Did the passengers of AA 11 embark the wrong plane? Part 2

DulceDecorum

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Mon Jun-21-04 10:18 AM
Original message

Did the passengers of AA 11 embark the wrong plane? Part 2

Edited on Mon Jun-21-04 10:21 AM by DulceDecorum

This is a continuation of the thread commenced by woody b
Did the passengers of AA 11 embark the wrong plane in Boston?

Since 9/12/01 we are told that the passengers of AA 11 were waiting at gate 26 and boarding the plane there.
Now look at this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/national/16TEXT-FLIGHT11.html?ex=107...
///// 7:45:48 -- Ground Control 1: American eleven heavy boston ground gate thirty two you're going to wait for a Saab to go by then push back. /////
Gate 32???
The distance between gate 26 and gate 32 is about 1000 ft.
Any comments?

The last post of interest was placed by a newcomer.
Welcome to the Democratic underground, Lonestar.
122. Flight 11 left Gate 32

Flight 11 left from Gate 32. That is the gate number that is reflected in the transcript. That is the gate number where the 200 American Airlines employees gathered a year after the attacks. That is one of two gates at Boston that has an American Flag affixed at the end of the jetway marking the location the ill-fated flight departed from. The other is C-19 where United 175 departed from.
Flight 11 was supposedly a Boeing 767 - a widebody jet. Gate 32 is configured to be able to accomodate a wide body jet. Gate 26 is not. It can only handle narrow body jets like a 757, 737 or MD-80.
So why did so many in the media report Gate 26? Shoddy reporting. They are obviously confusing the departure gate American Airlines Flight 11 used a BOS (Terminal B Gate 32) with the departure gate American Airlines Flight 77 used out of Dulles. (Gate D26)
I'm not quite sure why some people are trying to figure out where a Sabena plane might have possibly come from. Flight 11 wasn't told to wait for a Sabena plane to pass. Flight 11 was told to wait for a Saab to pass.
A Saab is a type of commuter aircraft, and most likely it was an American Eagle flight scheduled to depart Boston at 7:45 a.m. for Rochester, NY. It's tail number was N903AE although in the BTS on time reports for American Eagle it shows the tail as N903MP. N903AE is a Saab. It pushed back from it's gate four minutes early at 7:41 and took off at 7:49 and most likely was the aircraft that Flight 11 was told to wait for.
Also on the transcript at around 7:55 a.m. or so American 11 is told "Continental's waiting for you." I believe this is in reference to a Continental jet that had landed (I can't remember where from - Newark maybe and www.bts.gov is down right now so I can't check) at 7:53 a.m. but didn't get to it's gate until 8:04. Most likely this Continental jet landed and then "waited" for Flight 11 to go by before proceeding to it's gate.
As for what flight might have been at Gate 26 in Boston's Terminal B around 7:25 a.m. - the time passengers were seen boarding - my guess is that it was the aircraft that operated as Flight 138 from San Jose, CA. It was scheduled to arrive at 6:01 a.m. but it was an hour and fifteen minutes late and arrived at the gate at 7:16 a.m. After unloading passengers, it changed to Flight 1971 -- an 8:20 a.m. departure to San Juan. Flight 1971 ended up pushing back from it's gate 11 minutes early at 8:09 and took off at 8:34 about 20 minutes before Boston airspace was shut down.
The aircraft that operated this flight was a Boeing 757 - a narrowbody jet -- and thus could have been accomodated at Gate 26. Plus, since it was an hour and fifteen minutes late in arriving, maybe it had to use a different gate than it normally would have.

The discussion continues.