Reply #51: Interesting info on calls made from the various flights

[Roland99]

http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/phonecalls.html

* Flight 11
o Madeline Sweeney's phone call: Flight attendant Sweeney allegedly placed a cell phone call to her ground manager Michael Woodward starting at 8:21 and talked for 25 minutes, until the plane crashed. The caller related many details such as wounds by victims of the hijackers to seat numbers of the hijackers. 2 There are conflicting reports on whether the call was recorded.
o Betty Ong's phone call: Flight attendant Betty Ong allegedly called Vanessa Minter at American Airlines reservations at 8:21, and talked for 23 minutes, until the plane crashed. Nydia Gonzalez also listened in from 8:27. The FBI refused to release a recording of the first 4-1/2 minutes of the conversation, but during the 9/11 Commission's January 27, 2004 hearing, the recording was played. 3 4
* Flight 175
o Peter Burton Hanson's phone call: Passenger Peter Burton called his father and reported details of the hijacking. The call was repeated as he was cut off several times.
o Brian Sweeney's phone call: Passenger Brian Sweeney attempted to call his wife but could only leave a message. 5
o unnamed female flight attendant call: There appears to be no public evidence of this call.
* Flight 77
o Barbara Olson's calls: Barbara Olson allegedly placed two calls to her husband, Ted Olson. The only known evidence of these calls are statements by Olson, the first on September 12th.
* Flight 93
o calls to family members and friends: at least thirteen passengers made over 30 cell phone calls, most of them short and some repeated. 6
o the last call: At 9:58, a frantic passenger called from a bathroom to report an explosion and smoke. The tape of this 911 call was seized by the FBI. The 911 operator who took the call, Glenn Cramer, was told by the FBI not to discuss the call.

And the big experiment:

Project Achilles Report Parts One, Two and Three
http://physics911.net/projectachilles.htm

Although we cannot say yet to what degree the heavier aluminum skin on a Boeing 700-series aircraft would affect cellphone calls made from within the aircraft, they would not be without some effect as windows take up a much smaller solid angle at the cellphone antenna. Signals have a much smaller window area to escape through, in general.

As was shown above, the chance of a typical cellphone call from cruising altitude making it to ground and engaging a cellsite there is less than one in a hundred. To calculate the probability that two such calls will succeed involves elementary probability theory. The resultant probability is the product of the two probabilities, taken separately. In other words, the probability that two callers will succeed is less than one in ten thousand. In the case of a hundred such calls, even if a large majority fail, the chance of, say 13 calls getting through can only be described as infinitesimal. In operational terms, this means "impossible."

At lower altitudes the probability of connection changes from impossible to varying degrees of "unlikely." But here, a different phenomenon asserts itself, a phenomenon that cannot be tested in a propellor-driven light aircraft. At 500 miles per hour, a low-flying aircraft passes over each cell in a very short time. For example if a cell (area serviced by a given cellsite) were a mile in diameter, the aircraft would be in it for one to eight seconds. Before a cellphone call can go through, the device must complete an electronic "handshake" with the cellsite servicing the call. This handshake can hardly be completed in eight seconds. When the aircraft comes into the next cell, the call must be "handed off" to the new cellsite. This process also absorbs seconds of time. Together, the two requirements for a successful and continuous call would appear to absorb too much time for a speaking connection to be established. Sooner or later, the call is "dropped."

This assessment is borne out by both earwitness testimony and by expert opinion, as found in Appendix B, below. Taking the consistency of theoretical prediction and expert opinion at face value, it seems fair to conclude that cellphone calls (at any altitude) from fast-flying aircraft are no more likely to get through than cellphone calls from high-flying slow aircraft.