And not something really impenetrable?

I don't claim to have all the answers on physics or cellphone technology and I'm certainly not going to hypothesize on the reasons why phone calls may or may not have been faked. That being said, I've always been a little skeptical of the infamous cellphone calls (having tried to call with one while on a plane in 2000), but the recommended site (http://www.physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm) that started this whole discussion out does give one pause. Here's a relevant quote:

"As I have pointed out elsewhere, cellphone calls from commercial aircraft much over 8000 feet are essentially impossible, while those below 8000 feet are highly unlikely down to about 2000, where they become merely unlikely. Moreover, even at the latter altitude (and below), the handoff problem appears. Any airliner at or below this altitude, flying at the normal speed of approximately 500 mph, would encounter the handoff problem. An aircraft traveling at this speed would not be over the cellsite long enough to complete the electronic "handshake" (which takes several seconds to complete) before arriving over the next cellsite, when the call has to be handed off from the first cellsite to the next one. This also takes a few seconds, the result being, in the optimal case, a series of broken transmissions that must end, sooner or later, in failure.

"It must also be remarked that the alleged hijackers of the Cellphone Flight were remarkably lenient with their passengers, allowing some 13 calls. However, it would seem highly unlikely that hijackers would allow any phone calls for the simple reason that passengers could relay valuable positional and other information useful to authorities on the ground, thus putting the whole mission in jeopardy."

I'm not sure what this means, but after such crap as the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman debacles, I'm really not willing to give any side, especially the Bush administration, the benefit of doubt. Its sad but its what W. has brought upon himself.

The cockpit transcripts that were released are sketchy at best (although if the passengers had gotten into the cockpit its hard to see how the hijackers could have said "Allah is great!" 7-9 times before the crash). It might be one of those things, like JFK, that will always be "unknowable".

I'm also concerned that this movie, as well as the upcoming Oliver Stone 9/11 opus, will become a point of reference for right-nutter, mouth-breathers country-wide who'll reference these movies endlessly as unadulterated truth. Worse yet, like the spacially-challenged poster "AC", it'll be used by the militant right as a rallying cry for those who would rather turn America into a fascist police state than ever see another 9/11.

"I can't speak with any authority about cellphone calls at umpteen-thousand-feet".

So shut up. Seems that you, as well as Steve and a few other posters, can speak with authority about what a terrorist said to a plane full of people who are now all dead. What did you do, teleport onto the plane to catch the action, realize there was a shit-storm going down and teleport safely back home -- only to report these "facts" to me in a letters column while insulting me as well? Imagine what you people could accomplish if you used your powers for good!

And then Steve chimes in with this nugget: "There was nothing, at that point, that a passenger could relay to someone on the ground that would help one bit, and the hijackers knew it."

Oh, really? Seeing as how all planes come with a GPS system and Cheney had authorized them to be shot down (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50745-2004Jun17.html) I'm pretty sure that if the proper authorities were contacted using the AirPhones (which work via satelite and were used successfully by some passengers - one would assume "on the sly") a plane could easliy be tracked, located and shot down within minutes.

I put enough caveats in my post to make it obvious that I don't know exactly what happened that day on that plane (and I certainly never put the word "alleged" in front of the word hijackers). Nobody but dead people do. But to try and make ourselves feel better by ingnoring certain known facts and their inconsistancies does everyone, including the dead, a disservice.

Where I come from adults don't blindly accept what their government says, regardless of who's running it. Maybe you're the one who needs to grow up and join the real world where our government has done enough secret crap (Iran/Conta anyone?) in the name of "justice" to make me a permanent cynic. On a monthly basis my threshold for "beyond the pale" gets extended more and more with BushCo. Anytime I think "well I guess it can't get worse": blammo!- Abu Graib (which some right-nutter blogs doubt ever happened); blammo!- Plamegate; blammo!- NSA. It's gotten so bad I don't even flinch anymore when I'm struck by this administration.

How about you Motherwell? Steve? Feel like we've seen all we're going to see? Or you just gonna get sucker-punched again and wonder why you didn't see THAT coming?