See how the Pentagon attack on 9/11 was carried out and how it permanently altered air travel today.See how the Pentagon attack on 9/11 was carried out and how it permanently altered air travel today.See how the Pentagon attack on 9/11 was carried out and how it permanently altered air travel today.
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Meticulous Terrorism
Most adults probably know some of the story of American Airlines flight 57, the one that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. As with any shocking event the moment tends to be remembered. (The subcortical structures in the brain that govern excitement and memory are situated next to one another.) I was in Wilmington, North Carolina, for instance.
The airplane took off from Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, for Los Angeles. At about the point where it entered Ohio, it was hijacked by four men armed with box cutters. One of them had had flight training and took over the cockpit. Using the autopilot he head the airplane back towards Washington.
The pilots and the flight attendants were probably following orders and moving towards the rear of the cabin. That's exactly what their training had taught them to do. All previous hijackings had involved ransom or sanctuary and had ended safely. No one dreamed that four airplanes would be hijacked at the same time and turned into suicidal flying missiles.
The planning was meticulous. The four Saudis knew they could get past the perfunctory scanning at the airport, and the box cutters had blades less than four inches long and so they were legally allowed anyway.
The airplane crashed at high speed into the West Wall of the Pentagon, killing more than 100 workers. Of the other four hijacked airplanes, one was crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and the other two were successful in destroying both towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a hub of the business world. More than 3,000 people died.
As one experienced air traffic controller comments, "This was a big win for the bad guys," and indeed it was. It threw the nation into a panic. It disturbed the tranquility of most of the world. European newspaper headlines carried messages like, "Today We Are All Americans." The terrorists succeeded beyond their immediate goals. We were plunged into another war in the Middle East, which hasn't ended after fifteen years, the longest war in American history, against enemies that we can no longer identify with any certainty.
Airport security was professionalized and tightened. Now Americans complain that the wait at airports is too long and that grandma must remove her shoes. Fifteen years and we are still reeling.
The airplane took off from Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, for Los Angeles. At about the point where it entered Ohio, it was hijacked by four men armed with box cutters. One of them had had flight training and took over the cockpit. Using the autopilot he head the airplane back towards Washington.
The pilots and the flight attendants were probably following orders and moving towards the rear of the cabin. That's exactly what their training had taught them to do. All previous hijackings had involved ransom or sanctuary and had ended safely. No one dreamed that four airplanes would be hijacked at the same time and turned into suicidal flying missiles.
The planning was meticulous. The four Saudis knew they could get past the perfunctory scanning at the airport, and the box cutters had blades less than four inches long and so they were legally allowed anyway.
The airplane crashed at high speed into the West Wall of the Pentagon, killing more than 100 workers. Of the other four hijacked airplanes, one was crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and the other two were successful in destroying both towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a hub of the business world. More than 3,000 people died.
As one experienced air traffic controller comments, "This was a big win for the bad guys," and indeed it was. It threw the nation into a panic. It disturbed the tranquility of most of the world. European newspaper headlines carried messages like, "Today We Are All Americans." The terrorists succeeded beyond their immediate goals. We were plunged into another war in the Middle East, which hasn't ended after fifteen years, the longest war in American history, against enemies that we can no longer identify with any certainty.
Airport security was professionalized and tightened. Now Americans complain that the wait at airports is too long and that grandma must remove her shoes. Fifteen years and we are still reeling.
- rmax304823
- Nov 1, 2016
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