Devvy Kidd -- Flight 93 Lawsuit update

FLIGHT 93 LAWSUIT UPDATE

By: Devvy Kidd
November 27, 2006

� 2006 - NewsWithViews.com

On September 19, 2006, I filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court over a FOIA request regarding Flight 93; see history here. The speculation regarding Flight 93 and whether it landed at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport or was shot down by our military over Shanksville, Pennsylvania continues. One web site makes an allegation that a mystery plane landed after Delta Flight 1989 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on 911. This web site gives a time line of planes landing and passenger interviews and makes the statement: "Flight X landed at 10:45, and at 11:15 the 200 passengers were taken into the evacuated NASA Center." This site maintains this is not Delta, but an unknown Flight.

A great number of people believe this was Flight 93, the problem is, Flight 93 did not have 200 passengers on board. Unfortunately, most of the links used as source references don't work so one cannot look to those newspaper accounts of what is allegedly being reported on this site. Not very professional and it leaves one wondering how credible the statements are if there's no way to verify them. Some of the ones that do work give one a good glimpse into the confusion of the day, i.e., this news account covering the emergency landing of the Delta flight:

"Mayor Michael White, in a press conference this morning, confirmed the threat of a bomb aboard a Delta 767 Boeing plane. The threat came after a terrorist attack in New York on the World Trade Center. The Pentagon has also been bombed and the White House has received threats. A plane has also crashed in Somerset, Pa. See National Coverage Initially, it was believed that the plane was being emptied, but the latest reports indicate that it is not. The latest information into the NewsNet5.com newsroom indicates that the passengers were still on the plane. About 200 passengers were aboard the plane. It will be checked for a bomb. White also said that a second airplane in distress passed through Cleveland's airspace earlier this morning."

In this interview, Mayor White states a second airplane in distress passed through Cleveland's airspace earlier. This would indicate Flight 93. There were a lot of flights in the air at the time, including those involved with the military exercises so painstakingly documented in Crossing the Rubicon. It was originally thought Delta Flight 1989 had bombs on the plane and that's why it was diverted.

Mayor White's first press release which identified the plane as Flight 93 was withdrawn; see here. In an effort to find out why this news item was withdrawn, people contacted Liz Foreman who was responsible for posting this on behalf of WCPO. Ms. Foreman provided a response, see here. Apparently there are those who choose to believe she is lying. Without her sworn testimony under oath in some forum, readers will have to decide if she is being honest in her explanation of the chaos of the day. She states the news came from AP (Associated Press), but unless someone has some pull, it would be very difficult to track down that lead.

Going back to Delta Flight 1989, media reports state this flight had 200 passengers on board: "A few hours after Mayor White's first news conference, FBI Special Agent Mark Bullock confirmed that the Delta jet with 200 people aboard had landed safely and had not been in danger. WCPN radio, 9/12/01." However, other media reports state 69 passengers; see here along with the time of landing as 10: 45 pm. This will prove to be false, but is picked up by other news organizations; see here. We have the FBI stating, according to a news report, that a Delta jet with 200 people had landed safely (this would be Flight 1989), but at the same time, other reports say there are only 69 passengers. United Flight 93, as best I can find had 45 passengers.

Did United Flight 93 land at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on September 11, 2001? That was the focus of my Freedom of Information Act request which was ignored for ten months until I filed the lawsuit. On October 2, 2006 while I was out of the state, a Mr. Brad Preamble, an attorney representing the FAA, called me because his agency had been served. On October 3, 2006, I returned his call; it turned into a conference call with a woman named Melanie who handles the FOIAs and a woman named Dottie. Preamble did most of the talking with contributions by Melanie. I was told that the FAA and the DOT had no "responsive documents" for my FOIA. Preamble explained that the Department of Justice had commandeered more than a million pieces of information or documentation relating to 911, and it was unlikely, even if there was anything, that DOJ would probably not release it.

While excuses were given, Melanie explained to me that she had one "flight strip" in her possession. She explained that these flight strips are destroyed after 15 days, but somehow she had one lone survivor. I inquired what is a flight strip and was told it is simply a piece of paper used by the control tower to track flight activity at airports, but otherwise, the FAA did not keep any records of arrivals and departures of any planes at airports in this country. You could have knocked me over with a feather! How could the FAA not keep any logs of flights taking off and landing at airports? I asked if I could have a copy of this one surviving flight strip and was told they would try. We concluded our conversation with no resolution in sight.

As soon as I got off the phone, I called Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and was fortunate enough to get the Operations Manager on the phone. I was informed there were no records kept by his department regarding flights, incoming or out going and wanted to know what I was looking for? I explained there was some confusion about Flight 93 landing on 911 and he immediately jumped in with it was Delta Flight 1989. He also said conspiracy people had bugged them for years about it and accused him and other colleagues of lying, which he resented. He recommended I get the airport's billing records because every plane that lands whether it's private or commercial is billed for services.

The following day, October 4, 2006, I received another phone call from Preamble and Melanie. A very carefully worded phone conversation in which Preamble explained that "they got ahead of themselves and misspoke." Apparently there were a number of "responsive documents" after all and they would see what they could do about "setting it up someplace where I could view the documents." This was going to be unacceptable to me, but I decided to wait and see what they came back with. On November 13, 2006, I received a phone call from Eric Soskin, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Soskin was very no nonsense and told me right off the bat that there was no excuse why my FOIA had not been processed in a timely fashion. He had already informed the defendants in my lawsuit their position was a "loser," that I was entitled to the documents and he would get them to me immediately. I informed Soskin that I appreciated it, but not to hurry as I was going out of the state on the 15th to do an investigation. Soskin told me he would have the documents to me the week of November 20th and true to his word, they arrived FED EX on November 20th, both in hard copies and a disc.

The flight manifests for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport arrivals on September 10, 11 and 12, 2001 are here. The flight manifests for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport departures on September 10, 11 and 12, 2001 are here. These manifests contain all the data I requested in my FOIA and I consider this lawsuit nearly concluded. I will be contacting Mr. Soskin this week with the request that I be given a copy of that one flight strip in the possession of the FAA since it is a "responsive" piece of documentation under my FOIA. If all of these flight strips are destroyed after 15 days, why did one survive and why does the FAA have it if they have turned everything over to DOJ? I need an answer on this before I file a Motion to Dismiss because it's the little things that nag at me when doing research. I wish to thank the four individuals who sent in donations that covered the $350 filing fee; without such assistance, I wouldn't be able to do these investigations because all we seek is the truth.

Regarding the manifests: If you click on the arrivals and proceed almost to the bottom, you will see that Delta Flight 1989 is listed as landing at 10:11 am that morning. There are no flights listed as landing at 10:45. There is no Flight 93 listed anywhere on any of the manifests. Delta's Flight 1989 was an unscheduled, emergency landing. The flight manifests contain some blanks in the 'Airline' column, but if you look at the ID numbers, these are clearly private air craft; there is also record of an F-16 landing. Additionally, although all flights nationwide were grounded for several days, there's proof that on September 12th and 13th, three flights landed and took off. These ID numbers are clearly private and one wonders who had permission to fly when the airports were supposedly closed down?

Are these documents accurate? Could Flight 93 have landed and been deleted from the manifests provided as a result of my lawsuit? Yes, anything is possible. Flight 1989 was an emergency landing, yet it is listed on the manifest. Is there some other way to cross check? Yes. On the recommendation from the Operations Manager at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, I filed a Public Records Request with the City of Cleveland to obtain all billing records for all incoming and departing flights at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, midnight to midnight, September 11, 2001. My request covers all flight numbers, the name of the commercial carrier, arrivals and departures and to include all emergency or unscheduled landings by any commercial airline that day. We'll see if they billed for Delta Flight 1989, an unscheduled, emergency landing. The City of Cleveland's POC for these requests has received my paper work and when I receive their response I will make it public.

Is there any other way to get a fix on Flight 93 and where it was? Yes. There were pilots in the area at the time who were close enough to see Flight 93. This is not unusual and in fact, the same thing happened when Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed off the coast of California on January 31, 2000. Pilots in the vicinity helped track Flight 261 while it was in distress and then watched it plummet from the sky into the ocean. I know this for a fact because I have the radar trackings on video obtained via a FOIA; my on site investigation is on my CD. The same thing happened with Flight 93: there were pilots who had visual contact with the plane. We know this to be true from the radio exchanges between pilots and air traffic controllers.

How much did these pilots really see? Did any of them see Flight 93 take a missile from a military plane? If they did, why wouldn't they come forward? The same reason many of the eyewitnesses from TWA Flight 800 refuse to talk: they were threatened with arrest and prosecution by the FBI and that is a fact. Were any commercial or private pilots in the air at the time close enough to Flight 93 as it headed straight into the ground over Shanksville? These questions will only be answered when those pilots are put under oath either by a grand jury or a real investigation and hearings into what happened that day takes place. Until then, it's still all speculation.

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Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty, which sold close to 2,000,000 copies. Devvy appears on radio shows all over the country, ran for Congress and is a highly sought after public speaker. Your complimentary copy of the 32-page report may be obtained from El Dorado Gold. Devvy is a contributing writer for www.NewsWithViews.com.

Devvy's website: www.devvy.com

E-mail is: devvyk@earthlink.net

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