Info regarding this mystery flight?

[paulthompson]

I've been out of town, sorry if there's a thread about this already and I missed it. Can anyone find out more about this, if people haven't already? I saw this on another internet forum.

Subject: Night flight on 9/11/01

According to the FAA / BTS database on September 11, 2001 a flight originated
from Seattle-Tacoma International airport.Flight 0110 departed at 23:48 wheels
off time of 22:55. The flight took place during the lockdown of ALL airports in
the U.S. The plane was a U.S.Airways 757 tail # N621AU. The destination was
Pittsburg Pa. The database does not show the flight landing, however the aircraft
next appears leaving Baltimore Md. on September 13. So far I have not been able
to uncover anything else on this flight.
Help?
Departure Statistic(s): Wheels-off Time
Airport(s): SEA
Airline(s): US
Month(s): September
Day(s): 11
Year(s): 2001



NOTE: A complete listing of airline and airport abbreviations is available.
After the entire table is displayed on your screen, you may download a CSV (comma
separated values) file of this table.

Airport: Seattle, WA - Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA)
Carrier Code Date (MM/DD/YYYY) Flight Number Tail Number Destination Airport
Wheels-off Time

US 09/11/2001 0102 UNKNOW CLT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0104 UNKNOW PHL 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0106 UNKNOW PHL 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0108 UNKNOW PIT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0110 N621AU PIT 22:55
US 09/11/2001 0116 UNKNOW PIT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0139 UNKNOW PHL 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0180 UNKNOW PHL 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0202 UNKNOW PIT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 0694 UNKNOW CLT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 1280 UNKNOW CLT 0:00
US 09/11/2001 2260 UNKNOW BWI 0:00

The total number of the records found for this query: 12

[funflower]

1. Apologies, but what is the difference between departure time and

"wheels off" time?

[MercutioATC]

3. "Departure time" is the time the plane leaves the gate.

"Wheels-off time" is the time the wheels leave the ground on takeoff.

[funflower]

9. It appears the flight in question had a "wheels off" time that was earlier

than its departure time.

[MercutioATC]

17. A BTS database error! *gasp*

I'm shocked!

(no, not really...)

[MercutioATC]

2. One possible explanation:

Planes are assigned a discrete beacon (transponder) code to squawk by the computer when their flight plan is generated by the computer (about 30 minutes before scheduled departure time). This code is then recognized by the computer and the computer automatically activates the flight plan when it sees the code.

If the flight crew inadvertently dials in the wrong code, the computer still activates the flight plan that matches the beacon code.

If a military plane (which was NOT barred from flying on 9/11/01) dialed in a code that the computer recognized as belonging to a USAir flight, the computer would automatically activate the USAir flight plan.

I have no idea if this is what happened, but planes departing on the wrong codes is an occasional occurrence.

[stickdog]

5. And this military plane just happened to take off 5 minutes after

the scheduled departure time of the USAIR plane its pilot "mistakenly" coded for?

[MercutioATC]

6. Scheduled departure time means nothing...just the beacon code.

The mistake would have been either the controller's (gave the military pilot the wrong code) or, more likely, the military pilot's (entered the wrong code).

As I said, it's not a rare occurrance...I see a couple of them a week. It's easily corrected, but the computer shows the plane that was supposed to have the code as departed.

[Woody Box]

7. You don't address stickdog's point

That a military pilot squawkes the wrong code, is a rare event, okay,
let's say 1:1000. (very rough estimation, probably smaller)

That the squawked quode matches exactly the code of a commercial airliner who is supposed to start at the same time, is a, hm, very rare event, let's say 1:100000.

Given these rough estimations, the probability that these two events happen at the same time coincidentally, is, 1:10000000, in other words: impossible.

Even if the respective probabilities are bigger, which I doubt, the combined probability is still next to zero.

Your incompetence scenario doesn't cut it, really.

[MercutioATC]

12. Why does the commercial airliner have to "start at the same time"?

As I said, the timing has nothing to do with it. If the code is in the computer it will activate the flight plan when the computer sees a plane squawking the code regardless of when the flight is SUPPOSED to take off.

BTW, pilots squawking the wrong code isn't that rare an event...

[stickdog]

13. You're right that the timing has nothing to do with it. And because the

timing is INDEPENDENT from the wrong code, the slight probabilities of each need to be multipied.

The wrong code is entered on perhaps 1 out of every 500 flights. However, the percentage of mistakenly coded flights that take off within 5 minutes of the scheduled departure of the flight that they randomly miscoded for is infinitesmal.

[MercutioATC]

14. So your alternative is a stealth 757 that no controllers worked?

It appeared in the BTS database (something that's been called into question before) but no civilian controller worked the airplane...

Which is more likely, a military plane was on the wrong code or a civilian plane took off without anybody working it while the national airspace was closed?

[stickdog]

15. 1) How do you know that no controller worked that flight?

2) What's so strange about flying without a controller when you are basically the only plane in the sky?

3) What's more likely, that the code of the plane that was scheduled to take off at almost that instant was entered mistakenly for whatever reason or entered purposefully for whatever reason?

[MercutioATC]

16. 1) Because the airspace was closed to civilian traffic.

2) Because it's against the law for commercial aircraft carrying passengers to fly VFR (whether they're the only plane in the sky or not).

3) What's most likely is that the BTS database is in error. If you were going to surreptitiously fly an airplane when the airspace was closed, would you activate a flight plan?

[petgoat]

4. I'm confused re: departure/wheels off times

" departed at 23:48 wheels
off time of 22:55."

Is there a typo here? 22:48 amd 22:55 makes sense

[Woody Box]

8. Interesting find...

...and I wonder why this has not been noticed so long.

The "wheels-off time" is the moment when the plane looses contact with the ground. A sensor in the landing gear notices the wheels-off, and the actual time is automatically sent to the airline.

This means, that US Flight 110, tail number 621UA, took off over twelve hours after all planes were grounded.

The destination airport - Pittsburgh - is also very interesting.
I recommend this thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x26505

[spooked911]

10. I'm just wondering how much other stuff like this is out there that we

nothing about?

This seems fishy, though I have no idea what the significance could be.

[JackRiddler]

11. Paul...

There was a thread with a few comments you might be interested in:

"Latest timeline entries on wargames - I think 9/11 has been solved!"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=125&topic_id=49360&mesg_id=49360