Something Strange
about Flight 93
about Flight 93
Were any of the passengers supposed to be on the flight?
| 23 (and counting) of the 44 people on Flight 93 were not supposed to be on the flight that
day. Is this really just a coincidence? By FrankL August 2002, (reviewed 2005 thanks to Brad) Before beginning, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for anyone who lost loved ones on Sept 11th. Writing this piece has been particularly disturbing as it involved the reading the fine details of stories told by relatives of the people on the planes. Too Much Bad Luck? Many people have asked questions about the small number of passengers on each of the hijacked planes on Sept 11th, each flight was on average a quarter full. Flight 93 in particular had a very small load on board, only forty four people in total, including four suspected hijackers. Thirty seven passengers (excluding crew) on a plane that holds around two hundred people would make you wonder how an airline could possibly make a profit on such a flight. The mainstream press have speculated that this was careful planning by the hijackers, booking into flights that were already under booked so as to reduce the likelihood of confrontation with other passengers. Someone pointed out to me the large number of people who were only on the flights 'by chance'. There are numerous stories about people who originally planned to take another flight but decided to take the opportunity to get home early and so on. I originally dismissed this as being coincidence since there didn't appear to be enough of them to be significant. However, on further examination of the stories of the flight 93 passengers I found something quite startling. The following table details all the passengers and crew that were on this flight by chance - mostly moving from other flights. There are some, like Alan Beaven who were reluctantly called out to last minute meetings. 1. Christine Snyder. Snyder wanted to build up frequent flier miles on her United account. That morning, she called to check on her flight, Flight 91, due to leave after 9 a.m. She moved up to Flight 93 for an earlier start. http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp 2. Deora Bodley She was supposed to take United Flight 91, but decided the night before to take one an hour earlier so she could get home sooner to her family and boyfriend http://www.thereview.com/Site%20Archive/Site%20Pages/010922/010922apwire.html 3. Donald Peterson. They weren't supposed to be on United Flight 93, but they got to the Newark airport early, and their original flight was late and crowded. http://www.hazlitt.org/united/whotheywere2.html 4. Jean Peterson 5. Jeremy Glick. Jeremy Glick was supposed to have been on Flight 93 a day earlier, but missed the Monday flight after getting stuck in traffic on his way to Newark Airport. http://www.msnbc.com/news/632626.asp 6. Lauren Grandcolas Originally scheduled on a later flight, she had been pleasantly surprised to easily get a standby seat on Flight 93 at the airport. http://www.msnbc.com/news/632626.asp 7. Louis Nacke. Some of the passengers had never planned to be on the flight. Nacke had booked his seat only the night before. Out to dinner with his family, he had a received a phone call from one of his customers who needed help with an inventory problem. http://www.msnbc.com/news/632626.asp 8. Mark Bingham. Mark Bingham, 31, was also supposed to have flown to San Francisco last Monday. But he hadn't recovered sufficiently from the 30th birthday celebration of his roommate in Manhattan, so he decided to wait until Tuesday morning. He overslept a 6 a.m. alarm and just made his flight http://www.the-review.com/Site%20Archive/Site%20Pages/010922/010922apwire.html 9. Alan Beavan. Alan Beaven of Oakland, bCalif., was on Flight 93 reluctantly. He was staying with his wife and young daughter at an ashram in New York, preparing to begin a year volunteering as head lawyer for the Syda Foundation in Bombay. Yet, the environmental attorney had unfinished business one last Clean Water Act lawsuit for his firm before his trip overseas. When settlement talks broke down last Monday, Beaven was duty-bound to fly back to San Francisco to handle the case. http://www.the-review.com/Site%20Archive/Site%20Pages/010922/010922apwire.html 10. Nicole Miller. Nicole Miller's flight last Monday had also been cancelled. The 21-year-old college student and waitress at a Chili's in San Jose had gone back East at the urging of her boyfriend, who wanted her with him when he visited his family. Because she had agreed to go at the last minute, Miller and her boyfriend had to make return reservations on different flights. http://www.thereview.com/Site%20Archive/Site%20Pages/010922/010922apwire.html 11. Thomas Burnett. Like Bodley, Thomas Burnett was leaving New Jersey early to be with his family. The 38-year-old San Ramon, Calif., resident was supposed to have flown out that afternoon on Delta, but switched to Flight 93 to get home to his wife, Deena, and their three daughters. http://www.thereview.com/Site%20Archive/Site%20Pages/010922/010922apwire.html D. Keith Grossman, president of Thoratec Corp., of Pleasanton, Calif., was in Cleveland to meet Deitrick and ask what his company could do to help. Grossman said he could do no less. One victim on the flight was his employee and close friend, Tom Burnett. "We were both in New York that day," Grossman said. "He was supposed to go home on Flight 91 later in the day, but he switched it to get on Flight 93." http://clevessf.dev.advance.net/911/more/1031045560150570.html 12. Jason Dahl (Pilot). Dahl was planning to take his wife Sandy to London for their fifth wedding anniversary Sept. 14, and by moving up his flight schedule, they would have more time together overseas. Sandy, a United flight attendant, went onto United's computer system and shifted him to Flight 93. http://flight93.org/post-gazette-10-28.html 13. Wanda Green. Wanda Green wasn't originally supposed to be on Flight 93. The 49-year-old divorced mother of two grown children had been scheduled to fly Sept. 13, but Green, who also worked as a real estate agent, realized she had to handle the closing of a home sale Sept. She'd phoned her best friend, fellow flight attendant Donita Judge, who opened United's computerized schedule and shifted Green to the Sept. 11 flight. http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp 14. Deborah Welsh. Welsh, who had been a flight attendant for more than 25 years, usually avoided early-morning flights, but she had agreed to trade shifts with another worker. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134348637_heroes02.html 15. Honor Elizabeth Wainio. Since she was scheduled on a flight that stopped in Denver, Colorado, she changed her reservations to a direct flight into San Francisco at the last minute. Wainio was able to borrow a phone from a fellow passenger and contact her stepmother during the attack. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Elizabeth_Wainio 16. Georgine Rose Corrigan She was returning from a series of business and personal trips. She was not scheduled to take flight 93 but decided to leave early to return for a trade show. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgine_Rose_Corrigan 17. Toshiya Kuge. Toshiya was a second-year student in the science and engineering school at Waseda University, in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. According to relatives, he left Japanon August 29 and had planned to return Wednesday, September 12, 2001 http://www.unitedheroes.com/Toshiya-Kuge.html 18. Patricia Cushing. Mr. Hasenei said the family printed out maps to help Mrs. Cushing get around San Francisco. She had planned to return to her home in Bayonnenext week. baltimore sun 19. Jane Folger. She was travelling with Patricia Cushin. http://www.unitedheroes.com/Patricia-Cushing-Jane-Folger.html 20. LORRAINE BAY A 37-year United veteran, she had chosen Flight 93 over another flight because it was nonstop http://www.unitedafa.org/res/o/911/memorial/images/heroes/lorraine_bay.htm 21. SANDY BRADSHAW Married US Airways pilot Phil Bradshaw cut her flights to the bare minimum -- two two-day trips a month from Newark to San Francisco or to Los Angeles. She was in economy because she'd picked up Flight 93 late in the planning. Ordinarily, she liked working first class. It was a good fit with her gregarious ways. http://www.werismyki.com/articles/one_destiny.html 22. TODD BEAMER They returned home on Monday, Sept. 10, at 5 p.m. While Beamer could have left that night for a Tuesday business meeting in California, he wanted to spend time with his sons and his wife, who is due in January with their third child. www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93beamerbiop8.asp 23. LEROY HOMER, It's been a year since that day I saw your name scroll on the TV, listed as one of the victims of the terrorist hijackings. I couldn't believe my eyes, I felt a hole open in my soul, I couldn't fathom that you were gone from this Earth. I remember I had told Jackie that the chances of you flying that day were slim, and that you'd be OK. I was wrong. http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0902/homer.html 24. Edward Porter Felt He was on a last minute business trip to San Francisco for BEA Systems. Another employee of BEA Systems, Kenneth W. Basnicki was visiting the World Trade Center for a conference and died in the attack. There are numerous stories like this for passengers on the other flights - including Barbara Olson, wife of US Solicitor General Theodore Olson, but it appears to be Flight 93 which has the most significant number. This could still be nothing more than a series of coincidences, but on further investigation, there appears to be more to this story than is being revealed by the press. What Happened to Flight 91? Several of the people mentioned above were originally supposed to be on another flight - Flight 91, scheduled for 9 a.m. According to the stories above, they arrived early at the airport and got standby tickets on Flight 93 - although flight 93 was delayed and didn't take off until around 8:42 anyway. Looking for more details on Flight 91 I found the following site: http://rsjames.com/newsletters/2001/14-10-26-2001-13-14.txt Here is the significant portion: You had posted a few e-mails last month about flight 91 and 93. I have a friend who was the pilot of flight 91. The reason they changed flights was, when the flight crew boarded and started to prepare for flight, my friend had noticed a crack in the windshield, so they grounded the plane. They took the passengers and put them on flight 93, but not the crew members, that flight crew was saved. This means that a number of people (possibly all the passengers on board) were removed from Flight 91 and put on Flight 93. If this is the case - just how many people were actually booked onto Flight 93 in the first place? Was it an exclusive flight just for the hijackers? Why was it this flight in particular that had so many phone calls? Another significant point about Ziad Jarrah - supposed pilot of Flight 93. Nowhere on the Internet does it mention Jarrah booking or purchasing a ticket on Flight 93. On the indictment against Moussaoui it mentions most of the other hijackers purchasing their tickets but not Jarrah. Was Ziad Jarrah actually booked onto Flight 91 and moved onto Flight 93. Is this why the phone calls mentioned only three hijackers? If anyone has an explanation for this - conventional or otherwise, or any further information - please email me at -email- There are a other pieces of weirdness about this flight: Mark Bingham phoned his mother and said, "Hi Mom, This is Mark Bingham" I don't care how stressed you are - you never phone your mother and give her your full name |
No comments:
Post a Comment