Flight simulator study points to automated control of 9/11 flights

A new report by IC911 Research Director Dr. Piers Robinson sheds light on the challenging and counter-intuitive nature of the reported flight paths.

A new study by researchers at the International Center for 9/11 Justice (IC911) raises significant questions about the official account of how the aircraft involved on September 11, 2001, were flown.

Drawing on full-motion flight simulator tests conducted with three high-experience pilots and four low-experience pilots, the report finds that the maneuvers reportedly performed in the final moments before impact were both difficult to execute and counter-intuitive from a piloting standpoint.

By contrast, when pilots were tasked with simply hitting the targets, they consistently succeeded by using more direct, intuitive routes.

The study reveals that the reported flight paths, if real, involved unnecessary deviations, rapid descents, and last-second turns and pull-outs — maneuvers that pilots would evidently be unlikely to fly if the goal were just to hit the buildings.

In their first attempts of these “indirect” routes, none of the pilots successfully executed the final maneuvers into the South Tower of the World Trade Center or into the Pentagon.

Dr. Piers Robinson

Authored by IC911 Research Director Dr. Piers Robinson — who himself is a pilot with 200 hours of flying experience — the report combines rich experimental data with detailed technical analysis to provide the most rigorous empirical examination to date of the flyability of the reported routes.

Taken as a whole, the findings indicate that the precision and symmetry of the reported flight paths are more consistent with some form of automated guidance than with manual control by pilots of any experience level.

The culmination of more than a year of planning, experiments, and analysis, the full report, titled “Manual or Automated? A Flight Simulation Study and Analysis of Reported Aircraft Maneuvers on September 11, 2001,” is now available along with a compendium of 68 simulation videos.

Save the Date for Two Presentations

Dr. Robinson will do two online presentations and Q&As about the study over the next week. The first will be on the 9/11 War Room, hosted by Gene and Sandra Laratonda, on Sunday, May 10, at 4:00 PM EDT. The second will be on UK Column on Thursday, May 14, at 12:00 PM EDT. We invite you to join us for one or both of these events.

In the meantime, we hope you’ll read the report and share it widely!