WI: United Airlines Flight 175 collides with Midwest Airlines Flight 7

On September 11, 2001, UAL175 nearly collided with 3 planes on its way to the World Trade Center, AAL11, DAL2315, and MEP7.

United 175 was a Boeing 767 that had 51 passengers, and 9 crew, not including the 5 hijackers aboard.

Midex 7 was a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 that had 30 passengers and 5 crew aboard.


In this scenario, at 9:01 AM, near the border between New Jersey and Manhattan, UAL175 and MEP7 start to meet in the same spot.

The ATC conversation went like this, prior to the incident.

LGA ATC:
Midex 7, Midex 7, are you with me?

MEP7:
Midex 7 is with you out of 7 for 4,000.

(At this point, the controller then realizes that MEP7 and UAL175 are on a collision course)

LGA ATC:
Roger, Midex 7, turn left now! Head two-four-zero degrees now, as quick as you can!

(MEP7 then turns left, and this is the last few seconds of conversation the ATC has with MEP7)

MEP7's right wing hits UAL175's right wing, causing an explosion. Due to the amount of fuel in both planes, the fire expands quickly. But, due to the size of the DC-9, MEP7's fire spreads faster, and it disintegrates over the East River near Riker's Island.

UAL175, with 1 wing missing, and a spreading fire, begins to bank to the right, and crashes near a wastewater treatment plant in Hunts Point, New York, killing approximately 20-50 people on the ground.

The death toll was about 120-150.

Is this plausible?
 
Hundreds of people in the South Tower survive. The South Tower will probably need to be demolished at a later date due to severe damage from the attack. More people from the North Tower probably survive too, since the fire will burn differently and emergency services can concentrate their efforts there.

Footage of 9/11 is far different, since many the iconic images which played for days afterwards are of the South Tower. There's only two videos of the plane hitting the North Tower. Conspiracy theories are probably even worse TTL, since again, only two videos (see the theory about there not being a plane involved in the Pentagon attack), and most importantly, the fact that one of the hijacked planes was taken out in a freak accident.
 
What about leaving the remains of the south tower up (i suspect it will still be burned and partially collapse) as a memorial?
 
What about leaving the remains of the south tower up (i suspect it will still be burned and partially collapse) as a memorial?

It's sitting on some of the best real estate in the world, and as IOTL there's plenty of people who would find it unacceptable to not rebuild something on the site.

The remains of the South Tower are potentially dangerous due to risk of further collapse (perhaps from years of weathering), so they'd probably safely demolish the majority of it in a controlled fashion and incorporated what they could into a museum/memorial.
 
I think the damage is a little light for a mid-air collision between passenger aircraft. The explosion would be much like the 9/11 explosions, with the fuel forming a massive fireball. Both aircraft would disintegrate. Even if only part of UAL175's wing was cut off and the fire was very small, I doubt the hijacker pilots would be able to control the plane enough to even aim the plane at something of value. It might break up in mid-air due to excessive stress on the airplane.

What happens to the other flights?
 
I think the damage is a little light for a mid-air collision between passenger aircraft. The explosion would be much like the 9/11 explosions, with the fuel forming a massive fireball. Both aircraft would disintegrate. Even if only part of UAL175's wing was cut off and the fire was very small, I doubt the hijacker pilots would be able to control the plane enough to even aim the plane at something of value. It might break up in mid-air due to excessive stress on the airplane.

What happens to the other flights?
I'm pretty sure that UAL93 makes it to its desired target since it was after news of the South Tower being hit that the passengers took over.

Also, for the damage, I based it off of the damage seen at Charkhi Dadri in 1996, despite the fact that neither is a 747 or an IL-76. I also took the "Plane crashing into a city after a mid-air collision" thing from the 1960 New York City mid air collision. (In this case, it's due to the weight imbalance since the left wing has been taken off by MEP7.)
 
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My thought here is that this will add to the confusion about what was happening. 175 made it clear that what was happening was a coordinated attack. This will obscure that somewhat. Perhaps enough for United 93 to make it to its intended destination in DC, as there will be more confused information on board that aircraft and perhaps not as decisive a response to put fighters in the air to defend the capitol.
 
I was thinking about doing a different 9/11 TL (based on @SargentHawk's excellent Parkland TL) based somewhat on this premise, but there'd be a few other PoDs, too, like United 93 taking off on time...
 
My thought here is that this will add to the confusion about what was happening. 175 made it clear that what was happening was a coordinated attack. This will obscure that somewhat. Perhaps enough for United 93 to make it to its intended destination in DC, as there will be more confused information on board that aircraft and perhaps not as decisive a response to put fighters in the air to defend the capitol.

And this will add to the Death toll in the Pentagon since it will not be evacuated when that plane hits. When Pentagon is hit the USA will know it is under attack and then start to ground planes. IF Al-qaida had more operatives there might be more attacks. If we take this into account Everything in the timeline of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_for_the_day_of_the_September_11_attacks between 0901 and 0937 that relates to the attack and response will be delayed for a few minutes. The passenger revolt on UA 93 started when they began talking with eachother and got the info about WTC hit twice. If they do not get the info about Pentagon until around 10 that will delay their response for Another 30 minutes. 0957 was when they started revolting OTL btw.
 
So, it'll be around... 2,475 at the least, 2,495 at the most, give or take a few hundred. (I added estimates including, 250 dead at the Pentagon, 100 dead in the Capitol, 20-50 killed on the ground in the collison, and 200 killed in the South Tower.)
 
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