Have you read this regarding the 9/11 hearings?

[ub4me]

http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/witness_kleinberg.htm

 

Had the belatedly scrambled fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement, MACH-12, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon within moments of their deployment, intercepted the hijacked airliners before they could have hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives.

Mach 12? Thats more than Ive heard of, even from the blackbird, and that doesnt have weapons. I am going to assume typo on that.

Anyway, what would have happened had they gotten there? Shot them down? No one knew that they were going to fly them into buildings. Do you know what kind of nightmare would have insued had we shot them down when we had no indication that they were going to fly them into buildings? We may know that they have been hijacked, but how are we supposed to know intentions? Do you think that the family members of those onboard would have accepted the explaination of "oh well, we THINK they were going to fly them into buildings, so we shot them down."

Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

[phillyTIM]

if our Government & Aviation authorities were doing their job, then those airflights would have been detected long before they reached their destination; erradic air behavior is always a sign somethings wrong, and they had plenty of time of this behavior before reaching their destinations.

i dont discount the theory that bush & his war company wanted/allowed 9-11 events to happen

they had a plan for a few years referring to another pearl harboy type incident happening so such and such a thing could be put into action

someone has a current thread going here about that

 

[phillyTIM]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=52&threadid=1023130

is the link, incase any of you need proof

 

[RyanM]

The fastest flown by a military aircraft, or otherwise, is Mach 3.2, although there have been reports of some planes hitting 3.6.

The Mach 5 speed barrier has yet to be broken, and any news sorts that says the Military could have scrambled "Mach 12" jets cannot be trusted to give ANY reliable information whatsoever.

 

[Mookow]

Having read a little of it, this lady is definitely not thinking like people were prior to 9/11 in terms of shooting the planes down. When was the last time anyone heard of a terrorist organization hijacking planes? Yes, they used to do it fairly often, but these days it doesnt work well when your objectives are things like "release of prisoners" and other such things. So, even if we knew the planes were hijacked, why would we have shot them down? Even the most botched rescue attempt on the ground wouldnt result in more casualties then shooting it down. She assumes the FAA would have contacted the military and said "launch a Sidewinder up their exhausts, those are hijacked planes!" They might do that today, but before 9/11 there was no reason to assume these planes were going to be used as weapons

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Having read a little of it, this lady is definitely not thinking like people were prior to 9/11 in terms of shooting the planes down.

I think that's the problem. People weren't taking it seriously enough while it was happening, or at least the procedures weren't there to take it as seriously as it should have been. To assume this scenerio was beyond comprehension at the time is rediculous. For Christ's sake, it was the plot to a Lone Gunmen (X-Files spin-off for those that don't know) episode a year before. It was just as plausible before 9/11 as it is now afterwards.

 

[43st]

Some people seemed to take it seriously before 9/11, not surprising then that congress stonewalled anti-terrorist legislation. I don't care who's in the Whitehouse... It's the House and Senate that are truely worthless.

EDIT: spelling

 

[dahunan]

This was the first time ever in history that airplane hijackers used the planes as a weapon.. they have always been stupid and hijacked and then made demands of some kind.

 

[ub4me]

9/11 Timeline: Abridged

 

[Marshallj]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Had the belatedly scrambled fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement, MACH-12, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon within moments of their deployment, intercepted the hijacked airliners before they could have hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives.

Mach 12? Thats more than Ive heard of, even from the blackbird, and that doesnt have weapons. I am going to assume typo on that.

I think they meant Mach 1- Mach 2

But even then that's incorrect. Mach 2 is the maximum burst speed of an F-16, not a cruising speed. If they throw on max afterburner they can get up to mach 2 and stay there for a minute before needing to land because they burned off all their fuel. The cruising speed of all current US fighters is subsonic, around 600 mph.

For those that keep up with the latest military news, that's the big thing about the new F-22 that's coming out, the fact that it can "supercruise", or cruise at supersonic speeds, around mach 1.2. This development came about due to its new engines, that are able to put out that level of thrust without using afterburners.

Most fighters never see their maximum rated speed, since it's not practical. While the "max" speed of the F-22 will be slower than the max speed of current fighters, the F-22 will be faster in reality, since it has the capability to go those speeds without afterburning and wasting its fuel.

 

[Marshallj]

Originally posted by: FallenHero<br Do you know what kind of nightmare would have insued had we shot them down when we had no indication that they were going to fly them into buildings? We may know that they have been hijacked, but how are we supposed to know intentions? Do you think that the family members of those onboard would have accepted the explaination of "oh well, we THINK they were going to fly them into buildings, so we shot them down."

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Exactly.

We know now that those planes were going to be flown into buildings that cost many lives, but if we shot those planes down BEFORE that happened, people would be complaining about it... saying something like this: "they weren't going to fly those airliners into buildings! A hijacked airliner has NEVER been flown into a building, and every time the hijackers simply had demands! You killed those passengers for no reason!"