"India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.
"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind." But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away? Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what they reckon."
Light debris was also found eight miles away <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12192317&method=full&siteid=50143> in New Baltimore. A section of engine weighing a ton was located 2,000 yards - over a mile -from the crash site. Theorists point out a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile attacks the hottest part of aircraft - the engine.
The authorities say the impact bounced it there. But the few pieces of surviving fuselage, local coroner Wallace Miller told us, were "no bigger than a carrier bag". -Daily Mirror (9/13/02) "Bill Crowley, FBI, has told reporters in Pittsburg, that debris from the hi-jacked plane which crashed there has been found six miles away <http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/09/13/story23655.asp>." -TCM Breaking News (9/13/01) / "Finding any substantial evidence from the plane will be difficult. Any remaining debris is very small. WTAE-TV's Paul Van Osdol also reports that some debris has been spotted up to two miles away <http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/957912/detail.html> from the crash scene. Some has been washing up on shore at nearby Indian Lake." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01) / "Debris from the crash has been found up to 8 miles from the crash site <http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916otherjetnat5p5.asp>, but searchers are concentrating on the crater where most of the remains are located. Papers and other light objects were carried aloft by the explosion after impact of the plane and they were transported by a nine-knot wind." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01) /
Mid-air Explosion
"A witness said he heard two loud bangs before <http://www.newsnet5.com/news/956371/detail.html> watching the plane take a downward turn of nearly 90 degrees. A large crater, from which none of the plane could be seen, was left in the ground."
Another witness, Michael Merringer, said he was out on a mountain bike ride with his wife, Amy, about two miles from the crash site.
"(I) heard the engine gun two different times," he said. "(I) heard a loud bang and the windows of the houses all around rattled."
FBI Agent Wells Morrison said that Westmoreland County 911 received a call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was on the plane. The FBI had the tape but would not discuss its contents.
The caller said he was locked in the plane's bathroom and that the flight had been hijacked, according to Glenn Cramer of Westmoreland County 911. A loud noise was then heard and the caller reported seeing white smoke, Cramer said.
Connection with the man's cellular telephone was then lost. The crash was reported soon after." -NewsNet5.com (9/11/01)
/ According to The Associated Press, the man told officials, "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!"
Emergency dispatcher Glenn Cramer said the man on board reported the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/PA_airplanecrash010911.html> and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him."
An FBI official said the crash "appears" to be an act of terrorism, but Pentagon officials firmly denied to ABCNEWS rumors that the U.S. military shot down the aircraft to prevent it from being crashed into Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, or another government facility.
Adm. Craig Quigley told reporters the cause of the accident "was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft."
One eyewitness to the Pennsylvania crash, Linda Shepley, told television station KDKA in Pittsburgh that she heard a loud bang and saw the plane bank to the side before crashing. -ABC (9/11/01)
India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12192317&method=full&siteid=50143> before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground. -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)
Rumored of Being Shot Down
4:28:14 PM
"A Boeing 767 has crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It is not known if this air crash is related to the three other jets used in today’s spate of terrorist attacks on the US.
The plane came down just north of the Somerset county airport, about 80 miles south east of Pittsburgh.
US anti-aircraft fighters are in place - unconfirmed reports say this plane was shot out of the sky by US defence <http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/09/11/story23329.asp>.
It remains unclear whether this aircraft was the fourth to be hijacked in Boston earlier today." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01) "Within minutes, there was a report that a plane had crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania-what turned out to be United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked after leaving Newark International Airport. Many of those in the PEOC feared that Cheney's order had brought down a civilian aircraft. Rice demanded that someone check with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did we shoot it down <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26> or did it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers had fought with the hijackers." - Washington Post (1/27/02) Q: Ari, can you rule out that there was any decision to shoot down the plane over Pennsylvania? There are still continuing questions <http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/sept11_moments_1.html> that the government may have decided that that was necessary. Do you have any information about that crash?
MR FLEISCHER: I don't have information about the cause of that crash.
Q: But can you rule out that it was shot down by the U.S. military?
MR. FLEISCHER: That would be the first I've heard of anything like that. I have not heard anything like that at all. -White House/KnoxNews (9/11/01) Q: Mr. Secretary, there were rumors <http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09112001_t0911sd.html> earlier in the day that the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania had been brought down by the United States, either shot down or in some other manner.
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