The Impossible In-Flight Cell Phone Calls on 9/11

An Independent Investigation

This is an updated version of an article I wrote in June 2020, which was published at my original blog here: https://mark-conlon.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-impossible-in-flight-cell-phone.html

Introduction

One thing we can say for sure, those who called their relatives from their cell phones could not of placed those calls while the plane was inflight.

Minutes after the fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, news reports were already circulating that several passengers had made phone calls with their cell phones from the hijacked planes. The problem is, in 2001 it was practically impossible to make a cell phone call from a plane at cruising altitudes. Cellular phones use low power transmitters, both to preserve battery life, and to keep the cost of unit down. It is up to the receiving towers on the ground to pick up and boost their signal, before they route it through the system. It is commonly known that beyond 10,000 feet, cell phones become useless, and passenger planes usually cruise at 30,000 feet and beyond.

In 2005 The Washington Post wrote:

“Most cell phones can’t reach a station from beyond 10,000 feet. Another technical hurdle is to find a way that cell phone calls could be handed off from one cell phone tower to another on the ground, when an aircraft is travelling at 500 miles per hour.”

Analysis of the official Evidence

Only in two cases did the authorities openly state that a cell phone was used. One is a call placed at 9:58 a.m. by Edward Felt, who allegedly locked himself in the toilet.

The second call is Flight Attendant Cee Cee Lyles, who called her husband Lorne Lyles, who was surprised to have received the phone call from her cell phone, which he expressed in a television documentary called Portrait of Courage: The Untold Story of Flight 93.

Lorne described that, after the call got disconnected: "I looked at the caller ID, and noticed that it was a call, and it was from her cell phone. And I'm like, OK, wait a minute. How can she call me from on the plane from a cell phone, because cell phones don't work on a plane? That's what I'm thinking." See video below:

Video Source: Portrait of Courage: The Untold Story of Flight 93.

It’s one thing the cell phone calls that authorities admitted to, it’s another the number of cell phone calls which were actually made. In the days following 9/11, the FBI interviewed relatives who received phone calls from their relatives on the planes, and their reports tell a very different story.

One of the FBI’s report states:

Starting at approximately 6:30 a.m. PST (which is 9:30 a.m. New York time), Deena Burnett received a series of three to five cellular phone calls from her husband Thomas Burnett. Deena was able to determine that her husband was using his own cellular phone because it showed his cell phone number. Only one of the calls did not show his caller ID because she was on the phone to another caller when Thomas called her. Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

Video Source: The Story of Flight 93 Documentary (2002)

According to the official documentation, Thomas Burnett made a total of 3 calls. One at 9:30:32 a.m. lasting 28 seconds, one at 9:37:53 a.m. lasting 62 seconds and one at 9:44:23 a.m. lasting 54 seconds. This means that two of these calls if not all three were made from Thomas Burnett’s cellular phone.  

At 9:30 a.m. United 93 was flying at 32,000 feet, and climbing. At 9:37 a.m. it had reached 37,000 feet, and was still climbing. At 9:44 a.m. the plane had descended to 22,000 feet, while accelerating reaching a speed of 400 miles per hour, making it impossible for any of Thomas Burnett’s cell phone calls to have been made from the plane at those altitudes and speed the plane was traveling.

According to another official report, Jeremy Glick used his cell phone to call Makely his step-mother, to report the hijacking. Glick then asked to talk to his wife Lyzbeth. According to the FBI report, Lyzbeth could not hear any unusual sounds in the background of the call, and the connection was extremely clear, as if he was calling from the next room. The document also states, that cell phone call communication was lost at 9:55 a.m. Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

Glick called at 9:37:41 a.m. which means the communication lasted uninterrupted for 18 minutes, while the plane was flying between 37,000 feet and 10,000 feet at an average speed of almost 400 miles per hour.

It is impossible that Glick’s cell phone call was able to be maintained for that duration of time while the plane was travelling at such high altitudes and speed, without the call dropping out or having interruption problems with the hand off signals between the cell phone towers on the ground.

Lauren Grandcolas had a cell phone, and it revealed in the FBI documents that Lauren borrowed her cell phone to Honor Wainio, who called her parents at 9:53:43 a.m., and the call lasted 269 seconds. The plane would have been at 10,000 feet at this time, travelling at close to 400 miles per hour.

Linda Gronlund also used her own cell phone to call her sister at 9:46:05 a.m. and the duration of her call was 71 seconds. The plane was traveling at 17,000 feet and travelling at almost 400 miles per hour.

Marion Britton was also a passenger on United 93. Britton contacted her boyfriend, Fred Fiumano on a cell phone that Britton had borrowed from another passenger according Fiumano in the FBI document. Britton’s call to her boyfriend was at 9:49:12 a.m. and the duration was 232 seconds. United 93 was traveling beyond 13,000 feet at this time, and travelling at a speed of 420 miles per hour.

Peter Hanson, a passenger on United 175 contacted his mother on his cell phone and informed his mother that his flight had been hijacked. Peter’s father Lee Hanson said, that he resisted the temptation to call his son back as he didn’t want to put his some in more danger by having his cell phone ring on the plane.  Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

Peter Hanson called his parents twice at 8:52:00 a.m. with a duration of 99 seconds, and at 9:00:03 a.m. with the call duration lasting 192 seconds. At 8:52 a.m. United 175 was at 30,000 feet, and it was climbing in altitude. And at 9:00 a.m. the plane flying at over 18,000 feet in altitude, while accelerating at 586 miles per hour at sea level.

Brian Sweeney was also a passenger on United 175. After learning of the attacks said the FBI, his wife Julie Sweeney arrived home to learn that her husband had left a message from his cell phone at approximately 8:58 a.m. on their answering machine. Sweeney made his call at 8:58:45 a.m. and the duration was 28 seconds, when the plane was at 25,000 feet in altitude. 

While anyone of these phone calls could have been connected through a fortunate set of coincidences, it should be obvious that all these cell phone calls as a whole could not have been made from the cruising planes.

Question:

Given the known limitations of a cellular phone system in 2001, can you provide any evidence that the cell phone calls made by the passengers reported by the FBI could have been made from the altitudes , speeds, and for the durations indicated for each of them?

The answer is NO.

Scientific Experiments Conducted:

A. K. Dewdney who is a scientist, conducted a series of experiments using cell phones from a small propeller aircraft, over the city of London, Ontario in Canada. (He noted that, "not only is the cell phone technological base in Canada identical to its U.S. counterpart, but Canadian communication technology is second to none, Canada being a world leader in research and development."
Source: http://physics911.net/projectachilles

Dewdney found:

Cell phone calls from commercial aircraft much over 8,000 feet are essentially impossible, while those below 8,000 feet are highly unlikely down to about 2,000, 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 cell site long enough to complete the electronic "handshake" (which takes several seconds to complete) before arriving over the next cell site, when the call has to be handed off from the first cell site 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. Source: http://physics911.net/cellphoneflight93

An article published by the Travel Technologist shortly after 9/11 stated:

"Wireless communications networks weren't designed for ground-to-air communication. Cellular experts privately admit that they're surprised the calls were able to be placed from the hijacked planes, and that they lasted as long as they did."
Source: http://www.elliott.org/technology/2001/cellpermit.htm

Wireless Review similarly commented:

"Because wireless networks are designed for terrestrial use, the fact that so many people were able to call from the sky [on September 11] brings into question how the phones worked from such altitudes. Alexa Graf, AT&T spokesperson, said systems are not designed for calls from high altitudes, suggesting it was almost a fluke that the calls reached their destinations."
Source: http://telephonyonline.com/wireless/mag/wireless_final_contact/

Even in a recent mainstream science channel Veritasium (with 16+ million subscribers) talks about the impossibly of making cell phone calls while in high altitude flight.

United 93 hijacking time discrepancy:

This opens the way to the disturbing possibly which seems to support that the passengers were forced to call their relatives under duress, pretending to be on the plane. To support of this hypothesis, there is evidence to study.

If we study the call Todd Beamer had with GTA airphone operator Lisa Jefferson, during the alleged hijack of United 93. It is through this phone call with Jefferson that the world learned of the famous call to action “Let’s Roll”. The 9/11 Commission established the hijacking took place at 9:28 a.m. Yet Todd Beamer was connected to Jefferson at 9:43 a.m. which is 15 minutes into the hijacking. Yet the FBI report confirms Jefferson received the call from Beamer at approximately 8:45 a.m. Central Time (which is 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time). Yet the contents of Beamer’s conversation with Jefferson are at odds with the official narrative.

According to Jefferson, “Beamer called to state that the plane was about to be hijacked.” He stated, “that three individuals, two wielding knives, the third with a bomb strapped to his waist with a red belt, were preparing to take control of the flight”.  Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

Jefferson estimated she spoke to Beamer for 7 minutes, before two hijackers armed with knives entered the cockpit.”  Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

This would place the hijacking around 9:52 a.m., yet officially the hijacking took place at 9:28 a.m. This is a major discrepancy in the official story of the when the hijacking took place, which leads to the question, of how could Beamer be describing events that are supposed to be happening in front of his eyes, when in fact they had already happened approximately 25 minutes earlier?  

How could the terrorists be “preparing to take control of the flight” at 9:45 a.m. when they had already been in the cockpit for 15 minutes?

Moreover, the FBI also wrote, that “Jefferson noted that the call had unusually low amount of background noise.” This was also noted by Lyzbeth Glick, who noticed with her phone call she received from Jeremy’s phone call. Furthermore, the records show, Beamer’s phone call lasted 3,2925 seconds, approximately 1 hour. The strange element is, it is alleged by Jefferson that the phone line was left open for another 45 minutes after the crash, which would have been impossible, being as airphones are powered by the plane’s electrical system, which is also inconceivable considering, the plane was allegedly destroyed into tiny pieces at the crash site.

Jefferson stated:

“We didn’t lose a connection, because there’s a different sound that you use. I never lost connection it just went silent.” Source: “I Promised I wouldn’t Hang Up” beliefnet.com

The FBI stated:

“Jefferson stayed on the phone until she learned Flight 93 had crashed.”
Source: FBI FD302a – intelwire.com

All these discrepancies indicate that Beamer was not on the plane observing real events unfolding, but seemingly describing an imaginary pre-scripted situation from a different location. It must be considered that the passengers and crew were part of a hijacking training exercise scenario, either knowingly, or unknowing, where they did not know their end fate?   

12 days before 9/11, such a training scenario of hijacked plane including cell phone calls being made as part of the scenario was carried out.

On the 31^st August 2001, the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Crisis Management Center engaged in a war game training exercise which involved the scenario of cell phone calls being made from a hijacked plane. According to Ellen Engleman, the administrator of the DOT’s Research and Special programs Administration, commented that this was “actually much more than a tabletop drill”. She went on to add, “during that exercise, part of the scenario, interestingly enough, involved a potentially hijacked plane and someone calling on a cell phone, among other aspects of the scenario that were very strange when twelve days later, as you know, we had the actual event. Source: Mineta Transportation Institute, October 30^th, 2001, p. 108, in C/11T

So it is more than plausible to suspect, that a training scenario being carried out on 9/11. We know that many training exercises were happening on 9/11, and it was not just a normal day in aviation, in fact just the opposite of what we have been led to believe. It was a very busy day with many war games and training exercises, with scenarios of planes being hijacked and flown into buildings along with simulated inserted blips on radar screens.

In closing, in my future articles I will be discussing more about the alleged phone calls from the planes. I will also be exploring both past and present claims that the cell phone calls were made via routing through Picocells, and whether or not this theory stands up to scrutiny, bearing in mind all the available evidence we have.

Thanks for reading & caring!