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United Flight 93 Movie

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Lrjtcaptain said:
I don't know why I felt that the movie made us look bad, not entirely but it was complete chaos. Makes the public think they we had no grasp on anything which we didn't at the time....The chain of command seemed broken, a hijacking threat and the big wig controllers at the command center just laugh and walk away. I did like the NATCA shirts though! Definatly cool!

The controllers, and the nation as a whole, were dealing with a situation that the world had never seen. I hate to admit, but they had us all by the balls, as it was a very good plan. It was something that no one was ready for. Untill 9/11, traditional hijackings were one plane, with a motive of profite. This attack fit no profile that the US could have every imagined, thus been prepaired for. Talking bad and finger pointing is just doing the monday morning quarter backing thing. We were tested that day, but 93 proved that the US can adapt and make the best out of a bad situation.
 
Lrjtcaptain said:
I don't know why I felt that the movie made us look bad, not entirely but it was complete chaos. Makes the public think they we had no grasp on anything which we didn't at the time....The chain of command seemed broken, a hijacking threat and the big wig controllers at the command center just laugh and walk away. I did like the NATCA shirts though! Definatly cool!

The public has a very skewed picture of what ATC can do.

I remember reading a book that was about light aircraft crashes. A guy and his fiance went flying on a fairly crappy weather day, he got wx briefings and such, but still went anyway. Well the guy jsut decided to get flight following and told the controllers he was VFR, when actually he wasn't(wx reports and pireps indicated it was barely legal VFR). He had no instrument ticket.

Well The guy made it a couple hundered miles before augering it in, kiling himself and his fiance. The father of the pilot accused the controller of killing his son during an interview for the book(because she questioned his flight conditions, which subsequently made the pilot nervous and lose control, allegedly). He also said they(ATC and FSS) should have prevented his son from doing what he did. The public feels you guys are like cops and have magical powers, when in reality aviation works on the honor system.

Sorry for going off topic
 
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Just came back from the movie and it was very touching as well as tasteful.

One thing that did come to question for me was why would two F-16s take off un-armed to intercept a plane that was known to be heading towards the White House? Was the military that inefficient that morning? I don't want to believe so. They talked about the possibility of the pilots "ramming" their fighter aircraft into the airliner and then ejecting? Is this a known practice by the military?

I'm not "saying" anything but it all just seemed interesting to me.
 
wmuflyguy said:
The public has a very skewed picture of what ATC can do.

I remember reading a book that was about light aircraft crashes. A guy and his fiance went flying on a fairly crappy weather day, he got wx briefings and such, but still went anyway. Well the guy jsut decided to get flight following and told the controllers he was VFR, when actually he wasn't(wx reports and pireps indicated it was barely legal VFR). He had no instrument ticket.

Well The guy made it a couple hundered miles before augering it in, kiling himself and his fiance. The father of the pilot accused the controller of killing his son during an interview for the book(because she questioned his flight conditions, which subsequently made the pilot nervous and lose control, allegedly). He also said they(ATC and FSS) should have prevented his son from doing what he did. The public feels you guys are like cops and have magical powers, when in reality aviation works on the honor system.

Sorry for going off topic

I also remember that after the AA crash in LIT (Flight 1493?) that some persons tried to throw ATC under the bus for basically "allowing" the plane to fly in the conditions it did, as if ATC actually has the authority to override the decisions made by the PIC. I agree that ATC is looked upon as cops when they're really not. One of the courses (mentioned below) I took in a collegiate setting dealt with the airline regulatory atmosphere (the certfiication aspects, ops specs, and Part 121). There is absolutely no way we can keep up with the volume of regulations and procedures for every airline. The way I understand it, I pretty much have to approve any request that you make, as long as my rules permit me to do so.

I took some courses taught by a particular "talking head" university professor. Laugh if you want, but his guest speakers were EXCELLENT. One of the speakers was the guy who ordered the closure and immediate grounding of US Airspace. IIRC, the guy's name is Steve Brown, and I'm fairly certain that's who they tried to portray at the ATCSCC facility in Herndon. The only thing I remember vividly about Steve's talk is that he said he figured he'd be a hero or he'd get fired for taking the action that he did, as he had zippo precedent for doing so.
 
JSky26 said:
Just came back from the movie and it was very touching as well as tasteful.

One thing that did come to question for me was why would two F-16s take off un-armed to intercept a plane that was known to be heading towards the White House? Was the military that inefficient that morning? I don't want to believe so. They talked about the possibility of the pilots "ramming" their fighter aircraft into the airliner and then ejecting? Is this a known practice by the military?

I'm not "saying" anything but it all just seemed interesting to me.

Military jets on training missions do not normally carry live weapons on board, even post 9/11 for safety reasons. There were F-16 airborne on training missions and that's what they mentioned in the movie. Depending on the mission, you may have the gun armed before you takeoff. The Alert aircraft with live missles were further away. Yes, ramming the jet was a considered option. No, it's not normal and we obviously don't train for it. But you do what you gotta do!
 
gator_hater said:
Just my .02, this movie is about 3 years too late. As an entire nation we ca't forget the emotions we felt that day. A reminder is 100% necessary.

Ditto

NEVER FORGET
 

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