First, just locating those buildings is not as obvious as it sounds. Objects look very different from the air, plus the planes would have had to be properly positioned to hit the towers. The regular pilots would have known how a plane’s trim-essentially its balance-changes as it increases speed. But I don’t believe any power or threat could make them fly into a building, and I have no doubt that the two cockpit crews were killed or disabled before the planes hit those towers.
So how did the hijackers manage it? The simple answer is a modern simulator. Today’s simulators visuals are so advanced, every detail of a particular airport and its environs are included. When we “fly” around New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport during our regular simulator sessions, we can clearly see landmarks like the Statue of Liberty-and the World Trade Center towers-all in perfect geographical position.
Nor is obtaining access to an advanced simulator especially difficult. Many airlines both inside and outside the U.S. have simulators that are available for hire by the hour. It’s not a service available only to airlines-private companies often rent time, and so can individuals practicing to fly new aircraft types. And once the simulator door is closed, no one can see or will indeed care what you’re doing in there.
Flying a modern jet through the air is not particularly difficult. If the hijackers had some basic flying skills, they would not have needed more than one or two hours in a simulator to familiarize themselves with the cockpit layout and find out where the navigation systems were. The 757 and 767 series jets that were chosen for the hijack have a common cockpit layout, so access to one simulator would have been enough. Taking off and landing, of course, require higher skills. But they didn’t plan to do that.
The most likely scenario: the hijackers first would have had to get access to the locked cockpit. Once the door was open, they could rush it before the passengers had a chance to react. In the general vicinity of downtown New York, they would have eliminated the pilots. Then they could turn off the autopilot by pressing a button on the control column.
They wouldn’t have needed to know how to use the gear or flaps, nor would they have had to use the rudders, which are controlled automatically by the yaw damper. All they would have had to do to keep the plane in the air was manipulate the joystick to climb or bank. Perhaps they needed to adjust the throttles. Those are basic flying skills-something any private pilot can do. I’ve heard some people say that the second plane’s sweeping turn into the building indicated an experienced pilot at the controls. But again, that’s just an elementary skill.
Of course, we may never find out for sure exactly what happened. But one of the reasons I’m so convinced it was a simulator that played a role in the selection and accuracy of the attack was because I’ve done it myself. Sometimes, when we have a few minutes to spare at the end of our own six-monthly simulator sessions, we’ve dived at-and flown through-those twin towers. I guess none of us will do it again.
