Atta mistakenly talks to ATC instead of cabin. Accident or not?

Just a little something to think about over the weekend. Atta was without question, at least according to the commission, the most qualified pilot among the hijackers. He possessed multiple licenses and was the only one certified to fly multi engine aircraft out of all the pilots. He had trained in numerous simulators, including the 767. (A lot of this is in the commissions add on to the first report, and summarized well on the Atta wiki page)

Then on 9/11 some how he keys the mic the wrong way? I would think that this would be one of those things that would be the very first things you learned how to do. I mean, how do you take off , or get your constant updates from the ATC'rs the whole way.

Then what does he do..then he lets ATC know that not only has he given away the fact that it is a hijacking to ATC (see this was supposed to be a secret according to OS as to confuse response, like f77 and f175) but he also lets them know that "we have SOME planes" meaning yes those other errant flights are indeed hijacked as well.

You get my point I think. Why would he tell that to the passengers anyways. Was this really a mistake, like the luggage stuffed with crucial evidence. Was it really a mistake to key the mic wrong or was this part of the plan to help cement in the fact that here was solid proof of Arab hijackers.

Obviously the same applies to f93 and Ziads mistake.

Just imagine if there was never a peep from any of the four flights, like f77 and f175. Imagine the conspiracy theories that would abound then.

What do you think..was it a mistake or part of the plan, interesting thought to think about.

My memory is getting dim, but the audio control panel

audio control panel

has push to select buttons. If all Atta had done is a few hours in the B767 sim, he probably never would have used it.

Through a normal flight, the button, VHF-L, is normally selected, for communication over VHF radio number 1. To speak on the PA, you must push the round PA button. Atta probably didn't know this, put the headset on and keyed the button on the control yoke and spoke over the VHF radio.

reply to post by Stillresearchn911


It´s not unusual "even" for experienced pilots to accidentally make what was supposed to be a radio transmission, on the PA channel. (The one used to give announcements to passengers.) The switches for each are on the same box usually, so the mistake is easy to make. Now imagine for the hijacker who has little experience on type and is also in a very stressed mood. Quite simple and understandable IMHO.