Question for LIHOPers

[durutti]

The cornerstone of the LIHOP theory is the idea that since it took so long for NORAD to respond, the jets that would've intercepted the hijacked flights must have been "stood down".

My question: how can LIHOPers justify this assertion when jets also failed to intercept Charles Bishop's suicidal crash into a Tampa building? Jets didn't respond to the event until 45 minutes after Bishop took off without authorization.

And what about the plane that crashed on the White House lawn during Clinton's first term? What about the untimely intercept of a Cessna that violated White House airspace in June, 2002?

[sweettater]

1. what about this?

On October 25, 1999, at 9:33 a.m. air traffic controllers in Florida
lost touch with a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart and several
companions after it left Orlando headed for Dallas, Texas. Nineteen
minutes after Air Traffic Control realized something was wrong, one
or more US Air Force fighter jets were already on top of the
situation, in the air, close to the Learjet. Moreover, throughout
the course of its flight, Payne Stewart's jet was given escort from
National Guard aircraft coordinated across state lines. See "Golfer
Payne Stewart Dies," October 25, 1999, at:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/plane102599.html
or read the National Transportation Safety Board report on Payne
Stewart's flight:

http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/AAB0001.htm
or
http://www.Public-Action.com/911/stewart
(There are minor discrepancies between the ABC and NTSB reports.)

That was the response when a small private jet lost radio contact
with air traffic control over a relatively sparsely populated area in
Florida. Compare that to what was done when they lost communication
with four commercial passenger jets flying over the populous
northeast on September 11, 2001.

[Junkdrawer]

2. Two points:

1.) There's not one 'cornerstone of LIHOP' but rather dozens and dozens of 'hard to explain otherwise' facts that swirl around the events leading up to 9/11.

2.) Don't you think that the simultaneous hijacking of four major commercial airliners is a little different than a Cessna?

[Melinda]

3. Just read:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=780909


*edited to add: But of course, you already have. Deja vue, eh? :eyes:

[teach1st]

4. RE the Tampa Cessna

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/04/22/national/main506904.shtml

The first indication that something was amiss came at 4:52 p.m. EST when controllers at St. Petersburg called their Tampa colleagues and alerted them.

"That's a Cessna departed here unauthorized. We don't know what he's doing. He just took off," the St. Petersburg controller said, asking Tampa to have him call if they got in touch with him.

But according to the transcript, there was no indication the controllers ever tried to call the plane.

At 5:02 p.m., a Coast Guard helicopter told the Tampa controllers that it was chasing the plane.

"We're trying to give him hand signals to maybe get him to land," the Coast Guard told the controller. "However, he doesn't seem to be responding."

A minute later, the transmitter sounded, signaling the crash. The Tampa airport then stopped all departures. Not until two minutes later did the Tampa controller ask the Coast Guard pilot if he knew what building the pilot flew into.


http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/05/tampa.crash/

As the plane took off, air-traffic control alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, which dispatched a helicopter to intercept the Cessna, said Lt. Charlotte Pittman of the Coast Guard. The helicopter's crew, yards away from the Cessna, signaled for it to land at an airport just south of Tampa. Instead, the airplane struck the building without appearing to try to avoid it, witnesses said.

The unauthorized take-off also prompted authorities to scramble two F-15 jets. The jets, part of the 125th Fighter Wing based at Homestead Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, arrived at the west-central Florida city within moments, but not before the Cessna had crashed, said Capt. Richard Bittner, the base's public information officer.