IN RURAL HAMLET, THE MYSTERY MOUNTS; 5 REPORT SECOND PLANE AT PA. CRASH SITE; THE INVESTIGATION

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HEADLINE: IN RURAL HAMLET, THE MYSTERY MOUNTS; 5 REPORT SECOND PLANE AT PA. CRASH SITE; THE INVESTIGATION

SOURCE: The Record

BYLINE: JEFF PILLETS, Staff Writer

DATELINE: SHANKSVILLE, Pa.

BODY: As investigators continued to search for clues to the crash of United Flight 93, people in this Allegheny Mountains hamlet were talking about a parallel mystery that one man called "the damndest darn thing" he'd ever seen.

In separate interviews Thursday, five residents who live and work less than four miles from the crash site said they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of the crash of the Boeing 757 that took off from Newark two hours earlier Tuesday morning.

Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge.

It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I could think of was how close I came to dying. " About a mile north on Buckstown Road, Dennis Decker and Rick Chaney were at work making wooden pallets when they heard an explosion and came running outside to watch a large mushroom cloud spreading over the ridge.

"As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast," Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out. " Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings.

"If you were here to see it, you'd have no doubt," Decker said. "It was a jet plane, and it had to be flying real close when that 757 went down. If I was the FBI, I'd find out who was driving that plane. " Late Thursday afternoon, federal agents who spoke to reporters at the crash site said "there was no evidence as of yet" that a second plane was nearby when Flight 93 plunged into a strip mine.

Earlier Thursday, FBI Special Agent William Crowley said investigators could not rule out that a second plane was nearby during the crash. He later said he had misspoken. He dismissed rumors that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it could strike a target in Washington, D.C. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, President Bush's nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff rejected rumors that the military had shot down the hijacked plane.

"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," Air Force Gen.

Richard Myers said.

An official at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center in Overland, Ohio, which tracked Flight 93 as it turned in the sky and tracked eastward from the Cleveland area, said "no comment" when asked if there was any record of a second plane over the crash site.

"That's something that the FBI is working on and I cannot talk about," said Richard Kettel, head of tower operations at the Cleveland center. He spoke shortly before the FBI announced it had no evidence of a second jet.

About 16 miles north of the crash site, at the Cambria County Airport near Johnstown, officials said they had seen neither Flight 93 nor a second plane Tuesday morning despite perfect visibility.

Tower Chief Dennis Fritz said he began searching the horizon for any signs of the 757 around 9:20 a.m. when the Cleveland Control Center radioed that Flight 93 was headed in their direction and was apparently out of control. Fritz says Cleveland control was urging him to evacuate the tower.

"On the first call from Cleveland, they said a 757 was heading in our direction at about 6,000 feet and descending," Fritz said. "They were repeatedly trying to raise the pilot on the radio, but there was no answer. " Within minutes, Fritz said, he began to move people from the tower but hesitated to abandon it completely because he felt the incoming plane might be in distress and need to make an emergency landing.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Fritz said, Cleveland control called back and said the 757 had veered sharply south and was no longer headed for the Cambria airport. Because the airport has no radar, Fritz said, he could not track the movements of Flight 93.

Around Shanksville, news that investigators found the flight data recorder -- one of two black boxes aboard the plane -- did little to abate a growing sense of mystery over the sighting of a second jet.

Susan Custer said she saw a small white jet streaking overhead.

"Then I heard the boom and saw the mushroom cloud. " Robin Doppstadt was working inside her family food-and-supply store when she heard the crash. When she went outside, she said, she saw a small white jet that looked like it was making a single circle over the crash site.

"Then it climbed very quickly and took off. " "It's the damndest darn thing," said Dale Browning, a farmer.

"Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it is. " Meanwhile, at least one New Jersey family that lost a loved on in the crash traveled Thursday to a resort about 30 miles from the crash site.

About 80 staff members of United Airlines and 30 Red Cross volunteers are at the Seven Springs resort to assist the families.

"We'll be the shoulder to cry on, the hand to hold," said Jill Bode of the American Red Cross¬ local chapter.

Staff Writer Pete Caldera contributed to this article, which contains material from news service reports.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC - JERRY LUCIANI / STAFF ARTIST - FROM NEWARK TO DISASTER.

Comment: This was printed 9/14/01 and I first saw it November 16th. It is not on the Internet elsewhere to my knowledge.

The "no markings" thing doesn't bother me much. Sometimes executive jets have very small markings - maybe they aren't very visible. Maybe the craft was marked, but no one identified it.

Still, this story amazes me.

The witnesses totally contradict the FBI. The witnesses have the mystery jet at tree top level at the time of impact. It's flying so low the witness wanted to DUCK! This could not be a civilian jet. All air traffic had been cleared away from Flight 93 30 minutes earlier, and Lear jets need to be cleared to fly under 5,000 feet. Would we have cleared a civilian to "tail" flight 93? This jet was witnessed after the crash by dozens of people.

The only thing that makes sense with the given information: The mysterious white jet with a military jet of some sort. This could explain what the air traffic controller in the Nashua Telegraph article was reporting when he said an F-16 was in visual range. Is it possible this jet MIGHT have been outfitted with missiles (OK, call me crazy now). We have unmarked police cars in every city in the United States. Why wouldn't the Air Force have unmarked aircraft they could play off as civilian? If we did, would you know about them?. Maybe they are part of the drug war, a Customs jet. Maybe it's a CIA jet. Maybe it's an FBI jet.

You might think, "Why would we need an undercover jet? That's crazy! F-16's could strut in and do the job!" I totally agree, I have no idea... well, I have one. So they could truthfully say the U.S. Armed Forces did not shoot at any airliner?

I do know this - it WAS there, the FBI says it wasn't there until later, was at a higher altitude, and it needs explanation by the FBI/NTSB. Do you really believe a civilian Lear style jet would be screaming through at treetop level, circle the crash site, and then take off at high speed? Then, would you believe it would be TOTALLY IGNORED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA? What the hell was that jet doing there?

Here's an email I got:

The unmarked white jet was probably U.S. Customs.

All communications and radar are available at March Air Force base which directs all U.S. Customs jets in the entire United States. So they would have known both about Flight 93 and the location of their own assets, which are airborne a lot - or can be airborne in less than 15 minutes. Customs flies Cessna Citations, they are white and generally unmarked. They are also loaded with video equipment. They are not armed. They are flown by talented military pilots and can fly very low both fast and slow or very high and very fast. Their mission is recon. They sneak up on aircraft. It would have been rolling cameras and videotaped the shoot down if there was one. Nobody really oversees U.S. Customs. U.S. Customs has eleven AWACS. Each AWACS can scan the entire Western Hemisphere VERY quickly, very clandestine.
Customs Jet Photo

http://www.customs.gov/
Take a look around. As America's Frontline, U.S. Customs is uniquely positioned to bring immediate assets and personnel to homeland security.

Another email:

There is a "small white plane" with rear engines used by military, actually there is about 180 of them in active duty. It's called T-1A Jayhawk, or Beech 400A.
Here is a link for description and pic.
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/T_1A_Jayhawk.html

Another is C20A & B Gulfstream 3 and 4, this one is based at Andrews AFB, however I don't think it could be said "all white" about it.

http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/C_20.html

More Lear Jet 35A
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/C_21A.html
another gulfstream C-37A
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/C_37A.html

One more thing Andrews AFB may not be the only one used to deploy the white plane. Close by the crash site there is 70th Air Intelligence Wing located at Fort George G. Meade, Md., however I am not sure which aircraft they operate or have stationed there. I really like what you are doing putting all the info together using what has been reported and not using speculations.

Comment: All these craft a very well marked, it still may be the markings would not be easy to see in flight. Also, none of these are armed... could they be retrofitted?

Email Response to my questions:

"Armed? doable but I doubt if it is the case. Most likely it was a chase plane, making sure F-15/6 completed it's mission. Covert? Given the fact that gov't is trying so hard not to give out too much information, yes. If they haven't shot down the plane then there is much more to the story then we know.

There was a book by John J. Nance (can't remember the title) but one of the aircrafts described in the book (part of the plot) was Gulfstream IV equipped with air-to-air missiles (not a factory option)."

News Story:

Two other airplanes were flying near the hijacked United Airlines jet when it crashed in Somerset County, but neither had anything to do with the airliner's fate, the FBI said yesterday.

In fact, one of the planes, a Fairchild Falcon 20 business jet, was directed to the crash site to help rescuers. The request for the jet to fly low and obtain the coordinates for the crash explains reports by people in the vicinity who said a white or silver jet flew by moments after the crash.

A C-130 military cargo plane was also within 25 miles of the passenger jet when it crashed, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said yesterday, but was not diverted.

"There was a hole in the ground -- that was it," said Yates Caldwell, the pilot who was at the controls of the 10-passenger corporate jet for Greensboro, N.C.-based apparel maker VF Corp. "There was no way to know what it was .... I didn't know there had been a crash until I landed, until I was on the ground in Johnstown."
http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916otherjetnat5p5.asp

Comment: The FBI is trying the old shell game on us! There must be two jets... clearly this civilian pilot with EXECUTIVES ON BOARD was NOT at the controls of the aircraft that was witnessed tailing Flight 93 BEFORE the crash. That plane was at treetop level within a mile or so AT CRASH TIME according to 5 witnesses in separate interviews. I'm taking a wild guess here, but I think that pilot would have known what the fireball in the sky was all about before he landed.

The following information is more BS I reported about 5 days after the crash - some of it rehashes the information above, but it's still pretty interesting:

FBI Special Agent Bill Crowley said Saturday that a civilian business jet flying to Johnstown -- about 20 miles north of the crash site -- was within 20 miles of the low-flying airliner, but at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

Officials Crowley didn't identify asked the business jet's pilot to descend to 5,000 feet -- an unusual maneuver -- to help locate the crash site for responding emergency crews. That could explain why some witnesses have said they saw another plane in the sky shortly after Flight 93 crashed about 10 a.m. Tuesday...

"It's obvious a lot of people would have seen" the business jet, Crowley said.

Crowley didn't say what, if anything, people on the business jet saw, declining to identify them or the owner of that plane.
http://www.pittsburgh.com/partners/wpxi/news/somersetcrash.html

OK this is getting annoying. The above link has changed so the story no longer contains the key info. A number of links have mysteriously changed that I've linked to. Luckily, I saved the original. Maybe they realized what a totally unreal story it was after it was published.

Another version that mentions a single engine plane in the area 45 minutes after crash time as a possible explanation is still online: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/961654/detail.html

I could just go off on this one - so I think I will. Suspend all disbelief for a moment and imagine what Crowley says is true. 2 F-16's are screaming into the area at 5 minutes out (60 miles away and supersonic) according to the current version of the official Gov't story. The airspace around Flight 93 was cleared out 1/2 hour earlier. The Air Guard is a little busy and not real good at spotting downed planes and could really use a helping hand!!

Apparently, someone feels they could have a little difficulty finding the crash site where a 200 - 600 foot fireball in the sky lit the way for a number of ground witnesses that were heating up the telephone lines. So some unknown person with a transmitter in some unknown place notices an Exec Jet meandering through... and says "what luck"! Please drop down to 5k because we're not sure the F-16's and emergency crews are going to be able to figure this mystery out.

At 3000 feet per minute it would have taken that Lear Jet 10+ minutes to get down to 5000 feet. A Lear Jet pilot emailed me 2,000 feet per minute is typically max descent rate (15+ minutes), but a military jet could have done it much faster.

This story is completely unbelievable to me. The military would NEVER ask for civilian help. The sky was full of hijackers. They would have gotten that Lear Jet out of the way ASAP. In fact, a small single engine plane was in the vicinity of Flight 93 at one point along it's route and ATC told him to get as far away from Flight 93 as possible.

From News Story: At the end of the last transmission, he said, air-traffic controllers "asked us if we could see another aircraft off our left wing, and we did." When he reported visual contact with the other aircraft, Wright said, "they told us to get as far away from that plane as we could as fast as we could."
http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/2001cov/Flight_93_Brought_Down___

Comment: Now that is a believable story. The police had the scene roped off and ARRESTED 2 reporters for trying to get a better look.

It's no wonder Crowley couldn't identify anything about that jet or who made the request. They don't exist... or it existed, but not in the way the story describes.

Remember this quote:

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