"Atta was my jumpseat passenger"...

[Big Les]

According to the 9/11 Commission, when Pat claims Atta was a passenger on his flight from Baltimore to Atlanta, Atta was actually in New Jersey meeting with other hijackers.

That's a biggest, reddest "BS" flag re this story I've yet seen. I'm a little surprised Snopes haven't bothered looking into this one "officially".

 

[apathoid]

However the 9/11 Commission Report has records of all flights undertaken by Atta, and none of them match the one claimed by this guy:

July 1, 2001: Atta flies from Boston to New York City.
Early July. 2001: Atta picks up travel tickets to Spain at travel agency in Paterson, New Jersey.
July 3, 2001: Atta flies from Newark to Fort Lauderdale.
July 7 or July 8 or July 9, 2001: Atta flies from Miami to Madrid, Spain via Zurich.[30][31] Reports claim final plans for the attacks are set.[32]
July 19, 2001: Return flight to America, Fort Lauderdale, Florida via Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
Late July, 2001: Atta flies to Newark, New Jersey to meet with other hijackers in the area.
July 30, 2001: Atta flies back from New Jersey to Florida.

-Gumboot

ETA. According to the 9/11 Commission, when Pat claims Atta was a passenger on his flight from Baltimore to Atlanta, Atta was actually in New Jersey meeting with other hijackers.

So Atta was never in Baltimore and the only time he was in Atlanta was a week before the alleged flight took place. I suppose it could be possible the pilot is mistaken about the exact date and flight, but its also possible he could've just had a legit Arab(looking) pilot from AA as a jumpseat passenger as you mentioned....

 

[geni]

seems an awfuly risky tactic for the highjackers. Must safer just to buy extra time on simulators.

 

[Calcas]

seems an awfuly risky tactic for the highjackers. Must safer just to buy extra time on simulators.

If the purpose is to LEARN, then yes.

But, for purposes of gaining cockpit access, its pretty good.

As an Air traffic Controller, I got 8 free FAM (familiarization) flights a year. The "purpose" was to sit in the jump seat and become more familiar with the pilots procedures. This would enable us to understand when the most critical phases of flight were so that we would reduce communications during that time. I.E., you don't transmit something to them during takeoff roll or when on short final unless it's critical.

Of course, we mostly just used this as a perk to fly somewhere. But, all I had to do was make a phone call (not to reservations, of course), see if the jump seat was available, and then book myself on it. Once at the airport, my FAA ID was all I needed to board and sit in the cockpit.

 

[geni]

If the purpose is to LEARN, then yes.

But, for purposes of gaining cockpit access, its pretty good.

So you do it once maybe twice. Doing it many times is a risk that makes no sense.

 

[Calcas]

So you do it once maybe twice. Doing it many times is a risk that makes no sense.

That's true. Plus, Atta was probably the only one that had the credentials to pull it off...

 

[T.A.M.]

There was nothing to indicate, though, that he was anything other than who or what he said he was, because he had the documentation to prove who he was. In retrospect, we now know his uniform was stolen and his documents were forged. Information later came to light as to how this was done.

It seems that Mohammad Atta and his cronies had possibly stolen pilot uniforms and credentials from hotel rooms during the previous year. We had many security alerts at the airline to watch out for our personal items in hotel rooms because these were mysteriously disappearing, but nobody knew why. Atta and his men used these to make dry runs prior to their actual hijackings on 9/11. How do I know? I called the FBI as soon as I saw his face on the TV that day, and the agent on the other end of the line took my information and told me I'd hear back from them when all the dust settled. A few weeks later I got a letter from the Bureau saying that my call was one of at least half a dozen calls that day from other pilots who had had the same experience. Flights were being selected at random to make test runs for accessing the cockpit. It seems we had all dodged bullets.

Interesting. So he is stating that the FBI confirmed that his scenario had occured numerous times with other pilots. Has this or can this be confirmed?

Same goes with the clothing/personal item thefts...can this be confirmed?

TAM

 

[stilicho]

You want everyone to know what happened and you have a letter from the FBI confirming everything you suspected. Why not PDF the document and show it to us?

I call 'shenanigans'.