I know a few pilots
They generally agree that it was a piece of neat flying to hit the twin towers; that most pilots at captain-level would have a hard time taking the controls manually (with no automated guidance as you get when landing for instance) to accomplish such a "feat", never mind a severely undertrained terrorist. A lot of them claim to have seen UFOs too and one I know even has mobile phone photos.

Not posting more as a full qotw entry as these pilots generally don't like to advertise such opinions and experiences, as the civil aviation authority takes a dim view - I've already been warned about posting certain info on message boards that could be traced back to certain people. Not paranoia.. the airline industry is a very strange world.
(raymond "three griddle pans" luxury yacht lovin' the christmas action, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 12:27, 3 replies)

it was
pretty neat flying, phew!!
(knackerz is skinning up, Sat 29 Aug 2009, 3:13, closed)

Boil your head
see my reply below
(raymond "three griddle pans" luxury yacht lovin' the christmas action, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 18:03, closed)

I expect knowing you're definitely going to die takes a lot of the worry out of it.
Lets you concentrate bettor on your flying.
(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Sun 30 Aug 2009, 0:08, closed)

Messsage board warrior twats
I was not voicing an opinion; simply stating that many pilots consider 9/11 to be a near-impossibility in the form that it was reported. Twat off. And the word "neat" here implies that to hit the twin towers would have taken ultra-precise skill, and is used ironically in its other sense.
(raymond "three griddle pans" luxury yacht lovin' the christmas action, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 18:02, closed)

Was it a miracle of precision?
Width of runway at Heathrow: 45 metres.
Width of one of the towers: 63 metres.

I am aware that airliners are generally guided in to Heathrow electronically, but I'd suggest that most pilots could easily hit a target that wide without help, particularly if it didn't matter where along the length of it they arrived. And it's not as though these guys took over the aircraft on a whim, they did do quite a bit of training in professional simulators first.

And I might be more impressed by the Pentagon pilot if he hadn't have bounced off the grass in front of the building first.
(richardm, Thu 3 Sep 2009, 10:26, closed)