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Letter from the author, 9/05/02
Well, this was going to be the 20,000 hit update, then it became the 25,000 hit update. It looks like it's really going to be the 26,000 hit update by the time I get it up, so there it is.
I've been contacted by some mainstream media folks, done a couple of interviews for television, print, and online journalists. Things may be coming to a head, but again, we'll have to wait and see.
I've been advised by a few people, some of them military, that I should point out that Langley is not precisely the "home" of the 119th Fighter Wing, that the base is inhabited by Det. 1 of the Wing, which actually calls North Dakota home.
There have been quite a few emails asking whether the 757 itself could have caused the boom while in its final dive. While I expect it is possible for an airliner to exceed the speed of sound under such conditions, remember the "carpet", or area of measurable effect, of a sonic boom is sharply limited to around a mile wide for every thousand feet of aircraft altitude. The station is just over 60 miles away. Further, the boom was recorded 44 minutes before the impact, at a time when ATC still had UAL93 on its scopes, still far away.
Many have asked that I reproduce the piece I wrote for the often profane bartcop.com many months ago regarding the debris field. While I would love to re-work it, and remove some of the hot-headedness with which I was infected at the time, I think in the interest of acountability I will simply link to it here. While the language is inflammatory, I still consider the analysis sound, and interesting reading.
Thanks, as ever, to everyone who has taken the time to drop me a note, and hopefully I'll have substatial news to report soon. Better still, you won't have to read it here.
previous update (8/15/02)
