In the extended copy is a letter that I sent to the 9/11 commission. I don't expect that it will reach anyone important or be taken seriously. As consolation, I am posting it here to test it against the sharp, critical minds of the Kossaks. Do you believe that the comparison with the October 25, 1999 flight is invalid? If so, why?
As an aside, does anyone have any more information on the potential remote fuel drop technology that was mentioned in the hearings?
Commissioners,
I am very confused as to why you did not publicly hear testimony from the actual controllers who made the decisions that morning. I find it difficult to accept the testimony of high level officials that no call to the military was made as soon as communications were lost with Flight 11. This is especially frustrating since the NTSB's website has an analogous account of what did occur in a similar situation on October 25, 1999. It took exactly 18.62 minutes from loss of communitcations to interception and inspection by an F-16. Your commission has made no effort to explain why no similar action was taken on 9/11 and why the cases may not be comparable. I'm afraid that they are all too comparable and that approximately 30 minutes elapsed from the loss of contact with Flight 11 and its impact with the first tower. As far as I can tell, the controller lost contact with Flight 11 at approximately 8:13am and the impact may have been inevitable by 8:40am. This is to say nothing of the three other later flights.
Please address this issue in your final report.
Thank you.
Exerpt from NTSB website linked to above:
"At 0933:38 EDT (6 minutes and 20 seconds after N47BA [private plane ID#] acknowledged the previous clearance), the controller instructed N47BA to change radio frequencies and contact another Jacksonville ARTCC controller. The controller received no response from N47BA. The controller called the flight five more times over the next 4 1/2 minutes but received no response.
About 0952 CDT,7 a USAF F-16 test pilot from the 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Florida, was vectored to within 8 nm of N47BA."