At the time of 9/11 I was involved in ALPA work. A good friend of mine, a pilot I've known for 37 years, was the head of our union’s safety division on 9/11.

We had a regular scheduled MEC meeting in Chicago about 2-3 weeks after that horrible day. My friend and I both attended this 5 day meeting as our duties required our presence.

As the head of our air safety unit, my friend was invited to Shanksville, PA, getting there on a company 757 either very late that night or shortly after midnight. This was one of the few airplanes permitted to fly after the FAA shut the system down that day. I assume they flew in Pittsburgh, PA.

He showed me and everyone else at our meeting about 40-50 photos of the scene that he had taken. He also provided us with a detailed description and analysis of what he saw. This is a man who is a qualified accident investigator and had been involved in ALPA air safety work for 30+ continuous years. His integrity is absolutely above reproach.

As I recall, and it's been 4-1/2 years, the airplane hit the ground around 400+ knots at an angle of 70 degrees or so. Possibly inverted, but on that point I’m not certain. As such it didn't have a lot of forward motion, just a lot of vertical motion, so most of its energy went straight down. Not unlike Value Jet in the Everglades.

While there wasn't a lot to be seen above ground, there were definitely pieces of an airplane there.

Some of the airplane ended up some distance from the main crash, as I recall perhaps as far away as 1/4 mile or less.

With all due respect, the scenario you are referring to is absolutely absurd.