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By Mike Fish
CNN
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The numbers appear out-of-whack, thankfully. And so, a lingering question is why the passenger loads on the four planes hijacked in U.S. skies are being described by industry officials as "very, very low.''
Is it simply incredible fortune that more people weren't aboard the commercial airliners used as deadly missiles? Is it just another tidy piece of a large, well-executed terrorist act?
Is it further reflection of an already reeling U.S. economy?
Or, contrary to airline denials, did the hijackers purchase a large chunk of seats that went unused?
Many investigators suspect the terrorists at the very least shopped for flights with low passenger loads, making it easier for them -- presumably armed only with knives and box cutters -- to prevent passenger uprisings.
"You have to think it was by design, that they didn't want to go on a flight with the chance of the passengers working against them,'' said Dave Esser, head of the aeronautical science department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "If you've got the threat of a bomb or a gun you can hold people at bay. These guys were strong-arming people with box cutters and knives.
"They wanted the numbers to be on their side.''
And they were, staggeringly so.
Three of the transcontinental flights departed for the West Coast with at least two-thirds of the seats empty. Only 37 of the 182 seats were occupied -- including four by hijackers, at least two in first class -- as United Airlines' Flight 93 left Newark for San Francisco.
The only flight that was even half full proved to be American Airlines' Flight 11, a wide-body Boeing 767 that left Boston bound for Los Angeles with 81 passengers.
Through July, airlines in the United States reported flights on average were 71 percent capacity this year.
All four of the hijacked flights had passenger loads significantly down in comparison with similar flights in June, the second quarter this year and last September -- according to statistics provided by the Department of Transportation.
From all appearances, the selection of flights was just another part of a meticulously scripted scheme that was likely years in the planning.
Consider:
-- The planes hijacked were Boeing 767s and 757s, which pilots train for in the same cockpit. If you can fly one, you can fly both -- unlike the airlines' smaller and more popular 737s. The 767s in question account for only 3 percent of the United Airlines fleet.
-- The planes were fully loaded with fuel, and crashed soon after takeoff on transcontinental flights bound for Los Angeles and San Francisco.
-- The two wide-body 767s, which have the largest fuel capacity (16,700 gallons) of those hijacked, were used to fly into the World Trade Center.
-- Most of the hijackers had assigned seats in first class, putting them close to the cockpit and distancing them from the bulk of passengers. The five hijackers aboard United Flight 175, the second to strike the twin towers, purchased one-way tickets totaling more than $14,000.
-- They acted on a Tuesday, normally one of the slowest air traffic days. And just after Labor Day, when summer travel eases considerably.
-- They boarded the flights in teams of five. The exception was the four aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which authorities believe crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers took on the hijackers.
The hijackers had apparently finalized their plans at least three weeks before the attacks when they began purchasing tickets for the flights, according to an FBI document provided to German police. Some paid cash for their purchases. Others used their Visa cards. Some booked tickets on the Internet. Their knowledge of the passenger loads could have been the result of assistance from an insider within the airline or travel industry, if not simply tedious research by the hijackers themselves as to the days and departure times when passenger loads would be lowest.
Most airline Web sites post seating configurations of flights, revealing which seats have been purchased as well as those available.
On Tuesday, a week after the hijackings, the only flight still flying near its former departure time was the United Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles. A check on the airline's web site the night before found 62 seats reserved in coach, alone -- compared to the 51 passengers and five hijackers who left Boston the morning of September 11.
"They were very low loads, especially when we only had 37 passengers on the flight that went down near Pittsburgh,'' said Liz Meagher, a United Airlines spokesperson. "I'm sure we are looking at this as a blessing and I'm sure it is being investigated as well.''
Specifics about the number of no-shows for the flights, as well as the passenger load history of the flights, have been turned over to the FBI, Meagher said.
Industry sources said post-Labor Day isn't normally a strong time and air traffic is off this year, but passenger loads on the four flights are off about 20 percent from similar routes last September.
"They may have done some research,'' said John Hotard, an American Airlines spokesperson. "If it's an issue of being able to control a fewer number of passengers, they may have been astute enough to know that Tuesday and Wednesday are your lower load factor days.''
Hotard said the airline hasn't detected any unusual booking activity on its two flights, dismissing speculation that the hijackers bought a large number of unused tickets.
He confirmed that the hijackers aboard the American flights were seated in first class, adding American and United Airlines were likely targeted because they're the primary transcontinental carriers.
"You have to assume they choose 'trans-cons' because those things were full of fuel,'' Hotard said. "So you knew if successful you're going to get a bigger fireball than with either a smaller aircraft or a domestic flight of only an hour or two.
"As to why they choose those two airlines, American is
certainly
a big bull's-eye out there, if you want to strike America. They
picked the world's two largest carriers and we're out there with
American spread all over and the American eagle on the tail.''
http://web.archive.org/web/20010921085115/www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/19/hijacked.planes/index.html
STILL ALIVE? FBI Mixed Up on True Identities of Perpetrators
Some of the men the FBI claims hijacked
planes on
Sept. 11 and crashed them into hubs of U.S. finance and defense are
still alive.
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Christopher J. Petherick
At least six men the FBI says were part of the ring of 19 hijackers
who seized passenger jets with box cutters on Sept. 11 and crashed
them into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon are
"alive and well," report Mideast officials.
Information Times, an on-line publication, reported that Saudi
Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told the Arabic
Press after meeting with President George W. Bush on Sept. 20: "It
was proved that five of the names included in the FBI list had
nothing to do with what happened."
According to The Orlando Sentinel, the Saudi Arabian embassy
confirmed that four of the five mentioned by Al-Faisal -Saeed
Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri, Abdul
aziz Alo mari
and Salem Alhazmi-are not dead and had nothing to do with the
heinous terror attacks in New York and Washington.
Saudi officials at the embassy were un able to verify the
whereabouts of the fifth accused hijacker, Khalid Al-Mihdhar.
However, Arab newspapers say Al-Mihd har is still alive.
NUMBER SIX
A sixth person on the FBI's list, Saudi national Waleed Alshehri,
is living in Casablanca, according to an official with the Royal
Air Moroc, the Moroccan commercial airline.
According to the unnamed official, Alshehri lived in Dayton Beach,
Fla., where he took flight training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University. Now he works for a Moroccan airline.
On Sept. 22, Associated Press reported that Alshehri had spoken to
the U.S. embassy in Morocco.
The FBI acknowledges that the identities of some of the purported
hijackers are still in question because some of the suspects' names
on flight rosters had been reported stolen months before the
attacks took place.
Why the FBI still lists these men as suspected hijackers who were
killed during the terrorist assault remains a mystery.
The following contains the FBI's list of suspected hijackers:
American Airlines No. 77, Boeing 757
1) Khalid Almihdhar-Possible Saudi national
o Possible resident of San Diego, California, and New York
o Alias: Sannan Al-Makki; Khalid Bin Muhammad; Addallah Al-Mihdhar;
Khalid Mohammad Al-Saqaf
2) Majed Moqed-Possible Saudi national
o Alias: Majed M.GH Moqed; Majed Moqed, Majed Mashaan Moqed
3) Nawaf Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
o Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey; San
Diego, California
o Alias: Nawaf Al-Hazmi; Nawaf Al Hazmi; Nawaf M.S. Al Hazmi
4) Salem Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
o Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey
5) Hani Hanjour
o Possible resident of Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego,
California
o Alias: Hani Saleh Hanjour; Hani Saleh; Hani Hanjour, Hani Saleh
H. Hanjour
American Airlines No. 11, Boeing 767
1) Satam M.A. Al Suqami-Possible Saudi national
o Dates of birth used: June 28, 1976; Last known address: United
Arab Emirates
2) Waleed M. Alshehri-Possible Saudi national
o Dates of birth used: Sept. 13, 1974; Jan. 1, 1976; March 3, 1976;
July 8, 1977; Dec. 20, 1978; May 11, 1979; Nov. 5, 1979
o Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Orlando, Florida;
Daytona Beach, Florida
o Believed to be a pilot
3) Wail M. Alshehri
o Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
o Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Newton,
Massachusetts
o Believed to be a pilot
4) Mohamed Atta-Possible Egyptian national
o Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
o Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Coral Springs,
Florida; Hamburg, Germany
o Believed to be a pilot
o Alias: Mehan Atta; Mohammad El Amir; Muhammad Atta; Mohamed El
Sayed; Mohamed Elsayed; Muhammad Muhammad Al Amir Awag Al Sayyid
Atta; Muhammad Muhammad Al-Amir Awad Al Sayad
5) Abdulaziz Alomari-Possible Saudi national
o Dates of birth used: Dec. 24, 1972 and May 28, 1979
o Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
o Believed to be a pilot
United Airlines No. 175, Boeing 767
1) Marwan Al-Shehhi
o Date of birth used: May 9, 1978
o Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
o Believed to be a pilot
o Alias: Marwan Yusif Muhammad Rashid Al-Shehi; Marwan Yusif
Muhammad Rashid Lakrab Al-Shihhi; Abu Abdullah
2) Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad
o Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Florida
o Alias: Fayez Ahmad; Banihammad Fayez Abu Dhabi Banihammad; Fayez
Rashid Ahmed; Banihammad Fayez; Rasid Ahmed Hassen Alqadi; Abu
Dhabi Banihammad; Ahmed Fayez; Faez Ahmed
3) Ahmed Alghamdi
o Alias: Ahmed Salah Alghamdi
4) Hamza Alghamdi
o Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
o Alias: Hamza Al-Ghamdi; Hamza Ghamdi; Hamzah Alghamdi;Hamza
Alghamdi Saleh
5) Mohand Alshehri
o Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
o Alias: Mohammed Alshehhi; Mohamd Alshehri; Mohald Alshehri
United Airlines No. 93, Boeing 757
1) Saeed Alghamdi
o Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida
o Alias: Abdul Rahman Saed Alghamdi; Ali S Alghamdi; Al- Gamdi;
Saad M.S. Al Ghamdi; Sadda Al Ghamdi; Saheed Al-Ghamdi; Seed Al
Ghamdi
2) Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi - Possible Saudi national
o Date of birth used: Oct. 11, 1980
o Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
o Alias: Ahmed Alhaznawi
3) Ahmed Alnami
o Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
o Alias: Ali Ahmed Alnami; Ahmed A. Al-Nami; Ahmed Al- Nawi
4) Ziad Samir Jarrah
o Believed to be a pilot
o Alias: Zaid Jarrahi; Zaid Samr Jarrah; Ziad S. Jarrah; Ziad
Jarrah Jarrat, Ziad Samir Jarrahi H
http://www.americanfreepress.net/10_12_01/STILL_ALIVE__FBI_Mixed_Up_on_T/still_alive__fbi_mixed_up_on_t.html
| Fake-ID Suspect Picked Up at Airport Returning From Egypt |
|
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
NEWARK, N.J. - A man accused of providing fake IDs to two of the September 11 hijackers was arrested Tuesday at New York's Kennedy Airport as he returned from Egypt, authorities said. Mohamed el-Atriss was detained by U.S. Customs agents. He ignored reporters' questions as he was led into the Passaic County sheriff's office Tuesday evening for processing. Sheriff Jerry Speziale said el-Atriss would be held without bail pending a court appearance Friday. El-Atriss left for Egypt just hours before Passaic County authorities raided his home and businesses July 31. According to the FBI, he sold phony IDs to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, and Abdulaziz Alomari, who was aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. Authorities have said they didn't know whether el-Atriss knew of the hijackers' plans. Federal authorities have not filed any charges against
el-Atriss, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Egypt. However,
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in
Newark, described the suspect as a person "of interest" in an
ongoing investigation. Investigators said they found rolls of plastic
laminating sheets
and backings used to make driver's licenses for several states at
the suspect's Paterson office All Services Plus. Three employees
have also been charged with manufacturing and distributing
fraudulent documents and conspiracy. El-Atriss was aware of the
charges against him when he returned, authorities said. If
convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. |
