Aircraft Passengers - On the "Truth" Side?, page 2

reply to post by TiffanyInLA

Oh, ROB!!

What a shame, you still employ the same tactic of dropping in, with innuendo and half-truths, in order to muddy the waters of "truth"!

Am talking about taking people's quotes out of context, and/or assigning motives to people's actions merely to fit YOUR interpretation, and ascribe agendas to them that may, or may not, be accurate.

But, since you brought up UAL 93's Captain Jason Dahl's wife, Sandy...and "snipped" out some of here comments in your post, I will focus on that. I noticed, BTW, that you properly used the ["ex"] BBcoding, and took selected parts (shown by the "snip") but didn't provide the link to the CNN transcript, of the Wolf Blitzer interview?? Why? Something to hide, like the full context, and other things she may have said??

True to form, though....like a seagull. That type of post is a fly-over, drop a load, and then fly off; so that others are left to cleanup the mess.

So, to look further in to Mrs. Dahl, I did some searching.

Let's see what I found, shall we?

(Here is the link to the discussion excerpted below):

April 13, 2006

...Now that jurors deciding the death penalty case of Moussaoui have heard the cockpit recordings of Flight 93 -- Sandy Dahl, wife of Capt. Jason Dahl, can speak freely and does not want anyone to forget her husband and the crew members on that plane.

"The thing I wasn't able to speak about for so long is that Jason actually stayed in the cockpit alone with the hijacker-pilot, injured but not dead, for quite a long time," she said today on "Good Morning America."

"They fussed at him to stay down, sit down, no more, you know. They fussed at him for a good six to 10 minutes to stop touching that."

Now, it's become clear, since she's spoken up (after having to keep silent) that, indeed...since she DID hear the actual recording, she has a better mental image of what may have been happening in the cockpit. She is aided by her experience as an F/A, and familiarity with airline procedures, and cockpit layout --- the "floor plan".

What I've inferred, from her accounts, is that her husband, though mortally wounded, was barely consicious. I also tend to think he was STILL in his seat, and NOT (as she thinks) "on the floor". I'll discuss why, in a moment.

Continuing with "snippets":

Dahl first heard the tape with Melody Homer, the wife of LeRoy Homer Jr., the plane's first officer. They held hands, she said, and tried to figure out which voices they recognized and what was happening on the plane.
(~~~)
Dahl has a theory that her husband -- a standards captain who was in charge of training and testing other pilots -- put the plane on autopilot just before he lost consciousness. On the tape, you can hear the hijackers trying to work a knob.

Actually, she (Mrs. Dahl) may not have seen the NTSB report of the autopilot activity, throughout the time after the hijacking was undertaken.

The hijacking pilots DID know how to operate the A/P. Still , can't fault a grieving widow for minor mistakes like that.

And, remember when I said she must be mistaken, about his "laying (sic) on the floor"?:

"I believe he is laying on the floor, behind the seat," she said. "There is a bus fuse and it can be pulled. He knew everything about that airplane."

Firstly....this doesn't make sense, with her earlier statement about the A/P. You cannot reach the A/P controls, if you are "lying on the floor".

Secondly, this "bus fuse" lingo...again, 20 years in the business, she will pick up some terminology...but, she isn't a trained pilot, obviously. There are no "fuses" (she might have meant "circuit breakers") that are accessible from the floor of the cockpit, behind the left seat.

Some more, again...she displays a passing famialirity, but not a fimr understanding of the concept:

Jason Dahl, Sandy Dahl said, "squawked the emergency frequency" during the ordeal.

The term "squawked", for pilots, is specifc to the transponder. I do not recall any reports of the "emergency" transponder code being received from UAL 93's xponder. She exhibits her confusion here:

When one of the hijackers announced there was a bomb on board and everyone should stay seated because they were returning to the airport, Dahl's maneuver enabled the message to go the air traffic control towers and not to the passengers.

As is the case with at least two other hijacked flights (AAL 11 and UAL 175), this occured because of the hijackers' mistaking the normal ATC hand mic for a PA mic. (This would make sense if they spent some time on older Boeings, like the 737, and even the 727. Those DO have a dedicated hand mic for the PA, mounted on the rear of the center pedestal).

Here's a photo of an Iran Air (!!!) 727, for comparison. The black hand mic, dedicated to the PA, is hanging on the pedestal, aft-most, left. The BIG black knob next to it is the aileron trim:

The B-757/767 employ a "princess phone"-shaped telephone handset, also on the rear of the center pedestal, for the PA and interphone. It is nearly identical to the ones you see in the cabin, at the F/A jumpseat stations. Of course, the regular ATC hand mics can ALSO be selected to transmit on the PA, by using the audio control panel button).
~~~~~

An image of a typical handset...this one, obviously, is the one from the F/A station...(because it has a "pilot" push button):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7a2354d83238.jpg[/atsimg]

From the cockpit, this is the interphone control panel, located in the overhead instrument panel, between the pilots' heads:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8109d62cc67e.jpg[/atsimg]

The hijackers probably didn't receive training on it....the PA is made directly form the nadset, using the 'PA' button, and the PTT switch.

The other hand mics, as mentioned, can be used to make PAs. (This happens by accident VERY OFTEN, in real life!! Guys -- and gals -- think they've selected to PA, but are still on ATC radio #1. So, we, the rest of us, have to listen to the "welcome aboard" and the tour of the Snake River, and the Whatchamacallit Mountains....because, once the mic is keyed, the "receive" portion of the transceiver is deactivated, and the speakers/headsets don't hear anyone yelling at them to tell them their mistake...it's the nature of VHF transceiver radiotelophony).

Here is the typical audio panel, usually on the center pedestal (or on the sidewall aux panel, depends)...:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4ee0290f378a.jpg[/atsimg]

Square plastic button, pressed select the transmit, and light up when actively depressed. Only one at a time, per panel, may be active. Round knobs pop in and out, and are for volume control...like on some car radios. When they are "down", then you can hear that channel. 'PA' selector button is fifth from the left.

( I'll get Rob qualified on the 757, if this keeps up!!

) May have to start charging.....
~~~~~

OK...not intending to impeach Mrs. Dahl here...just showing how her rather (in the above cases) ill-informed comments aren't technically accurate.

Will try to find, now, the specifics about what she said about the hijackers' intent, in re the crashing of the airplane during the passenger revolt....

~~~~~~

Now, here is an article for the audience to read, about the events, and comments, and actions of the terrorist hijackers, and their intents:

www.cnn.com...

It tends to refute what Mrs. Dahl's "selected quotes" say, in the post I'm replying to.

Finally...found the orignial transcript that Rob Balsa...er, I mean "Tiffany" might have gotten the Sandy Dahl/Wolf Blitzer exchange:

Aired August 8, 2003 - 20:14 ET

edition.cnn.com...

NOTE the date!? Mrs. Dahl was under orders to not discuss details, at that time. Due to the impending Moussani trial. Compare to here comments in 2006, once the details of that trial were made public, and her restrictions on discussing the CVR recordings were lifted.

[edit on 27 August 2010 by weedwhacker]