Washington,
DC - August 11, 2006 - The National Transportation
Safety Board (NTSB) this week released full transcripts of the
air traffic control recordings from the four flights hijacked
on September 11, 2001, and meticulous Flight Path Studies for
three of the flights, in response to a Freedom of Information
request by the National Security Archive. The studies provide
the most detailed technical information available to date related
to the hijackings, and the transcripts of the aircraft-to-ground
communications are the first complete government disclosure of
each flight's air traffic control recordings.
The documents are cited extensively in the 9/11 Commission Report
to establish key facts and basic timelines for each hijacked flight.
The NTSB
Web site references the documents but does not provide copies,
claiming "the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are
under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Safety Board provided requested technical assistance to the
FBI, and any material generated by the NTSB is under the control
of the FBI. The Safety Board does not plan to issue a report or
open a public docket." The documents were released in their
entirety to the National Security Archive and were received directly
from the NTSB.
The transcripts provide additional details to the information
summarized in the 9/11 Commission Report. For example, the NTSB
transcript differs slightly from the Commission's text of the
warning that United Airlines Flight 93 received only minutes before
the hijackers attacked. At 9:23am, the Aircraft Communications
Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) shows a text message to
Flight 93 reading: "BEWARE OF ANY COCKPIT INTROUSION [sic].
TWO AIRCRAFT IN NY, HIT TRADE CNTER BUILDS [sic]." Five minutes
later at 9:28am Flight 93
was sending the message "***(mayday)*** (hey get out
of here) ***" as it was being hijacked.
The Flight Path Studies reconstruct the routes of American Airlines
Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight
175. Complied from recorded radar data and information from the
Flight Data Recorders, the studies' illustrations of radar ground
tracks, maps and altitude profiles provide graphic guides to each
hijacking and were used by the NTSB to determine the takeover
points where the hijackers gained control of the planes.
In addition to the Flight Path Studies and Air Traffic Control
Recording transcripts, the NTSB released a February 2002 "Specialist's
Factual Report of Investigation" on United Airlines Flight
93 based on the flight's recovered digital data recorder -- the
only surviving recorder from the hijacked planes on 9/11. The
report provides graphic analysis of the data recovered from Flight
93 and its subsequent crash in Shanksville, PA. According to the
report, the flight recorder functioned normally.
Documents
Note:
The following documents are in PDF format.
You will need to download and install the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view.
Document
1: NTSB report, "Flight Path Study-American
Airlines Flight 11," Feb. 19, 2002 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission
Report, "We Have Some Planes." Footnotes 23, 33]
Document 2:
NTSB report, "Flight Path Study-American Airlines Flight
77," Feb. 19, 2002 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report,
"We Have Some Planes." Footnote 53]
Document 3:
NTSB report, "Flight Path Study-United Airlines 175,"
Feb. 19, 2002 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We
Have Some Planes." Footnote 41]
Document 4:
NTSB report, "Specialist's Factual Report of Investigation-Digital
Flight Data Recorder" for United Airlines Flight 93, Feb.
15, 2002 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We Have
Some Planes." Footnotes 70, 71]
Document 5:
NTSB report, Air Traffic Control Recording-American Airlines Flight
11, Dec. 21, 2001 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We
Have Some Planes." Footnote 24]
Document 6:
NTSB report, Air Traffic Control Recording-American Airlines Flight
77, Dec. 21, 2001 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We
Have Some Planes." Footnote 54]
Document 7:
NTSB report, Air Traffic Control Recording-United Airlines Flight
175, Dec. 21, 2001 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We
Have Some Planes." Footnotes 24, 41, 42, 44]
Document 8:
NTSB report, Air Traffic Control Recording-United Airlines Flight
93, Dec. 21, 2001 [Chapter 1, The 9/11 Commission Report, "We
Have Some Planes." Footnote 71]