The transponders, like most avionics, has a handy-dandy off switch. -----Original Message----- From: Borger, Ben [mailto:bborger@platinumsystems.net] Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 4:32 PM To: 'nanog@merit.edu' Subject: FW: Analysis from a JHU CS Prof
At 06:05 PM 9/12/2001, you wrote:
Quite more interesting is why nobody noticed that 4 airliners where hijacked almost the same time.
Not surprising. Aircraft are "flight followed" by a series of control centers across the nation, each responsible for a given chunk of airspace. Something happening in an area controlled by Center "A", for example, wouldn't be passed on to Center "B" (which has it's own problems to work) unless it impacted Center "B". Furthermore, unless someone TELLS Center they're being hijacked, there's no way for a controller - looking at
a blip - to know what's up. And any controller can tell you that pilots do
Somehow the people who did this managed to turn off the transponders on these planes. Normally a plane flying in controlled airspace squawks a unique id and altitude which is decoded by their radar and associated with each blip. Sometimes low cost homebuilts/ultralights fly with no transponder, but Boeings <sarcasm>usually</sarcasm> do. If you set a transponder to 7500, it means you're being hijacked. BTW if you see your friend Jack at the airport, be sure to say, "What's up, Jack!" instead of "Hi Jack!" So how do you deal with this? Blowing up a whole country? I wonder if the US should adopt a 'fire w/ fire' approach and invest in intelligence, covert ops and assassinations. It would seem that it is open season on terrorism by every democratic nation, I expect to see very conspicuous Samuel Jackson style ass whoopins on whiny extremist groups to satiate America's anger. Terrorize the terrorists. Oh yeah, obviously Echelon should probably have MacOS loaded on it. -b
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 According to CNN, the transponder was only turned off on 1 of the planes; the United flight that crashed outside of pitt. Regards, Matt - -- Matt Levine @Home: matt@deliver3.com @Work: matt@easynews.com ICQ : 17080004 PGP : http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x6C0D04CF - -----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Hire, Ejay Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 4:35 PM To: 'Borger, Ben'; 'nanog@merit.edu' Subject: RE: Analysis from a JHU CS Prof The transponders, like most avionics, has a handy-dandy off switch. - -----Original Message----- From: Borger, Ben [mailto:bborger@platinumsystems.net] Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 4:32 PM To: 'nanog@merit.edu' Subject: FW: Analysis from a JHU CS Prof
At 06:05 PM 9/12/2001, you wrote:
Quite more interesting is why nobody noticed that 4 airliners where hijacked almost the same time.
Not surprising. Aircraft are "flight followed" by a series of control centers across the nation, each responsible for a given chunk of airspace. Something happening in an area controlled by Center "A", for example, wouldn't be passed on to Center "B" (which has it's own problems to work) unless it impacted Center "B". Furthermore, unless someone TELLS Center they're being hijacked, there's no way for a controller - looking at
a blip - to know what's up. And any controller can tell you that pilots do
Somehow the people who did this managed to turn off the transponders on these planes. Normally a plane flying in controlled airspace squawks a unique id and altitude which is decoded by their radar and associated with each blip. Sometimes low cost homebuilts/ultralights fly with no transponder, but Boeings <sarcasm>usually</sarcasm> do. If you set a transponder to 7500, it means you're being hijacked. BTW if you see your friend Jack at the airport, be sure to say, "What's up, Jack!" instead of "Hi Jack!" So how do you deal with this? Blowing up a whole country? I wonder if the US should adopt a 'fire w/ fire' approach and invest in intelligence, covert ops and assassinations. It would seem that it is open season on terrorism by every democratic nation, I expect to see very conspicuous Samuel Jackson style ass whoopins on whiny extremist groups to satiate America's anger. Terrorize the terrorists. Oh yeah, obviously Echelon should probably have MacOS loaded on it. - -b -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBO6Eeocp0j1NsDQTPEQIuQACg8zlqfSWS3aRVz54+aC1PTp3RvQ4AoMbu gF3yAsCOMJRk7Fd0sYnoBYfU =gfcg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (2)
-
Hire, Ejay -
Matt Levine