AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 11: Boeing 767-223ER N334AA

N334AA lining up the runway at Stockholm-Arlanda (ARN/ESSA) in Sweden, august the 18th 2001
three weeks before she ceased to excist.

HER FINAL HOUR:

AAL 11, American Airlines Flight 11, was written off september the 11th 2001 when it impacted with the northern tower of the WTC in New York after being hi-jacked and deliberately flown into the WTC. 81 Passengers and 11 Crew-members on-board were instantaneously killed. Her silouette is clearly visible.

AAL 11 took off from Boston/BOS and her destination was Los Angeles/LAX airport

Although the narrowest wide-body airliners in service, compared to the 777 that is, the 767 is a wide-body jet, has a seven in row structure and has a high-sweepback wing design with high altitude cruise in mind. This is another reason why the 767s hit the WTC towers with such devastating effect and their pilots at that time flew them with such kinetic devastation. The AA aircraft that hit the northern tower was an ER variant which stands for Extended Range. From the standard variant she features even higher weights and an additional wing centre section fuel tank, so even more fuel capacity.

Remember, the wide-body airliners were designed as more cost-effective aircraft than the 747s. And they are HUGE.

The two PW4050s of the ER variants have 50.000 lbs of thrust each. These are among the heaviest engines ever put on a commercial airliner. The terrorists knew what they where doing.

UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 175: Boeing 767-222 N612UA

N612UA taxiing the Los Angeles - International (LAX/KLAX) concrete, January the 30th, 2001, USA, California.

HER FINAL HOUR:

UAL 175, United Airlines Flight 175, was written off september the 11th 2001 when it impacted with the southern tower of the WTC in New York after being hi-jacked and deliberately flown into the WTC. 56 Passengers and 9 Crew-members on-board were instantaneously killed.

UAL 175 took off from Boston/BOS and her destination was Los Angeles/LAX airport (compare her stats to AAL 11)

N612UA was a normal 200 series variant. Still her max take-off weight is 315,000lb.
Estimates are that she had 200.000 pounds of fuel aboard on take-off.

Stories on why the WTC buildings collapsed are that first of all they were designed to withstand impacts in the 737 class, secondly that the WTC towers were designed to withstand devastations where only several floors are concerned. The sprinkler installations in the WTC for example were designed to cover one floor above and one floor below any incident. Estimates are that in the impact with this wide-body high take-off weight 767s just after initial impact in between 15 to 20 floors were hit in both towers with direct damage resulting from initial impact and indirect damage caused by fires.

The story to why the buildings collapsed are that both buildings had 5 stories of debris on the containing floor after impact. Burning fuel and fires would have poored down into the center structure and under stress of heating up, thus, loosing strength and structure, the core structure would have collapsed under the five story debris weight on that one particular level, resulting in both cases to a complete collapse.

The reason why the buildings collapsed into a near vertical position which was a 'lucky' even in these circumstances is that the buildings were hit rather high in the structure. When having being hit lower in the structure the chance of a 'tree fall down' effect would have been bigger. Remember, these buildings were the biggest in the States apart from the Sears tower in Chicago and 400 meters high. That's almost half a kilometer.

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77: Boeing 757-223 N644AA

HER FINAL HOUR:

AAL 77, American Airlines Flight 77, was written off september the 11th 2001 when it impacted with the Pentagon, Washington, after being hi-jacked and deliberately flown into the heart of the US milititary. 58 Passengers and 6 Crew-members on-board were instantaneously killed.

AAL 77 took off from Washington/Dulles AP and her destination was San Fransisco

The plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Stories are that her first aim was the White house. We will never know why she changed her target but it could be the USAF F-16s that were chasing her. There is definately strong evidence of a centrally guided operation, this could also be the reason why she changed her target. Anyway, N644AA is a small body airliner. Nevertheless her impact on the Pentagon was massive. Especially on a psychological basis.

However the impact gets overruled by the WTC attacks, her significance lies in the factor that she hit the heart of the US military.

UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93: Boeing B757-222 N591UA

HER FINAL HOUR:

UAL 93, United Airlines Flight 93, was written off september the 11th 2001 when it impacted with the green soil of Pensylvania after being hi-jacked and hit the dust in this normally very calm state. 38 Passengers and 7 Crew-members on-board were instantaneously killed.

UAL 93 took off from New York/Newark/NJ and her destination was San Fransisco.

Flight 93 never reached her intended target, although in time she was reported earlier than flight AAL 77 she just never made her goal. Her failure or succes was the time-gap. We can only guess what her intended target was. On her new course to Washington DC this madness is yours.....

Either AAL 93 changed her course from above, her target could have been the White House or The Pentagon in case AAL 93 changed her target, or the VC-25A Air Force One with Farmer Boy, looking for his daddy, Bush junior.....

This was a tragedy, and we can only hope the media-coverage will be as good when the death-toll in Afghanistan will begin to rise......