Everything about United 175 totally explained
United Airlines Flight 175 was a morning flight that regularly flew from
Logan International Airport in
Boston, Massachusetts to
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in
Los Angeles, California. On
September 11,
2001, the
United Airlines Boeing 767-222, registered N612UA, was
hijacked and crashed in
New York City during the
September 11, 2001 attacks. It was the second plane hijacked and flown into the
World Trade Center, but was the one airline crash that morning to be witnessed live on television around the world as it happened. It was preceded by
American Airlines Flight 11, which had struck the top of the North Tower 17 minutes earlier. The resultant inferno drew live mass media attention on to the scene of the impending Flight 175 crash into the nearby South Tower.
Hijackers
The five hijackers aboard Flight 175 were:
The flight
Flight 175 was scheduled to depart at 8:00 EDT and left gate 26 at 7:59. Due to routine morning taxiing times, the flight departed the runway at 8:14. Had the flight been scheduled to depart 15 minutes earlier, it most likely would have been hijacked around the same time as Flight 11.
The flight was piloted by Captain, with as
first officer. At 08:37:08, flight control asked the pilots of UA175 whether they could see
American Airlines Flight 11 out their viewpoint, and the response was affirmative. They were ordered to maintain distance from the flight since it was now known that it had been hijacked. Approximately 7 minutes later, UA175 was also hijacked.
Hijacking
The hijackers claimed they'd a bomb, although this hasn't been substantiated. The assailants used knives and mace to subdue members of the flight crew and the pilots.
At 8:41, the pilots overheard a suspicious transmission ordering people to "stay in your seats" and reported it to
air traffic control.
At 8:47, air traffic control received the first indication that United Airlines Flight 175 was hijacked. The aircraft's transponder code was changed twice but was never turned off. This allowed ATC to continually track the flight and monitor flight data, including altitude. In five minutes, there was no doubt of an emergency, as the plane had radically changed course and wasn't responding. Despite reports that one of the passengers called his mother and told her they were thinking of storming the
cockpit, it appears that no such intervention took place.
By 8:58, the plane was heading towards New York City and descended from an altitude of 28,500 feet over New Jersey. From the time al-Shehhi completed the turn toward New York (approximately 8:58) to the moment of impact (9:02:40), the plane went into a sustained power dive, descending more than 24,000 feet in 4 minutes 40 seconds, for an average rate of over 5,000 feet per minute.
Near collision with Delta 2315
Delta Air Lines Flight 2315, operated by a Boeing 737-247Adv aircraft registered N378DL, was a flight from
Hartford,
Connecticut to
Tampa, Florida. Flight 175 nearly collided in midair with the flight just minutes before crashing into the South Tower of the
World Trade Center. This near-miss was dramatised in
United 93.
United 175 flew within about of Delta 2315, as air traffic controller Dave Bottiglia frantically tried to tell the Delta pilot to take evasive action. He was the first person in the control center to realize that Flight 175 was hijacked when he gave directions for a turn. Flight 175 didn't respond, it instead accelerated and headed toward Delta Air Lines Flight 2315. The controller commanded the Delta pilot, "Take any evasive action necessary. We have an airplane that we don't know what he's doing. Any action at all"
At 8:52 a.m., Peter Hanson called his father, Lee Hanson in
Easton, Connecticut, telling him of the hijacking. Hanson was travelling with his wife, Sue, and 2 1/2 year old daughter, Christine. Hanson said that the hijackers had commandeered the cockpit, that a
flight attendant had been stabbed, and possibly someone else in the front of the aircraft had been killed. He also reported that the plane was flying erratically.
Flight attendant Robert Fangman called a United Airlines office in
San Francisco, and spoke with Marc Policastro. He reported the hijacking, and said that both pilots had been killed. Onboard were 56 passengers (including the 5 hijackers) and 9 crew members, none of whom survived. Hundreds more were killed within the tower and from its ensuing explosion, fires, and collapse. Around 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at and above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC).
According to eyewitnesses and video footage, the aircraft appeared to execute a banking left turn in the final moments, as it appeared that the plane might have otherwise missed the building or merely clipped it with its wing. Upon crashing, the plane was banked left. Those seated on the left side of the plane would, therefore, have had a clear view of the towers approaching, with one burning, until the final moment of the flight.
The image of the crash was caught on video from multiple vantage points on
live television and amateur video. Video were continually replayed in news broadcasts over the next few days. A very clear photo was taken by Carmen Taylor from the top deck of the Ellis Island Ferry moored in Battery Park. . The NIST collected over 200 photos and 40 videos.
Shortly after the crash, the
flight number for future flights on the same route was changed from Flight 175 to Flight 1525 "out of respect for those who died in the attack". Since then,
United Airlines has renumbered and rescheduled all flights from Boston to Los Angeles, and none of its morning flights depart at 8:00 AM EDT. As of September 2007, this flight has now been redesignated as Flight 163, which now operates as a Boeing 757-200.
Further Information
Get more info on 'United 175'.
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