice recorder of the Witness plane must have been cut at 10:03, because the fdr plane was in the vicinity of the crash site at that time and thus had to "crash" already here because otherwise the emergency landing at indian lake airport would be revealed. So the FDR data must have been manipulated after 10:00am to cover up the landing attempt at indian lake airport and the crash at 10:06am.

All discrepancies are eliminated with this scenario:

• 3-minutes discrepancy in CVR despite original 10:06 crash time =>Aerodrome traffic lasts 3 minutes
• 2 flights were involved => 08:28 FDR plane(crashed) and 08:42 witness plane
• No kerosene fire, no contamination => fuel dump before landing
• Separate debris fields up to 8 and 3 miles away => debris loss in the flight curve(due to damaged fuselage)
  
• Vertical impact crater => flow stall due to lack of fuel  
  

 

Special thanks to John Doe II, Woodybox and Domenick Dimaggio for the great articles, research and inspiration.