9/11 What if scenario

Hyperion

Banned
This got me thinking. I am glad this never happened, but I was thinking about Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Before it turned and headed in the direction of Washington DC, the plane was actually very near Cleveland, Ohio. Also, during the final part of the flight before the plane crashed, it was within a short distance of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The WI for this is, suppose the hijackers decide, for whatever reason, that trying to get to Washington is not possible. Either they feel surprise has been lost, or they take the threat the passengers pose seriously enough that they don't believe they have a chance of reaching DC.

So near either Cleveland or Pittsburgh they decide to do as much damage as possible, and find the largest building in either city that they can, or some other noticeable landmark.
 
This got me thinking. I am glad this never happened, but I was thinking about Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Before it turned and headed in the direction of Washington DC, the plane was actually very near Cleveland, Ohio. Also, during the final part of the flight before the plane crashed, it was within a short distance of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The WI for this is, suppose the hijackers decide, for whatever reason, that trying to get to Washington is not possible. Either they feel surprise has been lost, or they take the threat the passengers pose seriously enough that they don't believe they have a chance of reaching DC.

So near either Cleveland or Pittsburgh they decide to do as much damage as possible, and find the largest building in either city that they can, or some other noticeable landmark.

Instead of another major city, what about a small town, aiming generally for that town's Main Street, so to speak? That would be saying to Americans "we can hit you with what we want, anywhere. You are not safe, even in the small towns". The social and political repercussions might be slightly different. Obv. people call for blood no matter what, but it might be interesting if rural America was also directly affected.
 
If it crashed into the Terminal Building, which is a very nice building, I suppose it would be even more of a national tragedy.
 
I was thinking the other day that they could've tried to crash into Cedar Point which is pretty close, but thankfully Cedar Point is closed on weekdays in September.
 
I doubt it would get neat either city, chances are very good that the USAF will blow it out of the sky


I think it might have been rammed or clipped out of the sky. I understand that many of the fighters sent up on 9/11 were not armed. I think the unarmed fighters would have tried to clip control surfaces in the tail to bring the plane down, and that if it did not crash they would ram.
 
After a quick review of the wikipedia article, it doesn't really look like this is possible. The passenger revolt was fairly quickly executed -- it started at 9:57, and the plane crashed at 10:03. During that time, the pilot was maneuvering the plane to try to knock the passengers down. The pilot didn't really have time to fly the plane anywhere else.

Although, maybe if the passengers were in a position to stage their revolt earlier, they might have been closer to Pittsburgh, and perhaps they would have crashed in a more populated area. Maybe Cleveland, but I don't think the passengers would have had the full understanding of what was going on at that point.

Either way, I don't think the pilot would have been able to aim it at a specific building very easily, though.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Either way, I don't think the pilot would have been able to aim it at a specific building very easily, though.

Why not?

The hijackers on the other three planes where horrifically accurate.

I doubt it would get neat either city, chances are very good that the USAF will blow it out of the sky

Burden of proof is on you my friend.

At the time, the only USAF planes in the air where either unarmed, or where holding near Washington DC and New York.
 
If the passengers had managed to retake the plane and put it on a level flight path, how much longer could it have stayed in the air?
 
Why not?

The hijackers on the other three planes where horrifically accurate.

Have you ever tried to pick out a site/building from a high overhead? It's quite difficult unless you know exactly what you're looking for and where to look. Now try finding a site/building at the spur of the meoment while flying a commercial airplane several thousands of feet in the air over unfamiliar terrain and moving at 500mph. It's much more difficult.
 
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