The Hijackings on 9/11

There are three main scenarios for how the commerical airplanes were taken over by hijackers on 9/11 and then these planes or similar planes were crashed into the WTC towers and Pentagon.

1) The "official" scenario-- the planes were taken over by hijackers armed with knives, boxcutters, pepper spray and fake bombs, and the hijackers piloted to the planes themselves.

PROBLEMS--
a) taking over the planes with knives, boxcutters, pepper spray and fake bombs is questionable,
b) there is no reason to think that the hijackers could have flown 767's and 757's so effectively.
c) in a "let it happen on purpose" scenario, having the hijackers guide the planes is too unpredictable.


2) The remote control scenario-- the planes were taken over by hijackers armed with knives, boxcutters, pepper spray and fake bombs, however, the planes were piloted by a remote control system run by the military, not by the hijackers.

PROBLEMS--
a) taking over the planes with knives, boxcutters, pepper spray and fake bombs is questionable,
b) what exactly did the hijackers think they were doing on the planes?
i) Did they know the planes would be piloted by remote control?
ii) How exactly do you tell the terrorists that they don't need to fly the planes?
iii) Would they agree to such a set-up?
iv) If you don't tell the terrorists the planes will be taken over by remote control, how do you know when to start the remote control-- and what if they start flying the plane and screw up?
c) how is turning on the remote piloting program coordinated with the hijackings so that the real pilots won't alert ATC?
d) how or when was the remote control program installed on the plane?
e) who was piloting the planes by remote control?


3) The plane-swap scenario merged with the "hijacking drill". The four planes had actors posing as hijackers or did not really have hijackers, and the hijackings were acted out as an exercise. The planes were landed as part of the drill, while drone planes get swapped into the radar signal of the original planes. The drone planes are programmed to crash into the WTC and Pentagon. (Alternatively, missiles mocked up to look like planes could be used, particularly for the Pentagon and perhaps the second WTC tower hit.)

One argument in favor of the plane swapping scenario is that it was proposed in the Operation Northwoods plan-- which was a synthetic terror plot by the US military that was never carried out. The plane-swap scenario is the only scenario that explains why the transponders were turned off as well as the irregular flight paths of the hijacked planes. This scenario also avoids the other problems associated with the first two scenarios. Furthermore, NORAD had run drills previously with drones acting as hijacked planes. Thus, this scenario also has a back-up excuse for 9/11: "military exercise gone wrong". This scenario can also account for the anomalies of flight 175 as well as the object that hit the Pentagon.

PROBLEMS--
a) disposing of the crew, hijackers and passengers on the original planes--
i) the planes took off again, were unwittingly made to enter the NORAD live-fly hijacking drill and were shot down because NORAD pilots thought they were drones,
ii) the passengers were killed-- possibly via a failed hostage-rescue "drill",
iii) the planes were blown up on the ground.
iv) the passengers were all put on flight 93 which was then crashed in Shanksville (unlikely)
v) the passengers were not killed but given new identities in other countries (unlikely)
b) this scenario is complicated in terms of logistics and might require more people to be in on the cover-up.

CONCLUSIONS--

I have problems with all of these scenarios, and not one of them stands apart as clearly more feasible. The official explanation is the simplest but has the major problem of the planes being flown by the hijackers, which seems especially unlikely in the case of the Pentagon. I don't much care for the remote control scenario, for the reasons listed. It seems too facile of an explanation. The remote control scenario can't explain certain oddities about the 9/11 planes. Although the plane swap scenario is the most complicated, intuitively I am drawn to it. However, it has the major drawback of what was done with the passengers on the original planes. In one sense, it is very gruesome to think someone had the task of killing all these people (most likely they were killed). On the other hand, these people would be killed by the remote control scenario anyway.

All around, a bit of a puzzle.