Manhattan Mid-Afternoon

[Trei, Peter]

> Harmon Seaver[SMTP:hseaver at ameritech.net] wrote:
> 
> 
> "Raymond D. Mereniuk" wrote:
> 
> > I don't see where only a terrorist group backed by the resources of
> > a national government could pull this off.  A week or two for planning
> > and a group of people who can keep their mouth's shut plus the
> > most important quality, big gonads and a desire to die for a
> > perceived purpose.
> 
>       So right -- all these people talking about "it had to be a big, well
> funded, well organized group with lots of resources" are talking total
> nonsense.
> It could have been a tiny cadre of eight or twelve people with no more
> money
> than to buy some plane tickets. Flying a plane doesn't take a heck of lot
> either, once it's in the air. It's not even that hard taking off --
> landing is
> the bitch.
	[...]

> Harmon Seaver, MLIS
> 
I noticed one data point which suggests that the terrorists on Flight 11
from Boston did not have the flying skills of a commercial pilot.

CNN at one point showed the ground track of the flight (it was available
on some website). The flight kept it's normal track (slightly north of
west from Boston) until it crossed over the NY state border. Soon after
that, it took a sharp left turn and headed south for NYC. But not a straight
line - it was clear that they were following the Hudson River.

So, they were using visual navigation. An experienced, instrument rated
pilot could have flown a direct route to NYC, somewhat shortening the 
time his colleagues would have had to keep the passengers subdued. 

Further on the skills thing - at one time I toyed with the idea of getting
a private pilots license, and even took a couple lessons. I found that the
experience I had gained using a Flight Simulator program on a PC was
invaluable, particularly for getting the hang straight-and-level flight,
making
coordinated turns, changing altitudes, etc, which are all the skills that 
the terrorist would have needed.

This morning the local media here in Massachusetts were reporting that
a bag for the flight which fortuitously failed to get on the plane was 
found to contain a Koran, "Islamic materials", and a videotape on 
flying commercial jets. Clearly, someone who was already a commercial 
pilot would not have needed the latter item.

I sincerely hope that the remaining perpetrators of this atrocity are 
found and punished, but entertain no illusions that doing so will 
prevent future attacks. That can only come from a shift of US 
government attitude from "I've got the biggest stick", to one of 
non-interference. Sweden and Switzerland come to mind as 
prosperous, modern, western nations which don't have problems with 
terrorism. Our country should look to such successful terrorism 
prevention policies as examples.

> Peter Trei