Reply #27: A closer look

[DulceDecorum]

At 5:53 a.m. the following day, a calmer Atta and a man identified by the FBI as Abdulaziz Alomari passed through the metal detector at the Portland, Maine, airport and boarded a plane for Boston's Logan International Airport. A surveillance camera snapped their pictures, freezing the time and place forever.
<snip>
Ordinary hardly would seem to be the appropriate description for two men who, less than three hours after they passed through the Maine airport, helped to commandeer American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston, piloted it south toward New York City, and, at 8:48 a.m., deliberately crashed it into Tower One of the World Trade Center. In a well-coordinated attack, five hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 175, also out of Boston that morning, took control of that airplane and at 9:03 a.m. crashed it into Tower Two.
It is unclear why Atta and Alomari were in Portland on Sept. 10. Earlier reports that the terrorists crossed the Canadian border appear now to be incorrect. What is known is that some of the 10 men took rooms in four Boston-area hotels in the days before the hijackings. Their wandering ways of the previous few years were over.
<snip>
On Sept. 10, Atta and Alomari left Boston in a rented Nissan Altima and drove 100 miles north to Portland. They spent the night in Room 232 at the Comfort Inn near the airport. Going to Portland to board the connecting flight to Logan, investigators speculate, may have been designed so as not to draw attention to all 10 arriving at the Boston airport at nearly the same time. After passing through the security checkpoint at the Maine airport, and getting their pictures taken by the surveillance camera, they boarded US Airways Express Flight 5930. The 19-seat aircraft departed shortly after 6 a.m. for the 50-minute flight to Boston.
http://www.newsday.com/ny-ushija302392325sep30,0,5027413.story

On Sept. 11, Atta and Alomari were seen at 5:45 a.m. on a security
camera at the Portland airport, heading toward US Airways Express
Flight 5930, a 50-minute flight that was scheduled to leave at 6
a.m. It was slightly delayed, and they arrived at Logan
International Airport just in time to board American Flight 11
before its 7:59 a.m. departure. Forty-nine minutes later, Flight 11
plowed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
http://www.redwhiteandblue.org/news/bnws/PGP2.HTM

At 5.53 on Tuesday morning Atta and al-Omari passed through security at Portland Jetport in Maine. They had checked out of their room ($149 for smoking, $159 for non-smoking) and had driven the short distance to the airport in a hired car. The Atlantic sparkled bright blue in the crisp clear light of an early autumn New England morning, the short flight to Boston's Logan International was uneventful. Using their New Jersey drivers licenses as identification, they bought two one-way tickets on a visa card and checked in for American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles . They settled down to wait for Atta's baggage and the men whom they knew were on their way to join them.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/2001review/story/0,1590,624103,00.html

Well then,
it looks like we have a conundrum.
The US sources say that the flight was 50 minutes long and that Atta has to hustle to catch the plane.
The UK source says that Atta checked in with time to spare and settled down to wait for baggage and their fellow hijackers.
How is this possible?

Time to take a closer look.

Detailed Statistics > Airborne Time
Airport(s): PWM
Airline(s): MQ
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001
Airport: Portland, ME - Portland International Jetport (PWM)
MQ 09/11/2001 4488 N739MQ LGA 0051
MQ 09/11/2001 4637 N266MQ BOS 0031
MQ 09/11/2001 4757 N313MQ BOS 0028

Oh my.
We had established that Atta had left on Flight 4637 aboard N313(AE?)
That flight was airborne for only 28 minutes.

Actual departures out of Portland Jetport.
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4757, N313MQ, BOS, 6:48

Actual Arrivals into Boston from Portland Jetport.
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4757, N313MQ, PWM, 7:39

OK,
then if that plane was in the air for only 28 minutes......
6:48 + 28 minutes = 7:16AM
7:39 - 28 minutes = 7:11AM

But, but...
they said 50 MINUTES!!!
And, and ...
the flight that left Portland Jetport for La Guardia,
took about 50 minutes to get there.

Arrival Statistic(s): Actual Arrival Time
Airport(s): LGA
Airline(s): MQ
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001
Airport: New York, NY - LaGuardia (LGA)
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4460, N243MQ, MHT, 6:54
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4462, N709MQ, CLE, 8:37
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4480, N711MQ, RDU, 7:39
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4488, N739MQ, PWM, 7:05****
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4500, N352MQ, PVD, 7:59
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4503, N715MQ, DTW, 8:10
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4530, N713MQ, GSO, 8:49
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4536, N735MQ, RIC, 7:39

Arrival Statistic(s): Wheels-on Time
Airport(s): LGA
Airline(s): MQ
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001
Airport: New York, NY - LaGuardia (LGA)
MQ 09/11/2001 4488 N739MQ PWM 7:01

Arrival Statistic(s): Taxi-in Time
Airport(s): LGA
Airline(s): MQ
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001
Airport: New York, NY - LaGuardia (LGA)
MQ 09/11/2001 4488 N739MQ PWM 0004

Now that plane left Portland Jetport at 6:00AM,
it was airborne for 51 minutes,
it's wheels touch down at 7:01AM,
and it took four minutes to taxi in,
so it arrives at La Guardia at 7:05AM.

Slight discrepancy, but it looks acceptable.
The plane from Portland Jetport to La Guardia pretty much checks out.

But Mr. Atta was NOT going to La Guardia.
Was he?
Sure the plane would have had more fuel
and it would have been such a short flight
and there was even a 6AM flight from Portland Jetport
MQ, 09/11/2001, 4488, N739MQ, LGA, 6:00
but Boston was chosen
because ....
because ....
because it was chosen -- that is why!!

Mr. Atta was supposed to be aboard Colgan Air Flight 5930.
But instead we have narrowed it down to American Eagle 4757.
Colgan Air has a website. Let us go and check it out.

La Guardia Airport (New York City)
Airport Code: (LGA)
Colgan Air operating as a US Airways Express Carrier provides air service from La Guardia International Airport including daily round trip air service to the following cities;
Albany, NY.
Augusta, ME.
Charlottesville, VA.
Manchester, NH.
Hyannis, MA.
Lebanon, NH.
Martha's Vineyard, MA.(Seasonal Service)
Nantucket, MA.
Norfolk, VA.
Portland, ME.

Boston, Massachusetts
Airport Code: (BOS)
Colgan Air operating as US Airways Express Carrier provides air service from Boston's Logan International Airport including daily round trip to the following cities;
Albany, NY.
Augusta, ME
Bar Harbor, ME.
Presque Isle, ME.
Rockland, ME.
Syracuse, NY
White Plains, NY.

But I think that that the webmaster
(or other interested party)
might have recently made an alteration.

Portland, Maine
Colgan Air operating as a US Airways Express Carrier provides daily round trip air service between Boston's Logan International Airport and Portland International Jetport.

Why so little information
on the places you fly to from Portland, Maine?
What happened to La Guardia?
And Philadelphia?
And Pittsburgh?
We know for a fact that you do fly to Pennsylvania.

Departure Statistic(s): Actual Departure Time
Airport(s): PWM
Airline(s): US
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001
Airport: Portland, ME - Portland International Jetport (PWM)

US 09/11/2001 0680 N590US PHL 5:47 Philadelphia International, PA.
US 09/11/2001 1211 N435US PIT 6:29 Pittsburgh International, PA.
US 09/11/2001 2161 N420US PHL 7:28 Philadelphia International, PA.

How come you don't want to list this on your website?
How come you only mention BOSTON?

Oh, well,
I guess that since it is your own website,
and your own Virginia-based airline,
you can do as you please.
I was just wondering WHY
you would WANT to be known as the airline
that ferried the hijackers,
when it currently appears to the rest of us
that you actually did no such thing.

6:00 am ATTA and AL-OMARI departed on Colgan Air en route to Boston, Massachusetts.
The FBI asks anyone who has seen these individuals in Portland, Maine, on the evening of September 10th and/or the morning of September 11th and can provide additional information, contact the Boston FBI at [phone].
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/100401.htm

Anyway,
some of us
will continue worrying about your "predicament"
and that lawsuit hanging over your head
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/9-11complaints/flt11sample.htm
while others go back to trying to figure out
how a 28 minute flight
behaved the way it did
on September 11, 2001.

1)
If a plane left PWM at 6:48AM,
and traveled to Boston for 28 minutes,
at what time would it land?

2)
If a plane arrived at BOS at 7:39AM
and had traveled for 28 minutes,
at what time did it leave Portland Jetport?

3)
Did you guys switch planes on me?