in the text, several others succeeded in making or attempted to make calls to the ground. Three who did get through were Linda Gronlund, Lauren Grandcolas, and Joseph DeLuca. Two others, Andrew Garcia and Waleska Martinez, got through only momentarily (several others: MFR 04020029, 5/13/04, Longman, 190).
3
Bingham:
This is what Bingham said to his aunt by marriage, the first family member to get to the phone. Some, who question the authenticity of the calls from the air on 9/11, have made much of the fact that—when afterward his mother came on the line—he reportedly said, “Hello, Mom, this is Mark
[authors’ italics] …” No one, the skeptics suggest, would address his own mother with such formality. There is no tape or transcript of the call so far as the authors know—the earliest version of the quote is in an FBI report. Bingham’s mother, Alice Hoglan, however, herself remembered her son greeting her that way. To her, she said, it merely showed that he was a “little rattled” and fell back on the way that—as a young businessman—he regularly introduced himself on the phone. One cannot hang any significant doubt on the reported formality—least of all the idea, as some suggest, that the Bingham call itself is part of some complex fabrication. The call, like the other calls from Flight 93, is included in a list of air and cell phone calls compiled with the help of GTE engineers and released in 2009. For further discussion of the “fake calls” issue, see Ch. 11 (“This is Mark”/“
FBI 302 of ints. Alice
Hoglan, Carol Phipps, & Kathy Hoglan, 9/11/01, “Flight 93 Calls,” B12, T7, CF, FBI 302s of [names redacted], 9/19/01 & 9/23/01, INTELWIRE; doubt: David Ray Griffin,
, Northampton, MA: Olive Branch, 2007, 89–, James Fetzer cited in “Osama Tape Appears Fake,” PR Web, 5/30/06; “little rattled”/repeatedly: transcript of int. Hoglan,
, 2001,
www.bbc.co.uk
, int.of Hoglan,
, Brook Lapping Productions for Discovery Channel, 2005).
4
Burnett:
FBI 302 of int. Deena Burnett, 9/11/01, INTELWIRE, Longman, 107, MFR 04020024, 4/26/04.
5
knife point/bomb:
Burnett also told his wife that he thought one of the hijackers had a gun. His wife believed this, because her husband was familiar with guns. Fellow passenger Jeremy Glick, however, specifically told his wife that he saw no guns on the hijackers, only knives. Janet Riffe, an FAA security inspector assigned to American Airlines on 9/11, told the 9/11 Commission that she was told by an American employee that day of a flight attendant’s report that Flight 11 passenger Daniel Lewin had been shot. Riffe said she was later told she had been wrongly informed. A partly redacted FBI summary states that passenger Peter Hanson, who phoned his father from Flight 175, said he had seen a flight attendant shot. Available reports of what Hanson said include no such reference. The presence of guns aboard any of the hijacked flights would of course indicate a grave security lapse. The 9/11 Commission concluded that the reports of guns were mistaken, that the weight of the evidence indicated that knives were the only weapons the hijackers brought on board (Burnett told: MFR 04020024, 4/26/04, Longman, 108; very familiar:
[London], 8/11/02, bio at
www.tomburnettfoundation.org
; Glick:
[U.K.], 9/06, MFR 04020025, 4/22/04, “FBI Documents—Inc. Joanne Makely Call Transcript,” B13, T7, CF; Riffe: MFR 03007067, 9/11/03, “Flight 11 Gun Story,” B16, T7, CF; Hanson: Chicago to Director, 9/12/01, FBI 265D-NY-280350-CG, INTELWIRE; Commission: CR 13, 452n25, 457n82).
6
Glick:
(U.K.), 9/06, FBI 302 of Lyzbeth Glick, 9/12/01, INTELWIRE, Longman, 146;
7
told him/“My God”/“A group”:
FBI 302 of int. Deena Burnett, 9/11/01, INTELWIRE, Longman, 110–;
8
“I’m going”:
(U.K.), 9/06;
9
equipped:
Longman, 19, 108–, 114, 27–,137–, 132–;
10 Beamer: ibid., 17–, 200, 202;
11 Jefferson account: Jefferson & Middlebrooks, 29–;
12 “Shit!”: “Recording of Conversation,” 9/15/01, “Flight 93 Calls,” B12, T7, CF;
13 “Oh, my God”: Jefferson & Middlebrooks, 44–;
14 Flight Data Recorder: “Study of Autopilot, Navigational Equipment, and Fuel Consumption Activity Based on UA Flight 93 and AA Flight 77 Digital Flight Recorder Data,” 2/13/02, www.ntsb.gov;
15 23rd Psalm: Longman, 200;
16 “We just lost”: Joseph Gregor, “Air Traffic Control Recording,” NTSB, 12/21/01, int. John Werth.
17 executive jet: transcript of audiotape, FAA Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center—Lorain position, 9/11/01, int. John Werth, CR, 30. There had not yet been time to comply with the nationwide grounding order. The FAA transcript indicates that the plane that sighted Flight 93 was Executive Jet 956. The authors’ reading of relevant sources, including a transcript of the Cleveland Air Traffic Control recording, suggests the Jet 956 sighting occurred soon after 9:41. The 9/11 Commission Report, meanwhile, refers to a sighting of Flight 93 by an aircraft at about 9:53. The sources cited in the Report do not make entirely clear whether this reference is to a sighting by Executive 956 or by another airplane (CR, 29–, 461n167, Full Transcription, “Air Traffic Control System Command Center, National Traffic Management Officer, East Position, 9/11/01,” B1, NY Office files, CF, int. John Werth).
18 navigational aid: CR, 457n85.
19 Britton: Interviewed by the FBI after the attacks, Britton’s friend Frank Fiumano said he “assumed she had borrowed a cell phone from another passenger” to make her call because Britton’s own cell phone was not working. Records released in 2009 make clear, however, that Britton used a seatback phone (Britton’s friend: FBI 302 of [name redacted], 9/20/01, & Pittsburgh to Pittsburgh, 9/22/01, INTELWIRE, Longman, 162; 2009 records: United Airlines Flight 93, Telephone Calls, “Flight 11 Calls—Response to DOJ Documents Requests,” B13, T7, CF);
20 plane turning: “Flight Path Study—United Flight 93,” 2/19/02, NTSB;
21 “I know”:
22 “to jump”: Jefferson & Middlebrook, 52–;
23 “the impression”: MFR 04020031, 5/11/04;
24 Greene: Chicago to Counterterrorism Baltimore et al., 10/4/01, “Flights 175 and 93
