Could pilots with a commercial licencse have hit the the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with a 767 or 757 at the speeds observed on 9/11?

This sounds like a job for the Mythbusters.

:NTSB Speed:

Exactly . . . using laser columns in the desert . . .

Pilots with the "skill level" of the alleged 9/11 hijackers couldn't even have turned that plane around to head back to towards the east without stalling it.

Let alone find Washington DC, and then performing a high speed diving turn that would have torn the aircraft apart.

That is what even some pilots believe . . .

This is worthless anecdotal evidence but I don;t give a shit.

Even before all the conspiracies my grandfather (25 year commercial yet pilot, more than 10 years flying 747's) said that he always found it really strange how a bunch of untrained idiots who couldn't even properly fly a Cessna could make such a manoeuvre and hit such a (relatively) small object so dead on.

I'm very surprised more pilots don't speak out

One pilot I know who has echoed these statements won't do so publicly because of the power of the PTB and what they can do to him and/or his family. effed up world...

I AM a pilot.

Not a 757 pilot, just a private pilot. 157 hours in Cessna 172s. (100 more hours than the "9/11 hijackers")

I couldn't fly a 757.

I probably couldn't even fly one in a straight line at altitude without stalling it, without using the autopilot. These planes have a very small flight envelope at cruising altitude (35,000 ft) and if you get out of that envelope (say, by dropping your speed too much in a turn) you can easily go into a stall. Then a wing drops, and you're in a spin.

And getting something like that out of a spin, for me, impossible. A death spiral, right into the ground.

Spin training in a Cessna 172

The WTC sure,

The pentagon..no way.

I know I could not, and I know I am a much better stick then the accused.

Yes, computer controled auto pilot. feed it the GPS coordinents and sit back and enjoy the ride.

Small Cessnas don't have any automatic anything.

If a pilot can find and line up with a runway they can line up with a building.

And one of the planes was banking hard to hit the building so they weren't right on the mark.

Don't try that in a PA28161 without keeping on top of the ball.. Flat spin city :)

Love the 152, first plane I ever flew.. Cessnas rock

Agreed on Wtc, the flight director / auto throttle would have done the job.. But not the pentagon and from the Wtc footage.. It appears to be hand flown.

That bothers many people . . . but some pilots I have talked to think it is very possible . . .

Sure you could.. Pitch power trim.. Only in this case automation is your best friend!

+1 commercial pilots, yes. Inexperienced newbies, no.

Of course I personally witnessed on a tv commercial maverick fly inverted in an F-14 over a ruski mig and goose, I guess, drank a pepsi. It was awesome!

Especially if your ass was on the line, it's not a plane that gives violent PIOs or requires 3 crew stations.. If you know your basic airmanship, comfort with the flight director and a light touch your good to go.

I have heard this from several pilots but what about the high speeds and the nerves of the hijackers???

So what do you think happened at the Pentagon?!

So how was it done?

This information was made public a few years ago at the hearings on 911.

The guy who's family owns boeing explained in detail how there was no way a plane could sustain LIFT and fly at those speeds cought possibly hit the twin towers.

This information has been widly circulated in the public realm already. Its been available for all eyes in the public to see at any time.

Look it up.

AC is right.. Once in flight, with the FD coupled the controls are a few knobs to set airspeed, heading etc. basic airmanship and a copy of the POH would do.

It's during a complex approach, Class B, an enunciator lights or when an instrument flags in IMC that the adults are separated from the boys.

Just an opinion..

That's another thing.

Here's a photo of a C-152 cockpit

[link to www.usflightacademy.com]

And here's one of a 757

[link to xsimreviews.com]

[link to projetoxfly.com.br]

These "hijackers" just got done taking over the plane by whipping out their little boxcutter knives,

[link to i.istockimg.com]

going BOOGA BOOGA to scare the passengers into submission, and then murdering the pilots.

I won't even get into the hilarity of the boxcutter knife thing.

Okay. These guys just did the hijacking thing, they just slashed the throats of two pilots, blood squirting out all over the place, blood all over the cockpit, all over themselves, they're all pumped up, feeling the adrenaline rush, and now they have to sit down and figure out what all that newfangled glass cockpit stuff is all about.

They're transitioning from six steam gauges in a single engine 100 kt prop job, to a 21st century glass cockpit multi engine jet. In a matter of a few minutes. At 493kts. And they're covered in someone else's blood.

With their heart rates going at 150 beats per minute.

I don't think so.

No problem.

Sorry, I was referring to the op, not the accused.. Adding the duress of a bloody cockpit and such would make life much harder. They had the manuals on the ground with time to study it.. And for the record, I don't believe anything of the official story at all.. Not even the Arabs involvement.

You honestly believe so . . . Why?

The op was under the impression that the aircraft had the handling characteristics of an F-104 missing a stabilator.. This is not the case and I wanted to point out that the transition is not *that* big of a departure from what he is used to. Speed yes, procedures, turbine spooling delays ,sight picture etc.. Hell yes, but it's not a rotor wing is it?

Thanks . . . so you don't think the speeds ase a problem??

For the pentagon, I could do it in an extra or in a ranger..

Not a 757 with the throttles to the stops.. No fucking way!

I also was a pilot before I got so damned old, lol. But it's not that big of a deal in todays age of GPS navigation.