Monday, April 09, 2012

Mixing Your Glick With Your Beamer, Under the Dirty Christian Hands of Ms. Lisa Jefferson.

I should really just let the following two items speak for themselves, standing in juxtaposition, although I'm sure I won't be able to keep myself from throwing in some editorial comment, for herein lies a fuller (dare I ever say full?) view of the parameters of the 9/11 conspiracy.

The first is a memorandum prepared by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, part of a group of such documents, which were collected by the 9/11 Commissioners in preparation for writing their report, and then made public in 2009. These have been uploaded at Scribd, and I've embedded a view of the collection at the bottom of this blog, and by that reference this can be found as page 69.

Below this is an article from the Albany Times Union written at the one-year anniversary mark of 9/11. Taken together they show the integral involvement of corrupt New York State policemen in providing a platform of plausibility, if not credibility, upon which the tools of the conspiracy, women like Lisa Jefferson , Lyzbeth Glick and Lisa Beamer have unleashed their mercenary madness. The simplest rule of thumb is this: all public figures who stand in the media spotlight, and serve as mouthpieces for the narrative, are fully witting accomplices to the original deception.
FBI
Date: 09/11/01
Date of transcription 09/11/20

On September 11, 2001, at approximately 8:45 AM, Special Agent SA [ ] received a telephone call from ROBERT COMBS, employed by GTE AIRFONE, 2809 Butterfield Road, Oak Brook, Illinois. COMBS thereafter provided the following information:

COMBS advised he was relaying information from GTE AIRFONE employee LISA JEFFERSON; who was currently talking to a passenger on UNITED AIRLINES UA flight 93, which had left Newark, New Jersey at 8:00 AM and was traveling to San Francisco, California. This passenger identified himself as TODD BEAMER, from Cranberry, New Jersey and he told JEFFERSON his flight had been hijacked by three Arab individuals, two of the individuals were described by BEAMER as having knives, and the third had a bomb strapped to him. BEAMER was apparently sitting next to a flight attendant, who was relaying information to BEAMER. COMBS further advised that BEAMER stated the hijacker seemed to be aware of the fact that he was on the telephone, but that they did not seem to care.

COMBS advised his office was trying to patch BEAMER's phone call to SA [ ] but GTE AIRFONE employees could not accomplish this task immediately. COMBS further advised his office did not have the capability to record BEAMER's conversation with JEFFERSON. COMBS then advised JEFFERSON was no longer talking to BEAMER, and that it appeared to her that BEAMER may have placed the phone on a seat or in the magazine pocket,; JEFFERSON was reporting to COMBS that she could not hear any discernible conversations in the background.

At 9:03 AM, COMBS advised he believed the telephone call had been disconnected. It was at this time that COMBS advised the call had been received at GTE AIRFONE's Oak Brook, Illinois office via a cell relay near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

At 9:11 AM, COMBS advise the call had not disconnected, and that the phone might be in the seat pocket.

At approximately 9:15 AM COMBS advised he was putting JEFFERSON on the phone, and that A patch of BEAMER's phone call to SA [ ] was ready. Instead of patching BEAMER's call, a party line call ensued, in which Captain JOHN NOONAN of the NEW YORK STATE POLICE, advised he was currently on the phone with whom he believed was the mother-in-law of UA Flight 93 passenger JEREMY

GLICK. Captain NOONAN advised the mother-in-law was relaying information her husband was currently obtaining from GLICK. GLICK. according to Captain NOONAN, described one of three hijackers as having a red box which was described as a bomb, and the others had knives. Captain NOONAN also stated he was told by GLICK's mother-in-law that the passengers had decided to rush the hijackers.

JEFFERSON asked BEAMER the location and number of passengers; BEAMER replied there were 10 passengers in the front of the plane, 27 passengers in the back, and 5 flight attendants. BEAMER had also stated he believed the plane had changed course. BEAMER also advised one or all of the hijackers had entered the cockpit, locked the door, and pulled the curtain. Captain NOONAN advised some screams were heard from GLICK's phone, and then things became quite. BEAMER was no longer heard from, but JEFFERSON report no noise other what appeared to be background noise.

No further contact with GLICK nor BEAMER was reported, and at 9:36 AM, both Captain NOONAN and JEFFERSON both stated they lost the phone calls

The following individuals can be contacted at the below numbers:

ROBERT COMBS. GTE AIRFONE [ ] and [ ] LISA JEFFERSON, GTE AIRFONE [ ]
Captain JOHN NOONAN, NEW YORK STATE POLICE;
PHYLLIS JOHNSON, GTE AIRFONE [ ] (Was on during party line call)
MARSHALL STARKMAN, VERIZON WIRELESS [ ] (Was on during party line call, and had some involvement in relaying GLICK's conversation)



September 8, 2002, Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) Final Call Details Love, Defiance, by Brendan Lyons, Staff writer

MILLBROOK -- Flight 93 was soaring across Pennsylvania when Jeremy Glick picked up a GTE Airfone. State Police dispatcher Robert Weingaertner was 90 minutes into his day shift at Troop K headquarters near Poughkeepsie.

It would be the last call of Glick's life. The 31-year-old computer executive had just watched another passenger get knifed when four hijackers took control of the cockpit. Troopers were huddled around a television set down the hall as Weingaertner settled in at his desk to field 911 calls at Troop K headquarters, less than a mile from the Taconic Parkway in Dutchess County. He knew that two commercial airliners had hit the World Trade Center.

His third call of the day was a woman on a cellphone -- Glick's mother-in-law at her home in the Catskills.

JoAnne Makely told Weingaertner that her son-in-law was aboard a jet from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco that had been hijacked. He was on the other line with their daughter. What can they do?

"Everything probably played out in seconds, but it seemed like an eternity," Weingaertner said.

As the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, countless stories are being retold about the heroic passengers on United Airlines Flight 93. But Weingaertner's story has never been told, until State Police officials last week allowed him to give his first interview.

"As soon as I realized what I had, I yelled for my supervisor to come over," Weingaertner said. "I would ask questions for Jeremy and they would repeat them exactly as I said it."

Where was the plane? Are they over water? A city? How many hijackers? Is anyone injured? Has the plane turned?

Other passengers around him were calling relatives, friends, telephone operators ... anyone. Glick told his wife, Lyzbeth, about the men with the red headbands. She had given birth to their first child, daughter Emerson, three months earlier. He asked about the World Trade Center. It was true, she said. The carnage was unfolding in front of her on television.

They told each other they loved one another.

A group of passengers was forming an alliance and forging a plan to ram the cockpit door with a food cart. Some of them probably figured they were going to die anyway. They also knew about the trade center and something about another plane hitting the Pentagon. Glick was a judo champion with the build of a professional football player. Lyzbeth told her husband he should help try to take back the plane.

The towers began collapsing and phone systems across southern New York started jamming. Weingaertner -- the only law enforcement official on record as having direct access that day to a hijacked jet -- kept the family on the line for 45 minutes.

Capt. Francis Christensen stood behind Weingaertner, firmly directing troopers who were flooding the dispatch room. Call Verizon and see if they can patch directly into Glick's call. Contact the FBI. Call the Federal Aviation Administration -- they already knew Flight 93 was in trouble. Christensen only listened, because Weingaertner, a dispatcher for eight years, was asking all the right questions.

Did Glick know their destination?

Weingaertner gently fed questions to Makely and her husband, Richard.

Lyzbeth Glick was overcome with emotion. The Glicks had married in 1996 and were living in New Jersey. Jeremy worked for an Internet company that studies Web customers. He would race home after work to hold his baby daughter.

"Jeremy knew what was going on," Christensen said. "The guy had his head on his shoulders, let me tell you. He knew how long they were up in the air. He felt the plane bank. That's when he says 'We're over Pennsylvania someplace. ... We're about 30,000 feet up in the air.'"

Jeremy and Lyzbeth Glick grew up together in northern New Jersey. They were voted prom king and queen. As they spoke, they professed their love for one another. She told him to be brave.

Most of the passengers had been forced into the rear of the cabin. One of the hijackers clutched something he claimed was a bomb.

Weingaertner sensed Lyzbeth Glick was slipping into shock. The ambulance he dispatched as a precaution would be there any moment. JoAnne Makely had the cellphone again. She wanted to use it to call a neighbor for help. "No, you can't do that. You have to stay on the phone with me," Weingaertner told her. Even State Police were having trouble making calls. If they hung up, they might never reconnect.

Inside the Boeing 757, the hijackers had turned the jet toward Washington, D.C. Their target is still only a guess. The night before, they had shaved hair from their bodies, bathed and put on cologne. They prayed to Allah and checked that their knives were sharp. There were 40 people on board the jet.

Todd Beamer, another passenger, finished reciting a Psalm and huddled with the passengers about to take their only shot.

Lyzbeth Glick apparently couldn't listen anymore. She handed the phone to her father and left the room.

As Weingaertner recounts the call that day, the hairs on his arms are standing straight. "I still get goose bumps every time we talk about it," he explained, rubbing his forearm.

Sometime at about 10 a.m., a group of passengers rushed the cockpit door. Jeremy was no longer holding the phone, but the line was open. Weingaertner asked JoAnne Makely, now on the phone with him, if her husband could hear anything.

He heard screams. The phone connection with Jeremy went static.

At 10:06 a.m., Flight 93 slammed into the western Pennsylvania countryside at an estimated 500 mph, about 120 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.

An emergency official arrived at the Makelys' home in Windham and took the phone, telling Weingaertner they were there. The call was disconnected. The tape would later be turned over to the FBI.

Weingaertner's fiancee, a trooper he married earlier this year, was dispatched to New York City to help with the chaos.

At times, when debates surface about how the victims at the World Trade Center and Pentagon should be memorialized, Weingaertner said his thoughts drift to Flight 93.

"These people were victimized just as badly as the people who were in those buildings," he said.

Christensen also is drawn by the memory of that call.

"I certainly gravitate toward Flight 93," he said. :They were all heroes on that plane. ... I do occasionally think it would be nice someday to meet the family and I wonder how they're doing and stuff."

Weingaertner, who also is a member of the Air National Guard based in Scotia, left at the normal time when his shift ended Sept. 11. But nothing felt normal.

"I left at 4 o'clock that day to pick up my daughter at the baby sitter's," he said. "I heard a news report speculating what happened to that flight and that's when it finally hit me. I got cold and I don't think I warmed up until the next morning."

CAPTION(S):

PHILIP KAMRASS/TIMES UNION STATE POLICE DISPATCHER Robert Weingaertner talks about the phone call he took on Sept. 11 that indirectly put him in contact with Jeremy Glick, a passenger on Flight 93, the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.



T7 B17 FBI 302s of Interest Flight 93 Fdr- Entire Contents


But how do these documents directly implicate the New York State Police in the conspiracy of 9/11? Didn't "Capt. Francis Christensen" who "stood behind Weingaertner, firmly directing troopers who were flooding the dispatch room," say to "[c]all Verizon and see if they can patch directly into Glick's call," and to "[c]ontact the FBI"? I think that question is answered by the fact that an unnamed New York State Police Investigator was present during the FBI interview of Lyzbeth Glick, along with her parents, as revealed in the document on page 71 of the collection. Isn't the first rule of police interrogation to separate out interviewees to see if their stories then add up? This is reminiscent of President George W. Bush's interview with Vice-President Dick Cheney before the 9/11 Commission.
[page 71 of 76]

Federal Bureau of Investigation
09/12/2001
Date of Transcription 09/12/2001
Interview with Lyzbeth Glick

Lyzbeth Glick, white female, born [ ] was interviewed at the summer residence of her parents, JoAnne and Richard Makely [ ] telephone [ ] Present during the interview were New York State Police Investigator [ ] and Lyzbeth's parent's JoAnne and Richard Makely. After being advised of the identity of the interviewing agents and the nature of the interview, Lyzbeth Glick provided the following information:

On 09/11/2001, at approximately 9:30 a.m., a telephone call was received by Lyzbeth's mother, JoAnne Makely at Makely's Jewett, NY residence, telephone [ ] from Lyzbeth's husband, Jeremy Logan Glick. male, born 09/03/1970, from a telephone on board United Airlines Flight #93. Jeremy was supposed to have traveled on 09/10/2001; however, a fire at the Newark airport delayed his flight by a day. Jeremy left his residence in Hewitt, NJ, on 09/11/2001 for Newark International Airport to board Flight #93 en route, non-stop, to San Francisco, CA. Jeremy was presumably carrying only a small, wheeled, carry-on suitcase and a laptop computer on the flight. Jeremy was employed as a sales manager by Vividence, Inc., of San Mateo CA, 415 305-6170, was en route to San Francisco for a meeting and was scheduled to return on 09/12/2001.

During the call, Jeremy initially spoke to his mother-in-law, JoAnne Makely and immediately asked to speak to his wife Lyzbeth. After giving the telephone to Lyzbeth, JoAnne Makely contacted "911" via her cellular telephone [ ] Jeremy first told Lyzbeth that he loved her and then said that Flight #93 had been hijacked by three "Iranian-looking" males, with dark skin and bandanas ethnic type as opposed to hippie type on their heads. One of the males stated that he was in possession of a bomb in a red box and one was armed with a knife. Jeremy advised that the plane was approximately one hour out of Newark and that they were over land, although it felt as if they were circling instead of flying straight towards California. Jeremy advised Lyzbeth that the hijackers had herded the passengers into the rear of the plane and told them that if they did not crash into the World Trade

[page 72 of 76]

Center, they were going to blow up the plane. One of the hijackers then told the passengers to call their loved ones. The three hijackers then entered the cockpit of the plane. Jeremy advised that he was unsure if the hijackers were going to crash or blow-up the plane.

The entire call lasted approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. Lyzbeth could not hear any unusual sounds in the background of the call and the connection was extremely clear, "as if he was calling from the next room." Jeremy was extremely calm,but sounded very concerned and confused.

Jeremy advised that the Captain had not made any announcements and that the people were scared because they did not know what was happening. Jeremy advised Lyzbeth that other passengers had contacted their wives and husbands and asked if it were true that people were crashing planes into the World Trade Center. Lyzbeth and her parents had been watching news coverage of the events on the television and were aware that at least one plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, but neither of the Towers had fallen at the time of Jeremy's call. Jeremy advised Lyzbeth that he and four other male passengers were contemplating "rushing" the hijackers and asked Lyzbeth if that was okay with her. Lyzbeth told Jeremy that she did not know if that was okay and asked Jeremy if any of the hijackers had guns, to which Jeremy replied they did not.

In a joking manner, as if ease Lyzbeth's concern, Jeremy advised that he and approximately four other male passengers were"going to get the butter knives." Jeremy then, seriously, told Lyzbeth that he and the other males were organizing to "rush" the hijackers. Jeremy told Lyzbeth that he loved her and asked her not to hang-up the telephone.

Lyzbeth remained on the phone for a few minutes then handed the telephone to her father, Richard Makely.

The Glick's have a three month old baby girl name Emerson Ferris Glick 06/18/2001


This FBI interview with Michelle Erb, a Service Director at United, undertaken at "her place of business," on Sept. 13th, but which the FBI didn't transcribe until Sept. 15th, indicates to me the bureau was in no great hurry in getting to the bottom of the matter. It comprises a detailed narrative provided to the FBI by United Airlines of the ticket booking, and purchase arraignments made by the passengers who flew on Flight 93 on 9/11, however it can be seen as fraudulent in conception since, despite its minutiae, it doesn't mention that Jeremy Glick had first purchased a ticket for a flight from Newark on September 10th, on a flight which was cancelled due to a fire at Newark Airport, as mentioned in the Lyzbeth Glick interview.
[Page 1 of 76]

FBI Special Agent Interview
Michelle Erb Interview
Interview date: 09/13/01
Date of transcription 09/15/2001

MICHELLE ERB, Service Director, was interviewed at her place of business, United Airlines, 11555 Touhy Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60666. ERB was advised of the identity of the interviewing agents. ERB was advised the purpose of the interview was to obtain a flight history of all the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, which was scheduled to fly from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California on September 11, 2001. The flight however, crashed in Pennsylvania. ERB provided the following information:

CHRISTIAN ADAMS made his reservations through Lufthansa in Germany and was traveling on Lufthansa ticket stock on this leg of his trip from Newark to San Francisco. ADAMS booked his round trip tickets through F.I.R.S.T. Travel Agency, Mainz, Germany on August 17, 2001. The Travel Agency phone number is 23-27-11-02. ADAMS home phone was [ ] His Next ot Kin was his wife SILKE ADAMS. [ ] ADAMS sat in row 17, seat D.

SAEED ALGHAMDI was traveling with AHMED ALNAMI. The reservations were made by a person by the name, FIRST NAME UNKNOWN FNU SAJARAH. ALGHAMDI provided 755 Dehiterel Road, Apartment 1504, Del Ray Beach, Florida, 33444, telephone number 954 771-0620, as his contact information. ALGHAMDI bought a first class one-way ticket. Reservations for the flight were made on August 27, 2001, and an electronic ticket was used. ALGHAMDI sat in Row 3, Seat D. When SAJARAH called the United Airlines Reservation 800 number, he spoke with a Honolulu agent named NAOMI E. HOSHIDA. SAJARAH made reservations for ALGHAMDI and ALNAMI for one-way tickets from Newark to San Francisco. When the original credit card was run, VISA number 4011 8060 7081 5781, expiration June 2003, the card was declined. United Airlines made two attempts to notify ALGHAMDI with negative results. On September 5, 2001, ALGHAMDI called United Airlines to inquire about his tickets and was informed by United Airlines Reservations Representative, D. MOORE, in Bloomington, Indiana, that his credit card had been declined. ALGHAMDI provided a new credit card, VISA number 4011 8060 7081 0805, expiration date of July 2003. The name on the credit card is SAEED ALGHAMDI. MARLENE WELLS issued the electronic tickets for both ALGHAMDI and ALNAMI at the Burbank reservations office. The total cost for both tickets was $3,539.50.

AHMED ALHAZNAWI purchased his ticket over the Internet through Travelocity.com, 8750 Tesoro Drive, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas 78217. A first-class, one-way ticket from Newark to San Francisco to San Diego was purchased. The seat in Row 6B was chosen when the reservation was made on August 29, 2001. A home address was given as 755 Dehiterel Road, Apartment 1504, Del Ray Beach, Florida, 33444, telephone number 954 771-0620. The credit card used for the purchase was a VISA number 4011 8060 7084 6927, which has no expiration date given. This credit card was issued by the same company as ALGHAMDI'S, due to the first eight prefix numbers. ALGHAMDI paid $1,593.48 for his ticket and a paper ticket was issued with number 01670486003885.

AHMED ALNAMI had his ticket purchased when ALGHAMDI'S ticket was purchased. ALNAMI satin Row 3, Seat C. All other information for ALNAMI is the same as ALGHAMDI'S.

TODD BEAMER booked a round trip ticket from Newark to San Francisco returning on the same day. The reservation was made on August 31, 2001 and the ticket purchased was an electronic ticket. BEAMER belongs to the United Premier Executive Mileage, which means he flies 50,000 to 100,000 miles per year. BEAMER worked for the Oracle Corporation, 517 Route 1 South Iselin, New Jersey 08830, telephone number 201 553-7054. The reservation was made through Rosenbluth International travel agency, telephone number 800 343- 2541 on August 31, 2001. The ticket was purchased on September 5, 2001 with a Diners Club credit card, number 38858001573705 expiration June 2002. BEAMER'S home address is [ ] The Next of Kin was his wife LISA BEAMER. BEAMER sat in row 10 seat D.

ALAN BEAVEN booked a round trip ticket from Newark to San, Francisco with the return flight on September 28, 2001. The reservation was made on July 29, 2001. BEAVEN is a mileage plus member who used his miles to obtain a free ticket for this trip. His ticket was reserved through the United Airlines Mileage Plus 'reservation center and the electronic ticket was issued on July 30, 2001. BEAVEN'S Home address was 5556 Marshall Street, Oakland, California 94608-2614, telephone number 510 232-5372. The Next of Kin was his wife KIMMIE BEAVEN [ ] BEAVEN sat in row 17, seat F.

MARION BRITTON booked two seats for her own use. Her trip was a round trip from Newark to San Francisco and a return flight on September 14, 2001. BRITTON made her reservations on September 4, 2001, through a travel agency phone number 770 428-4700. The ticket was purchased with a Visa card number 4486090000004073 with no expiration. BRITTON was traveling on official government business, telephone number 212 264-3869 and FAX number 212 264-3862. Her home address was 880 68th Street, Apt 5K, Brooklyn, New York 11220, telephone number 718 680-7536. Her Next of Kin was her brother, PAUL BRITTON at [ ] Britton sat in row 12 seats B and C

WILLIAM CASHMAN was traveling with PATRICK DRISCOLL. CASHMAN was using a free mileage plus ticket using DRISCOLL'S miles. They had reservations to fly from Newark to San Francisco to Fresno and returning via Denver on September 16, 2001. The reservation and purchase was made through the United Airlines office in South Bend on March 20. 2001. CASHMAN gave his home address as [ ] CASHMAN sat in row 15, seat D.

PATRICIA CUSHING was traveling with JANE FOLGER. CUSHING booked round trip tickets on the flight from Newark to San Francisco returning on September 18, 2001. Reservations were made through Travelscape Expedia telephone number 702 938-2100, ; extension 202 on June 13, 2001. Tickets were purchased as a special fare, ticketed on June 14, 2001. CUSHING'S home address ; was [ ] CUSHING sat in row 19, seat C.

GEORGINE CORRIGAN was on her return flight, Newark via San Francisco to Honolulu. Her reservation was made through the American Express travel agency in Honolulu on August 2, 2001, telephone number 808 946-7741. The tickets were purchased on August 3, 2001 using a Visa credit card number 4811690012184049, expiration January 2003. Her home address was 615 Kuliouou Place, Honolulu, Hawaii 96821-2226, telephone 808 732-8800. Her Next of Kin was her daughter LAURA BROUGH [ ] CORRIGAN sat in row 12, seat D.

DEORA BODLEY booked the Newark to San Francisco flight as a return flight. Her ticket was a free mileage plus ticket. She made reservations for her trip on August 6, 2001. Her home address was was [ ] BODLEY sat in row 20, seat F.

THOMAS BURNETT booked the Newark to San Francisco flight as the return trip for his trip, which he made reservations for on August 31, 2001. Uniglobe Black Tie Travel agency made the reservations, telephone number 408 922-0102. The tickets were paid for with an American Express credit card 372861817261006, expiration July 2002. He was a 100,000-mile frequent flyer member. He worked for Thorateck Lab, [a misspelling of Thoratec] 6035 Stoneridge Drive, Pleasanton, California 94588, telephone number 510 841-1212, extension 210 or 800 528-2577. BURNETT provided a home address of [ ] His Next of Kin was his wife DINA BURNETT. BURNETT sat in row 4, seat B.

JOSEPH DELUCA was traveling with LINDA GRONLUND. Their reservations were made on June 11, 2001 for round trip tickets, Newark to San Francisco, returning September 19, 2001. The reservations were made through the United Airlines Mileage Plus office. The tickets were paid for using GRONLUND'S mileage plus miles. His Next of Kin were his parents, JOSEPH and ELICIA DELUCA, telephone number [ ] DELUCA sat in row 2, seat B.

PATRICK DRISCOLL was traveling with WILLIAM CASHMAN. DRISCOLL booked a round trip ticket from Newark via San Francisco to Fresno, with the return flight going through Denver on September 16, 2001. His reservations were made through the United Airlines office in South Bend on March 20, 2001. DRISCOLL purchased both tickets [Both were in First Class] using his Mileage Plus miles, and they were issued on March 20, 2001. DRISCOLL'S business address is 37 Greenleaf Drive, Englishtown, New Jersey, telephone number 908 446-7367. His Next of Kin was his wife [unnamed] DRISCOLL sat in row 15, seat C.

JANE C. FOLGER was traveling with PATRICIA CUSHING. FOLGER booked round trip fares from Newark to San Francisco with a return flight on September 18, 2001. Reservations were made through Travelscape Expedia, telephone number 702 938-2100, extension 202 on June 13, 2001. The tickets were part of a special fare and were ticketed on June 14, 2001. FOLGER provided a contact number for her daughter [ ] FOLGER sat in row 19, seat B.

COLLEEN FRASER booked a round trip flight from Newark via San Francisco to Reno, with a return flight on September 15, 2001. Reservations were made over the Internet via Travelocity.com, 8750 \o Drive, Suite 200, San Antonio, Texas 78217, telephone number ; 877 439-0277 on August 9, 2001. Tickets were purchased using an American Express credit card number 37834975Q472008, no expiration date. FRASER'S home address was [ ] FRASER sat in row 13, seat A.

ANDREW GARCIA booked Newark to San Francisco as his return. The reservation was made through United Airlines Mileage Plus Service Center on August 28, 2001. The tickets were purchased with frequent flyer miles on August 30, 2001. GARCIA provided his home address as [ ] GARCIA sat in row 20, seat C.

EDWARD FELT booked a round trip flight from Newark to San Francisco, returning on September 14, 2001. The reservations were made through Rosenbluth Travel Agency, telephone number 701 254-4545, on September 7, 2001. The tickets were purchased with a Visa Credit Card number 4715960000219033; no expiration date given and the tickets were also upgraded to first class using mileage plus miles. FELT provide a home address of [ ] FELT provided a business address as 140 Allen Road, Liberty Corner, New Jersey 07938, telephone number 908 580-3142, and FAX number 908 580-3030. FELTS Next of Kin was his wife [ ] FELT sat in row 2, seat D.

KRISTIN GOULD booked a round trip flight from Newark to San Francisco, returning on September 22, 2001. The reservations were made over the Internet via Travelocity.com, telephone number 888 709-5983, on August 17, 2001. The tickets were purchased using an American Express Credit Card number 371952877312002, no expiration date given. GOULD'S home address was 53 West 94th Street, Apt 1R, New York, New York 10025, telephone number 212 222-8222. GOULD supplied her Next of Kin as her daughter [ ] GOULD sat in row 21, seat C.

DONALD GREENE booked a round trip flight from Newark to Reno via San Francisco, and on September 17, 2001 San Francisco to New Orleans. September 20, 2001 he was to finish his trip from New Orleans to New York. GREENE was a mileage plus member. The reservations were made through an unidentified travel agency at telephone number 914 835-7600. [a simple Google search for 914-835-7600 indicates the telephone number is for Rich Worldwide Travel, 500 Mamaroneck Avenue Harrison, NY 10528, a specialist in Gay & Lesbian Travel.] The tickets were purchased with a Master Card credit card 5410654342814917. GREENE'S home address [ ] GREENE sat in row 16, seat D.

LINDA GRONLUND was traveling with Joseph DELUCA. A round trip was booked by GRONLUND through the United Airlines Mileage Plus Office on June 11, 2001 and the tickets purchased with frequent flyer miles. GRONLUND provide her home telephone number as 845 477-2646. GRONLUND'S business address was 38 Indian Trail North, Greenwood Lake, New York 10925, telephone number 201 573-2194. Her Next of Kin was provided as her mother [ ] GRONLUND sat in row 2, seat A.

RICHARD GUADAGNO booked his flight over the Internet via United Connection on June 28, 2001. The flight from Newark to San Francisco ending in Arcadia was his return flight. He is a mileage plus member. The tickets were purchased with Master Card credit card number 5420761110018536 with an expiration date of November 2002. GUADAGNO provided his address as P.O. Box 612, Loleta, California 95551, and telephone number 707 733-5406. GUADAGNO gave his Next of Kin as his father [ ] GUADAGNO sat in row 19, seat A.

JEREMY GLICK booked his round trip flight on September 5, 2001 from Newark to San Francisco through an unidentified travel agency, with the return flight on September 12, 2001. GLICK was a mileage plus member. GLICK provided his home address as [ ] GLICK'S business telephone number was 973 657-1470, FAX 973 657-1471, main business number 650 645-5000 and a contact at his business was REBECCA JENNINGS 650 645-5043. GLICK named his Next of Kin as his wife LYZBETH GLICK [ ] GLICK sat in row 11, seat A.

LAUREN GRANDCOLAS booked round trip tickets from San Francisco to Newark and this flight from Newark to San Francisco was her return flight. The ticket was reserved through United Airlines Mileage Plus Service Center and purchased with JACK GRANDCOLAS' mileage plus miles. GRANDCOLAS' home address was [ ] A Newark contact telephone number was 973 376-7078. GRANDCOLAS provided a business telephone, which was 415 454-9163. The Next of Kin for GRANDCOLAS was her husband JACK GRANDCOLAS [ ] GRANDCOLAS sat in row 19, seat A.

ZIAD JARRAH purchased a one-way, First Class ticket from Newark to San Francisco and then on to Las Vegas. JARRAH gave his contact information as a business address of 1816 Harding Street;, Hollywood, Florida, and telephone number 954 920-1590 and 954 801-5169. JARRAH purchased his ticket on the United Airlines web. site. The e-mail address that JARRAH used was ZIADJARRAH@AB.COM. The reservations were made on August 30, 2001. JARRAH purchased an electronic ticket using a VISA credit card number 4011 8060 7080 4835, which expires in May 2003. This credit card is from the same . credit card company as the VISA used by ALGHAMDI and ALHAZNAWi. JARRAH paid $1,621. 50 for his ticket. JARRAH sat in row 1, seat B.

TOSHIYA KUGE reserved her [he is a he, silly!] flight at a travel agency, H.I.S. Company Limited 4-9-12 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan 16900, telephone number 03-53865371. KUGE had a connecting flight to Osaka, Japan from San Francisco. This was her return trip. Her reservations were made on July 5, 2001, and they were issued as electronic tickets. KUGE'S home address was [ ] KUGE sat in row 18, seat A.

HILDA MARCIN reserved her flight through the United Airlines Oakland Ticket Office on February 21, 2001. The Newark to San Francisco flight was the first part of a round trip, electronic ticket to be completed in June 2002. The ticket was bought using United Silver Travel Pack Senior coupons on February 21, 2001. Her home address was 10 Scenic Drive Apartment 1 B, Budd Lake, New Jersey 07828, telephone number 925 648-0384. Her Next of Kin was listed as her daughter [ ] MARCIN sat in row 17, seat C.

WALESKA MARTINEZ reserved a round trip ticket from Newark to San Francisco to return on September 14, 2001. A travel agency in Atlanta made the reservation, telephone number 770 428-4700 on August 22, 2001. MARTINEZ flew on a government ticket, which was paid for by Visa credit card 4486090000004073, expiration date unknown. MARTINEZ provided a business telephone number 212 264-3860 and FAX 212 264-3862. The home address was [ ] MARTINEZ listed her Next of Kin as her mother [ ] MARTINEZ sat in row 10, seat F.

JEAN PETERSON was traveling with her husband DONALD PETERSON PETERSON booked a round trip electronic ticket returning from San Francisco on September 16, 2001. Reservations were made through the United Airlines Washington Reservation Office on July 14, 2001. Her ticket was paid for with Visa credit card number 4388523019786461, expiration date, April 2004. The ticket was a senior discounted fare and she was a mileage plus member. Her home address was given as 18 Pitney Avenue, Spring Lake, New Jersey 07762, telephone number 732 449-2931. PETERSON'S Next of Kin was given as her stepson [ ] PETERSON sat in row 14, seat C.

NICOLE MILLER had reservations for this flight due to her missing the evening flight on September 10, 2001 at 7:20 p.m. She was rescheduled for the 7 a.m. United Airlines flight which was later changed to the 8 a.m. United Airlines flight 93. All her reservations and changes in the itinerary were made through US Airways on September 10, 2001. MILLER provided no home address or telephone number to United Airlines. MILLER provided Next of Kin information as her mother [ ] MILLER sat in row 10, seat A.

LOUIS NACKE booked a round trip ticket on September 10, 2001 through Travel Inc of Pittsfield, telephone number 413 499-4636. NACKE was supposed to fly from Newark via San Francisco to Sacramento returning on the same day via Los Angeles. His itinerary was ticketed on September 11, 2001 and paid for using an American Express credit card number 378533381811003, expiration October 2002. NACKE provided a home address of [ ] NACKE'S business addresses are 111 Cokesbury Road, Lebanon, New Jersey 08833, telephone number 908 236-7740 and 2317 Durham Court, Mt. Laurel, New Jersey 08054. NACKE provided his Next of Kin as his wife AMY NACKE [ ] NACKE, sat in row 12, seat F.

DONALD PETERSON was traveling with his wife JEAN PETERSON. PETERSON booked a round trip electronic ticket returning from San Francisco on September 16, 2001. Reservations were made through the United Airlines Washington Reservation Office on July 14, 2001. His ticket was paid for with Visa credit card number 4388523019786461 with an expiration date, April 2004. The ticket was a senior discounted fare. His home address was given as 18 Pitney Avenue, Spring Lake, New Jersey 07762, telephone number 732 449-2931. PETERSON'S Next of Kin was given as his son [ ] PETERSON sat in row 14, seat A.

MARK ROTHENBERG booked his flights through United Airlines Detroit Reservation Center on September 4, 2001 and they were electronically ticketed on September 6, 2001. His reservations were to fly Newark to Taipei via San Francisco with a return flight on September 16, 2001. ROTHENBERG was a 100,000 frequent flyer with United Airlines and used some of his miles to upgrade to first class on the flight. ROTHENBERG provided a business telephone number 212 889-5210. He provided a home address of [ ] ROTHENBERG sat in row 5, seat B.

CHRISTINE SNYDER booked her flight through A CTS Travel on July 10, 2001, telephone number 212 333-3633. Her flight was a round trip flight and Newark via San Francisco to Honolulu was her return flight. Her tickets were paid for and electronically ticketed on July 11, 2001 with a Visa credit card 4190004316546682. The name on the card was [ ] SNYDER sat in row 17, seat A.

JOHN TALIGNANI booked an emergency fare round trip flight from Newark to Fresno via San Francisco, returning on September 14, 2001. TALIGNANI was traveling to attend the funeral for his stepson, ALAN ZYKOFSKY. Reservations were made and electronic tickets were issued by Empress Travel on September 10, 2001, telephone number 516 764-6116. TALIGNANI provide his home address only as Staten Island, New York, telephone number 718 668-2580. TALIGNANI gave Next of Kin information as his [ ] TALIGNANI sat in row 18, seat F.

HONOR ELIZABETH WAINIO booked a round trip ticket from Newark to San Francisco, returning on September 16, 2001. Reservations were made by Discovery Travel, telephone number 888 324-8728 on August 21, 2001. The itinerary was ticketed on August 21, 2001 using a Master Card credit card 540510700124446373, expiration January 2002. WAINIO was a mileage plus member. Her home address was 679 Mountain Boulevard, Apt 3, Watchung, New Jersey 07060, telephone number 908 757-1314. Her Next of Kin is [ ] WAINIO sat in row 11 , seat F.

MARK BINGHAM was traveling on a one-way stand-by ticket, on a United Airlines employee companion fare as a guest of his aunt, CANDICE HOGLAN, who is a United Airlines employee. The United Airlines Reservation Office made his reservation on September 10, 2001. BINGHAM'S home address in San Francisco was 1227 Shrader Street, San Francisco, California 94117, telephone number 415 215-5430. BINGHAM designated his mother. ALICE HOGLAN as his Next of Kin [ ] BINGHAM sat in row 4, seat D.

JASON DAHL, Captain United Airlines, was assigned to Flight, 93, and resided at [ ]

LEROY HOMER. First Officer United Airlines, was assigned to Flight 93, and resided at [ ]

LORRAINE BAY, Flight Attendant United Airlines, was assigned to Flight 93. and resided at [ ]

SANDRA BRADSHAW, Flight Attendant United Airlines, was assigned to Flight 93, and resided at [ ]

WANDA GREEN, Flight Attendant United Airlines, was assigned to Flight 93, and resided at 831 South Park Avenue, Linden, New Jersey . 07036. telephone number 510 451-5091. Her Next of Kin was her [ ]

CEECEE LYLES Flight Attendant United Airlines, was assigned to Flight 93. and resided at [ ] Her Next of Kin was her husband, LORNE LYLES.

DEBORAH WELSH. Flight Attendant United Airlines was assigned to Flight 93, and resided at [ ]



A similar FBI memo from the 9/11 Commission files, but not included in the collection above, was scanned by Mike Williams of 911myths.com on 24th March 2009, and titled "Team 7/ Box 12 Flight 93 Calls – Louis Nacke." It details the FBI's "Interview with Amy Trichon Nacke, Surviving Spouse." Like the Lyzbeth Glick interview, Mrs. Nacke's interview also implicates the passenger arrangements that United Airlines and Erb supplied to the FBI was fraudulent, since it fails to mention that the flight Nacke had "booked a round trip ticket on September 10, 2001," for, was a later flight, and most likely on a competing airliner:
Date: 9/25/2001
Date of Transcription:9/26/2001 Amy Trichon Nacke, was interviewed at her residence [ ] New Hope, Pennsylvania PA 18938 regarding background information on her husband, Louis J. Nacke, II, who was killed when United Airlines UA Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, PA, on September 11, 2001, en route to San Francisco CA. Present during the interview of Nacke were her mother, Sally N. Weisberg and step-father, Robert A. Weisberg. Nacke was provided with the identities of the interviewing agents. She supplied the following information regarding her deceased husband:

Name: Louis J. Nacke, II
Date of Birth: 9/9/59
Place of Birth: Virginia
Social Security Number: 091-54-6745
Last Address: [ ] New Hope, PA 18938
Telephone Number: [ ]
Address Outside US: none
Job Title: Director of Logistics
Place of Employment: K Bee Toys
Security Clearances: none
Military Service: none
Reason For Travel: Business, meeting with a client in Sacramento, CA
Luggage Information: none, he intended to return the same day
Car Information at Airport: He obtained a ride to Newark Airport
Method of Payment: K Bee Toys business account/ credit card
Last Contact: 7:15 AM, 9/11/01 Louis Nacke contacted his wife from Newark Airport to advise her he would be taking an earlier flight than scheduled. Mrs. Nacke received a message on her cell phone at approximately 9:15 to 9:30. Someone had attempted to call but it sounded as though the phone call was disrupted before the caller could leave a message. Louis Nacke had a cell phone with him on the plane. Mrs. Nacke has deleted the caller's message which included the telephone number from which the call came. She was unaware of the plane crash at that time. Mrs. Nacke would want to know if the call was placed by her husband before the plane crashed. The cell phone her husband carried is a business cell phone and the bills would go to K Bee Toys.
Ethnicity: Italian/Irish/Polish
Pertaining to next of kin:
Name: Amy Nacke, nee Trichon
Address: [ ] New Hope, PA 18938
Telephone Numbers: [ ] Nacke home
[ ] Weisberg home
609-780-4530 (Louis Nacke's cell phone that he had on the plane with him when it went down.)
Relation to Victim: spouse
Recovered Personal Effects: Mrs. Nacke stated that her husband had no luggage and carried only a portfolio. She has given a description of his wedding ring and watch to UA and stated that if found, she would like these items returned to her. [redacted sentence] She would welcome a telephone call should this happen.



Sunday, April 08, 2012

Wally Miller, and His Mobile DNA Laboratory.

September 22, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Four Flight 93 victims identified, By Tom Gibb,
September 24, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Coroner identifies seven more victims of Flight 93 crash, by Brian Lyman,
September 25, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, FBI ends site work, says no bomb used, By Tom Gibb,
September 25, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Flight 93 victim identification long, arduous, By Cindi Lash,
September 29, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / Associated Press, Searchers to return to Flight 93 crash site,
September 30, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Volunteers scour Somerset County crash site, woods to remove debris, By Joe Smydo,
October 03, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Latest Somerset crash site findings may yield added IDs, By Tom Gibb,
October 10, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4 more Flight 93 passengers identified, By Tom Gibb,
October 12, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Judge OKs certificates of death in Flight 93, By Tom Gibb,
October 15, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Newsmaker: Coroner's quiet unflappability helps him take charge of Somerset tragedy, By Tom Gibb,
October 27, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Another 14 victims of Flight 93 identified, By Don Hopey,
September 11, 2006, AP Online, In Pa., Mourners Remember Flight 93
February 16, 2009, AP Online, Recovering crash remains a methodical process, by William Kates,
September 10, 2011, Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque) 21,000 bone fragments, no 9/11 closure, by Christian Salazar,



September 22, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Four Flight 93 victims identified, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer,
Saturday,

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- Investigators have identified remains of four of the 44 people aboard Flight 93, the jetliner that crashed here 11 days ago, the Somerset County coroner said yesterday.

But the attempt to identify the rest -- a process that involves using DNA testing to confirm the conclusions -- could go on for a year, Coroner Wallace Miller said.

Just the search for remains, across fields and woodlands in a little-populated swath of mountains, could continue for months before Miller decides to call it off.

"It's not going to happen until I'm satisfied that we've done everything we possibly can," he said.

Miller reported the first identifications yesterday [Friday, 9/21] as investigators continued to dig through the crash site seven miles northeast of Somerset, shoveling out mounds of earth, then sifting through that soil for remains, personal belongings and bits of the Boeing 757.

"I can't guarantee identifying remains of all the passengers," Miller said, "but I'm hopeful."

Miller would not name the people identified beyond saying that all the people were passengers or crew, not hijackers. He said that the first identification came two days ago, when a tooth was matched to dental records.

"The identifications we have made for now have been mostly through dental records and fingerprints. We're also using radiology (records), and we can find surgical work such as hip replacements," he said.

For now, the remains are being taken to a temporary morgue set up by investigators at Friedens, five miles from the crash site. From there, they will be transferred to the Armed Forces Laboratory at Dover, Del., part of a process in which the FBI has mandated DNA matches as final confirmation.

Victims' families have been asked to provide items such as the victims' hairbrushes and toothbrushes, so that medical investigators can glean samples from which to draw final DNA matches. The DNA matches, in turn, probably will be the link that investigators use to identify most of the remains, Miller said.

But the FBI's demand for DNA links could serve another purpose, offering one clue for identifying the hijackers from the Sept. 11 morning of terror, since investigators have suggested that the air pirates' real identities lie buried under layers of fake IDs.

Miller said that the first identifications brought a measure of solace to the families involved.

When remains are accumulated, they will be turned over to families for interment, a process for which no timetable has been set.

If all goes according to a tentative schedule, the FBI -- overseeing recovery workers clad in white suits to protect them from jet fuel and possible biological hazards posed by human remains -- could turn the site over to Miller.

That would mean the pullout of the 100-member federal Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team, which has aided in handling remains.
But Miller's search for remains could continue for months -- albeit becoming problematic if winter arrives in these highlands like it did eight years ago, with a 30-inch snowfall on Oct. 25.

Already, it is a painstaking operation, since remains were small and scattered by the impact.

"I'm not naive enough to believe we'll get everything, but we'll try to get everything we possibly can," Miller said. " ...When you have a plane traveling at 500 mph, I think you understand what the scenario is."

Once searchers have found the last remains they plausibly can find, Miller said, he and his staff could have thousands of specimens.

Yesterday, investigators drained a two-acre pond about 1,000 feet from the crater where the jetliner slammed into the ground, just another step in hunting airliner parts, personal belongings and remains, Miller said.

Officially, the land is an FBI crime scene. When the FBI leaves, it becomes a coroner's crime scene.

But when he surrenders control of the ground, Miller -- who considers himself a guardian of both the victims' dignity and the place where they died -- said he wants the land preserved, possibly as a government-administered memorial.

"I am aware of the historical significance of this spot," he said.




September 24, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Coroner identifies seven more victims of Flight 93 crash, by Brian Lyman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Monday,

Seven victims of the Sept. 11 United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Somerset County were positively identified over the weekend, bringing the number of identified bodies to 11.

But Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said that additional identifications could take months. There were 44 passengers and crew members on the flight.

"We're in the process of notifying families," said Miller near the crash scene yesterday. "We're continuing the identification process as we speak."

The coroner's office was able to identify victims with help from FBI fingerprint experts, but Miller said they did not release identifications until investigators were all "comfortable" with the identity of each victim.
Four bodies had been identified as of Friday.



Miller would not name the victims, or say whether they were crew or passengers, saying his "No. 1 priority" was protecting the privacy of families.

"The identifications up to now were not [based on] DNA," said Miller. "The method now will be [to use] DNA [testing]."


That testing might slow the process down because DNA samples from victims must be tested against family samples, and the coroner's office has not yet contacted all of the families of the victims. Miller said he was "working day and night" to get in touch with them.

In addition, the terrorist attacks have swamped DNA testing centers in the nation.


"It could take weeks; it could take months," said Miller. "We are receiving the same priority as the other sites."


Most evidence from the site has been taken away, he said.

"Everything's been collected from the site that's going to be," he said.

The coroner also said he was working as hard as he could to return remains to family members.

"A lot of legal work needs to be done," said Miller.

It is a difficult task, he said, in part because Somerset, a sixth-class county with only 78,000 people, has little support staff.


"We don't have staff doing it; I'm doing it," said Miller.


Miller called bringing closure to families "a critical part of any investigation," and added that he had been "touched by the emotional strength" of families he'd been in touch with.

That made the help of outside investigators, including pathologists from Honolulu and Washington, D.C., all the more valuable.

"I've accumulated a wealth of information," said Miller.

Visitors trickled around a makeshift memorial throughout the day yesterday, leaving flowers and flags at the scene.

The FBI plans a news conference on the investigation of the scene today.



September 25, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, FBI ends site work, says no bomb used, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Tuesday,

STONYCREEK, Pa. -- The FBI said yesterday that it has finished its work at the crash scene of United Flight 93 after recovering about 95 percent of the downed airliner and concluding that explosives were not responsible for bringing it down.

At the same time, the Somerset County coroner said that he has ended his own search for remains of the 44 people aboard the airliner.

"It's been very thorough," Coroner Wallace Miller said of the recovery effort.

Now, the probe of the Sept. 11 crash is in the hands of investigators examining the jet's so-called black boxes for a better sense of what happened during the hijacking.

In the meantime, Miller will oversee the task of matching remains with the names of people aboard the jetliner. So far, doctors, dentists and forensic scientists have made 11 matches.


"I don't think it's appropriate to say with certainty that we can identify all the individuals on board," Miller told reporters yesterday.

The inventory of jetliner debris gives testimony to the devastation of the Boeing 757 when it hit a Somerset County field at somewhere between 400 and 580 mph, the last of four domestic flights to crash that morning after being seized by terrorists.

FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said that the largest piece of plane recovered was a shred of fuselage skin that covered four windows -- a piece seven feet long from a jetliner that was 155 feet long.
The heaviest piece, he said, was a half-ton section of engine fan.

The jetliner exploded in a fireball, witnesses said -- but not a fireball caused by a bomb, according to Crowley.

"The conclusion of the investigation is that no explosives were used on board the plane," Crowley said yesterday. He would not elaborate further.

At least two passengers aboard Flight 93 made calls from the plane after it was hijacked and said they believed one of the hijackers was carrying a bomb.

Of the airliner parts, the pieces that investigators judged most significant were the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both unearthed within 3 1/2 days of the crash. The voice recording that remained is being analyzed for clues to confirm the identities of the four hijackers who seized the Newark-to-San Francisco flight before it crashed.

But whether investigators can ever establish a DNA link that would firmly identify the hijackers is uncertain, Miller said, because investigators don't know if they have a data base which would identify any of the terrorists by DNA.


Passengers probably tried to overwhelm the air pirates, Attorney General John Ashcroft has said.

Since it had no more use for it, the FBI turned the airliner debris -- but not the data and voice recorders -- over to United Airlines yesterday. Asked what United will do with the debris, airline spokeswoman Whitney Staley said, "I don't think a decision has been made ... but we're not commenting."


Through Friday, the crash site had been alive with recovery workers clad in protective suits to shield them from airline fuel and biological hazards posed by human remains. Yesterday, the site was silent, a crater surrounded by mounds of excavated soil, bordered by trees into which debris had rocketed.

As many as 1,500 people worked at the recovery site or out of the command post, a small village of trailers on the bluff above. By midday yesterday, most had filtered out and state police -- who watched over the surrounding roads with an army of 400 troopers, 16 mounted police officers and three helicopters -- pulled back into a smaller security zone.

Miller said his own search for remains ended Sunday, [9/23] with the highest degree of certainty he could muster.

"We've been as thorough as we possibly can ... but we're not naive enough to think that we've gotten everything," Miller said.

He said that the remains of 11 of the 44 people aboard the jetliner have been identified through fingerprints and dental records. Among the tasks left for Miller is to get DNA identification of the remains of the other 33 passengers and crew.

DNA also will be used to verify the findings for the 11 people already identified.



His other job, Miller said, is to work with United at returning the crash scene to the way it looked before the airliner went down. That work that could be a prelude to a permanent memorial at the site.
For now, though, it will be a crash scene surrounded by a chain-link fence and posted with no-trespassing signs.

"If anybody is caught penetrating that perimeter and disregarding those signs, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Miller warned.

Yesterday morning, state troopers arrested the seventh person they have caught trying to get onto the site, state police Capt. Frank Monaco said.

President Bush met yesterday at the White House with about 50 relatives of Flight 93 victims.

Officials turned the focus from the site yesterday after bidding thanks to support that ranged from the American Red Cross and Salvation Army to the commonwealth and troops of volunteer firefighters.

"We had phones. We had ATVs," Crowley said. "Virtually anything we requested, we got in triplicate."

This region -- which decked itself in American flags and yellow ribbons -- never finished throwing in its support. It was charity that ranged from mountains of food donated at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co. for recovery workers to local resident Nang Coslic, who cooked meals nightly for the state troopers guarding the road outside her house.

Recovery teams initially said that the FBI investigation could go on for up to five weeks. Instead, the FBI officially ended its investigation of the crash scene late Saturday afternoon, 12 days after the probe began.



September 25, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Flight 93 victim identification long, arduous, By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer,Tuesday,

A licked stamp. A used razor blade. A forgotten toothbrush left out of its owner's suitcase.
All over the world, these and other equally mundane items are being sought and retrieved from the desks, dressers and medicine cabinets of the people who were aboard United Flight 93 when it crashed into a Somerset County hilltop two weeks ago.

Those items will end up in Rockville, Md., at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's DNA-identification laboratory -- arguably the best in the nation at analyzing and matching DNA samples. Experts will attempt to match genetic material left behind on those items with DNA found in human remains recovered at the crash scene.

DNA comparison is just one of several techniques to be used by members of the federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, which is charged with recovering and identifying the remains of Flight 93's passengers, crew members and hijackers. All 44 people who were on board died in the crash.

The team that has been at work in Stonycreek, Somerset County, is one of several that have been activated to assist with identification of thousands of people who died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Other teams have been sent to identify people who died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.


The teams were created in 1996 under the federal Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act. That legislation was passed in response to calls for better, more coordinated assistance from families whose loved ones died in the September 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 in Hopewell and other airline crashes.


The teams are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' national disaster medical system. They are assigned to 10 regions around the country to identify victims after incidents with mass casualties.
Teams include forensic pathologists, anthropologists, dentists, fingerprint analysts, radiologists, X-ray technicians and others with scientific skills that can be used to identify remains. Members are private citizens who have offered their skills and who are activated and paid by the federal government to assist local coroners or medical examiners when disasters occur, said Paul Sledzik, who headed the team in Stonycreek.


A forensic anthropologist, Sledzik is a world-renowned curator at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

A specialist in identifying skeletal remains, Sledzik, 40, has worked as an expert in numerous murder cases. He has helped to identify bodies of soldiers killed during the Persian Gulf War as well as passengers who died in the USAir Flight 427 crash.

In Stonycreek, Sledzik supervised a team of about 65 DMORT workers from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.They are expected to complete their work at the site this week.Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller retains authority over the recovery process and will sign all death certificates, Sledzik said, but DMORT workers have been helping Miller with identification processes.

"Local jurisdictions often don't have a mass disaster plan," he said. "We don't come in and take over, but we augment what the local coroner has set up. We provide whatever support is needed by local officials."
Some DMORT members worked alongside FBI agents and state troopers at the site to recover tissue, bone and dental remains.

Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, a DMORT member and forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst College in Erie, said the remains were "extremely fragmented" after the crash, in which the airliner hit the ground at hundreds of miles per hour.

Still, Dirkmaat said, DMORT workers were attempting "to document every piece of tissue," no matter how small. By walking or crawling over the crash site and by sifting dirt through mesh screens, DMORT workers hoped to recover tiny samples that, despite their size, could be analyzed and identified.
Once the remains were recovered, they were sent to a temporary morgue four miles away in a Pennsylvania National Guard armory in Friedens. There, more DMORT workers analyzed the remains utilizing equipment shipped from Dallas.

Fingerprint specialists examined tissue and dentists examined teeth, fillings or wire from dental braces that had been collected for comparison with X-rays and other records obtained from relatives of the crash victims. Anthropologists and X-ray technicians have done the same with bones, looking for evidence of healed fractures, past injuries or surgeries.

If remains still couldn't be identified, DMORT workers sent samples to the DNA laboratory in Maryland to be matched with the genetic markers of those who died.


That can be done by obtaining blood samples from relatives or by obtaining DNA from strands of hair left in combs, from saliva on toothbrushes or stamps, even from nearly invisible bits of blood or tissue or a razor blade.

Sledzik said it was too early to know how successful that identification process will be or whether they will be able to identify the hijackers.

"We know that it is very important to the families to be able to make those identifications and we will stick with it until we've exhausted all processes," he said.

"It's heart-rending work, absolutely," he said. "But this [DMORT operation] has a distinct difference to it. Given what's been going on nationally, people here are extremely focused on completing the work here. They feel they can provide a service to these families and to their country and they are here to do that." Staff writer James O'Toole contributed to this report.



September 29, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / Associated Press, Searchers to return to Flight 93 crash site, Saturday,

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- About 250 workers will make another search today in the area where United Flight 93 crashed, believing high winds and heavy rains may have shaken additional evidence out of the trees.

Miller said consultants with United Airlines suggested another search because bad weather this week might have shaken additional airplane parts out of the trees in a wooded area near the crash site. The coroner said the workers would also be looking for any human remains not already collected.

Some pieces of the aircraft -- most no larger than one square foot -- have already been found because of the bad weather, he said.


The FBI, which had treated the site as a crime scene, turned over control of the field where the plane crashed to Miller on Monday. [9/23]


Miller said he had identified 12 of the victims through dental records and fingerprints. He is refusing to release the names of those victims, saying he does not want to upset their families.


He said DNA testing would be used to identify the other victims, a process that could take months.




September 30, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Volunteers scour Somerset County crash site, woods to remove debris, By Joe Smydo, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Sunday,


It was rough going, on hands and knees in some cases, looking for anything that didn't belong in the woods.
More than 300 volunteers gathered yesterday at the site in Somerset County where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Members of Southwestern Pennsylvania Emergency Response Group scoured a wooded area near the crash scene for airplane fragments and human remains. They found some of both.

State Trooper Joseph Grove said the searchers, from 13 counties, worked shoulder to shoulder as far as a mile from where the plane slammed into the ground near Shanksville.

Two of the planes hijacked by Muslim extremists nearly three weeks ago crashed into the World Trade Center towers. A third crashed into the Pentagon. Passengers aboard Flight 93 have been hailed as heroes for overpowering the hijackers, preventing the plane from reaching the terrorists' next target.
All 44 people on the plane died. Remains of 12 have been identified.

Mark Tsantes, a supervisor with Salvation Army Disaster Services, said the volunteers parted underbrush with their hands and hauled debris from the woods in 5-gallon pails.

"I know some of the guys came out of the woods dirty from being down on their knees," he said.
The search, which lasted more than eight hours, resumes today.

"I'd want somebody to do it for me," said Paul Kondrla, a paramedic crew chief with Mon Valley Emergency Medical Services who drove from his home in Uniontown, Fayette County, to take part in the search.

He said he'd be back today, when terrain scoured yesterday is to be examined yet again.

Other volunteers planned to stay in Somerset last night, in hotel rooms that might otherwise have been used for a firefighters convention that had been scheduled for this weekend. It was canceled after the terrorist attacks.

The volunteers parked their cars, pickup trucks and emergency vehicles in a field -- like visitors at a county fair -- and took shuttle buses to the crash site.

They worked in jump suits and hard hats, out of view of the steady stream of people who showed up at the makeshift parking lot to view a memorial to the crash victims. Some brought cameras to the memorial. Others brought their kids.

"I don't know what you'd tell a small child. I really don't," said Lt. Frank Bittner of the Berlin, Somerset County, Fire Police.

Joseph Johnson Jr., of Southampton, N.Y., traveled to Connellsville, Fayette County, for his wife Irene's high school reunion and made a side trip to see the memorial.

"It's history. I can say I was there," said Johnson, accompanied by his wife's brother-in-law, Wilbert Bailey of Connellsville.

County Coroner Wallace Miller said he's well aware of the historic importance. That's why he's making painstaking searches of the crash site and the area around it.

Yesterday's search focused on an area where debris may have fallen from trees because of recent rain and wind. Major pieces of the wreckage already have been removed by federal investigators. Miller said searchers now are recovering pieces of airplane too small to identify.

Miller said he wants to return the site to as "natural a state as possible" so the victims' family members, on future visits, don't run across airplane parts or other signs of the disaster. As part of the cleanup, he said, scorched trees will be uprooted and hauled from the site.




October 03, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Latest Somerset crash site findings may yield added IDs, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Wednesday,

STONYCREEK, Pa. -- The Somerset County coroner said yesterday that he should know by this weekend if the last big sweep of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash scene yielded remains that he can link to any of the 44 people who were aboard the hijacked airliner.

But a week after the FBI closed its criminal investigation at the Somerset County site, county Coroner Wallace Miller indicated that his job has switched largely from search and recovery to a cleanup of what he deems sacred ground.

"I consider this site almost like a cemetery," Miller said yesterday. "When you walk through a cemetery and you see debris, you pick it up."

Over the weekend, about 300 volunteers combed a half-mile square around the crash site and found enough debris from the Boeing 757 to fill about one-third of a trash container.

Most of it was little more than thumbnail size -- "no bigger than a pop rivet holding two pieces of aluminum," Miller said yesterday -- that last week's rains washed from trees bordering the stretch of strip mine where the airliner crashed nose-first Sept. 11.


No significant evidence turned up, Miller said, and there probably won't be a repeat of anything the size of last weekend's search.


"We don't anticipate anything else on that scale," he said. "But I wouldn't rule out at least one additional sweep."


The FBI has mandated DNA testing to confirm the identities of remains, a process just beginning that Miller said could take four to six months. But using mostly dental records, Miller and staff have identified remains of 12 passengers -- a number that the coroner said might grow with last weekend's recovery of additional remains.



Remains, like the aircraft wreckage itself, were scattered when the jet hit the ground at as much as 575 mph, then exploded in a fireball of fuel.

With those of 12 people identified, Miller and his team have identified the remains of 27 percent of the people on the plane, more than the 20 percent match he said that experts predicted at the outset.
Now, attention has turned to restoring the site itself.

By today, Environmental Resources Management Inc. of Pine, a contractor hired by United, expects to return 5,000 to 6,000 cubic yards of soil to the 50-foot hole dug around the crater left by the crash.
The soil is being tested for jet fuel, and at least three test wells have been sunk to monitor groundwater, since three nearby homes are served by wells, Betsy Mallison, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman, said.

So far, no contamination has been discovered, she said.

For Miller, the focus seems to rest just as heavily on aesthetics -- from removing debris to felling charred trees that could be upsetting to relatives of Flight 93's passengers and crew.

"This site won't be released until we're comfortable that we've removed as much of this debris as is humanly possible," he said.



October 10, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4 more Flight 93 passengers identified, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Wednesday,

The Somerset County coroner said yesterday that officials have now identified the remains of 16 of the 44 passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that crashed into a former strip mine in rural Stonycreek Sept. 11.

The addition of four names to the list came through DNA sampling -- the first DNA matches made in the identification of remains, Coroner Wallace Miller said yesterday.


Identifications of remains of the first 12 passengers, made through the beginning of last week, was done using dental records and fingerprints. Investigators had exhausted that avenue and have since been relying exclusively on DNA, which will enable the coroner's office to identify more remains at a steady pace, Miller said.


DNA identification requires use of DNA samples, such as hair culled from a hairbrush or material taken from a toothbrush.


"Obviously, the families have provided no information of those people," Miller said.


He said that none of the remains identified belonged to the four hijackers
who seized control of the Newark-to-San Francisco flight, then turned it southeast -- possibly aimed for a crash landing in the Washington, D.C., area -- before passengers tried to wrest back the controls.

The decimation of the Boeing 757 and its passengers led Miller and a team working for him to the painstaking routine of recovering and identifying remains.



October 12, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Judge OKs certificates of death in Flight 93, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Friday,

Everyone who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 except the terrorists who hijacked it will get death certificates under a ruling issued yesterday by a Somerset County judge.

At the insistence of the FBI, the terrorists won't be getting them because investigators aren't sure of their identities.


To date, the remains of 20 of the 44 people who were aboard the airliner have been identified, allowing the county coroner to issue death certificates for them. Yesterday, Common Pleas Judge Kim R. Gibson approved county Coroner Wallace Miller's request to issue death certificates for another 20 people without their remains being identified.

The decision allows the victims' families to more easily deal with settling estates, collecting death benefits and gaining access to bank accounts, county Solicitor Daniel Rullo said yesterday.

Flight 93, bound for San Francisco from Newark, N.J., had two pilots, five flight attendants and 37 passengers aboard when it crashed in Stonycreek. Four were hijackers who seized control of the Boeing 757 as it approached Cleveland; they were possibly diverting the plane to Washington, D.C., when a battle for control of the airliner took place with the other passengers, federal investigators say.
The names of the hijackers have been given as Ziad Samir Jarrah, Ahmed Alnami, Ahmed Ibrahim Al Haznawi and Saeed Alghamdi, but the FBI is not confident enough of their identities to have death certificates issued for them, Rullo said.


"The FBI indicated that they might have used false identifications to get their airline tickets," he said.
In the meantime, the identification of remains continues. The first dozen matches were made through use of dental records and fingerprints. The rest have come through DNA testing.


Some next of kin have asked for remains to be returned and some have asked the coroner to handle interment. Remains never identified could be buried at the crash site as part of a memorial that is being planned, county Commissioner Brad Cober said yesterday.




October 15, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Newsmaker: Coroner's quiet unflappability helps him take charge of Somerset tragedy, By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Monday,


SOMERSET -- As a youngster three decades ago, Wallace Miller was rattled by the very prospect of public speaking.








Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller and his wife, Arlene O'Toole, filling in as an unpaid deputy, work in an office crowded with files and paperwork related to the Sept. 11 crash of United Flight 93. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)

As an adult, his speechmaking resume began and ended with talks to high school driver education classes. His job as coroner of easygoing, rural Somerset County did not require much of a speaking part.

But 34 days ago, a bewildered Miller walked from the shelter of anonymity and collided with a score of reporters and photographers. They were pressing for information -- sometimes any iota would do -- about the crash of United Flight 93.
Miller, stick-thin, 6-foot-4, with spectacles and swept-back hair, had never seen anything like it.

"When I stepped into that line that day -- and some of the media were there five deep and it seemed they all had tape recorders -- it was the most terrifying part of the whole thing," he said.

Miller, 44, the first-term as coroner in this county of 79,000, was in the middle of a tragedy with the world peering over his shoulder. All 44 people on Flight 93 were dead.

He had never been in charge of a case with more than two dead.

In the hour before the Sept. 11 Somerset crash, the coroner's staff in neighboring Cambria County had phoned, alerting Miller to the terrorism in New York City and Washington, D.C. He watched on television as the second of two jets slammed into the World Trade Center.

"He said what a tragedy it was," Miller's wife, Arlene O'Toole, recounted, "And he said, 'I'm glad I'm not coroner there.'"

NEWSMAKERWallace Miller
 Date of birth: May 7, 1957
 Place of birth:Somerset
 In the news: Miller, Somerset County's coroner, was forced into the spotlight Sept. 11 when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in his jurisdiction. He oversaw recovery of remains and identification of the 44 people aboard.
 Quote: "When you have to do something, what's the other option? Not doing it is not an option."
 Education: Graduated from Somerset Area High School, 1974; bachelor's degree in political science from Washington & Jefferson College, 1979; certification from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, 1980.
 Family: Wife Arlene O'Toole and stepdaughter Tricia, a high school student in West Mifflin.

He could not have known that another jet hijacked by terrorists would crash in Somerset County.

Now, a month of 18-hour days later, the crash site has been about as cleared of fragmentary remains as Miller figures humankind can get it. The high science of DNA is pairing remains with the dead. Death certificates have been mailed out for all but the four hijackers. Miller continues to escort victims' relatives who trickle into Somerset County to gaze on the crash scene.
He has acted as a caretaker for the site, ground that he wants to see consecrated as a memorial. He has won good marks from counterparts and victims' families. And he's carried on with what friends say is Miller's trademark quiet unflappability.

"I've never seen him rattled," said James Kight, owner of the Robert Halverson Funeral Home, "and I've known him for 25 years."
But Miller is worn out.

"He's tired, very tired," said O'Toole, usually an environmental health and safety consultant with PPG Industries Inc. in Allison Park, but filling in as an unpaid deputy and spirit booster to the coroner.

Miller never figured there was much chance that cataclysm came with the Somerset County job, and he knew the job pretty well.

His father, funeral director Wilbur Miller, an occasionally gruff, usually affable soul, was elected coroner for six terms, 24 years. Wallace Miller was his deputy for the last 17.

Wallace Miller went off to Washington & Jefferson College and got a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1979. But even then he figured he would return to the family funeral business in Somerset.

"He said he only wanted to be either a veterinarian or a funeral director, "O'Toole said. "And he loves this town."

For his part, Miller saw few career options.

"The only other thing I think I might have been suited to be was a professor of, who knows, philosophy, I guess," he said.

He received his certification from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science the year after he graduated from college. Then it was back to Somerset to join his dad in the funeral home trade.

O'Toole concedes that, before they married three years ago, she was squeamish at the prospect of routinely being around the dead. For Miller, it was a way of life. He grew up mowing the funeral home lawn and setting up chairs for services.

"I knew if I came home from a basketball game and saw the light on in the embalming room, I could go down and talk to my dad," he said.

He was drawn by the lure of having his own business and, when demand was thin, setting his own hours. There is enough flexibility that Miller coaches Somerset Junior High School boys basketball and works as assistant coach for the high school boys and girls track teams.

In 1994, he bought the Somerset funeral home from his father and added another nine miles away in Rockwood. In 1997, he was elected successor when his father, now 74, retired as coroner.
He makes $35,854 a year as coroner, a wage that his wife says equates to "something like 40 cents an hour."

After the crash he swore in a cadre of deputies -- helpers such as hospital workers and fellow funeral directors -- but Miller chose largely to go it alone.

Even in the middle of it all, where trees were scorched and the Boeing 757's fuselage disintegrated in a crater that collapsed on itself to leave a gouge maybe 14 feet across, the destruction was so complete that it was hard to imagine what happened.

"It was as if the plane had stopped and let the passengers off before it crashed," Miller said.

The FBI took control of the crash scene. Miller had charge of a provisional morgue six miles away. Across the county, at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, he would meet with families of most of the victims.

When they returned home and phoned back with all manner of questions, Miller said, he tried to make sure they got directly to him. "That's one of my trademarks. When you call Miller Funeral Home, you get Miller."
Over time, the work has shifted from gathering remains to filing paperwork, counseling survivors, identifying remains and repairing the site.

When he was outgrowing his home quarters, the county gave him his own office -- a 25-by-14-foot courthouse basement room complete with a desk, table, seven chairs and a view of a stone wall. There, amid handmade cards from area children -- "You have extreme courage," says one -- he carries on the job of cataloging remains.

When it all goes away, Miller said, he will not miss the clamor one smidgen.
"Until then, I'll go as long as I have to."




October 27, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Another 14 victims of Flight 93 identified, By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer,

Investigators have positively identified the remains of another 14 persons aboard United Airlines Flight 93 and Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said the investigation could conclude more quickly than expected.

Yesterday's confirmation of victims' identities by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology DNA lab in Rockville, Md., means that 34 of the 44 people who were aboard the jetliner crashed Sept. 11. have been identified.

"We're progressing at a very steady pace in identifying the victims," Miller said. "Originally we thought it might take four to six months, but things are moving faster than we thought."

Miller said the lab is continuing to test DNA material to verify the deaths of the last six crash victims.
He said DNA tests won't be able to identify the four hijackers on board.

"To make a DNA identification we need something from the victims or their family members -- personal effects, or blood samples -- to match," Miller said. "We don't have that kind of information about the terrorists."



September 11, 2006, AP Online, In Pa., Mourners Remember Flight 93,

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - Those first to arrive at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 five years ago found only a smoking crater, singed trees and an eerie silence.

Most of the horror was left to the imagination.

First responders and family members who visited the site in the hours and days after the disaster say this void is one of their starkest memories.


"My first thought was, where's the plane crash?" said state police Lt. Patrick Madigan. "All there was was a hole in the ground and a smoking debris pile."

Five years later, relatives and others touched by the tragedy began gathering Monday morning for a memorial service and a reading of the names of the 33 passengers and seven crew members killed near this small western Pennsylvania town. Gov. Ed Rendell and former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor, were to join them.

Allison Vadhan of Atlantic Beach, N.Y., lost her mother, Kristin White-Gould, on Flight 93. About a week after the disaster, she and other family members got their first glimpse of the site.

"It was scary to look at and horrible to imagine what happened to everybody, what happened to that big plane," she said. "It was all left to our imagination, and maybe that's for the best."

Flight 93 was en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when the hijackers took over, likely with the goal of crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol. There are indications that a group of passengers rushed the cockpit in an effort to wrest control from the terrorists shortly before the plane crashed.

Since that day, a group of volunteers known now as the Flight 93 ambassadors point visitors to the crash site and describe what happened aboard the plane on Sept. 11, 2001.

Forty-five volunteers now take turns working two-hour shifts each day at the Flight 93 Memorial. Some months they guide more than 25,000 visitors.

Organizers hope to raise $30 million in private funding to build a permanent memorial on a 1,700-acre site in Shanksville; the total cost is estimated to be $58 million. Congress has passed the Flight 93 Memorial Act, which established a new national park to honor the victims of the hijacked plane.

That terrible day, it didn't take first responders long to realize there would be no survivors. Combing the site, all they could find at first were small pieces of a commercial aircraft - and bits of a United Airlines in-flight magazine.

"It was a pretty scary time," says a former assistant fire chief, Rick King, whose truck was the first to arrive. "I just remember driving down the road, wondering what we were about to see."

Searchers recovered only about 8 percent of the potential human remains but were able to identify everyone from the fragments they did find, said Somerset County CoronerWallace Miller.

"Most of the material was vaporized," he says.





February 16, 2009, AP Online, Recovering crash remains a methodical process, by William Kates,

Experts who helped identify victims from Flight 93's crash in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11 have joined the search for remains from a commuter plane's crash site outside Buffalo.

Continental Flight 3407 dropped from the sky late Thursday night onto a suburban Buffalo home, killing all 49 people on board the plane and one person in the house.

The job of identifying remains takes time, experts said, which can be difficult for grieving families.

"You have to have a balance," said Wallace Miller, the Somerset Countycoroner who helped identify the victims of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.

"You want to give the families closure - but it has to be a painstaking, step-by-step process," Miller said.

Compared to other commercial plane crashes, the debris field in Clarence is tiny. It takes up the house and the property lot. In Shanksville, it covered 70 acres.

But the plane crashing into a house adds a different dimension to the recovery effort, with the debris from the plane and the home intermingling, said Steve Chealander, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, along with the FBI.

Chealander has likened the effort to an excavation, and said the recovery of human remains "has priority" over other parts of the investigation.

Erie County Health Commissioner Anthony Billittier said the recovery of bodies could be completed by Wednesday. The first remains were pulled from the scene late Friday, less than 24 hours after the crash.

Billittier said searchers are finding a combination of whole remains and small pieces. Some victims were found still sitting with their seat belts on, law enforcement officials told The Buffalo News.

The effort to recover was being led by Dennis Dirkmaat, a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., and a nationally renowned expert who was part of the recovery effort at Shanksville. Graduate students were also involved.

Crash scenes are plotted in grids and corridors and visually inspected by teams of professionals and trained volunteers that flag any suspected remains they find.

Using electronic precision surveying equipment, another group maps the site and records the location of the material. A third group takes photographs.

Dirkmaat said the process of recovering remains is more streamlined than in the past.

"Before you would walk a site and find as much as you could for a few days. Then back off. Collect it and take it to the morgue," Dirkmaat said.

"In this process, as soon as you find material, it can come off site and go to the morgue. The morgue is running at the same time the field operation is going on," he said.

Even with modern equipment and a well-defined mapping strategy, searchers still must get down on their hands and knees to scour a site for remains.

"It can be an emotionally difficult job, but I tell my students you have to divorce yourself from what happened," he said.

Dirkmaat said what helps him tackle his job is focusing on the comfort he and his colleagues can bring to families.

Remains recovered from the Flight 3407 site are bagged and taken with a police escort to the Erie County medical examiner's office, where a refrigerated trailer has been set up as a temporary morgue. A federal team of experts will help local medical examiners identify the victims.

In Shanksville, where the plane crashed going nearly 600 mph, authorities were able to recover only about 8 percent of potential remains,Miller said. Nevertheless, authorities were able to identify all 44 people who died in the crash, although it took nearly six months, he said.




September 10, 2011, Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque) 21,000 bone fragments, no 9/11 closure, by Christian Salazar,

NEW YORK - His family has his spare firefighter uniform, but not the one he wore on 9/11 - or any other trace of him.

Killed at the World Trade Center, 32-year-old Scott Kopytko's remains were never recovered - a painful legacy of grief for families looking for answers, closure or final confirmation that their loved one was actually a 9/11 victim.

Numbers tell the story in the decade of search and recovery of the remains of Sept. 11 victims - a massive forensic investigation marked by a Supreme Court appeal of families who wanted a more thorough search, and discoveries years after the attacks of more remains in manholes and on rooftops around ground zero.

* Tens of millions have been spent, including on the painstaking extraction of DNA from tiny bone fragments, using technology refined from a decade ago.

* Of 21,000 remains that have been recovered, nearly 9,000 are unidentified, because of the degraded condition they were found in. More than 1,100 victims have no identifiable remains.

* And the pace of the process is telling - in five years, only 26 new identifications.

Five scientists work seven days per week trying to make new identifications. The unidentified remains are stored in climate- controlled conditions.

DNA analysis is done by comparing the remains' genetic profile to DNA found from victims' possessions; from relatives; or from previously identified remains.

The fragments are examined, cleaned and pulverized into powder to extract tell-tale genetic traces - a process that can take up to a week. Most of the DNA profiles generated belong to previously identified victims.

When an identification is made, the remains are returned to the family. Sometimes, nothing survives the DNA testing.

The struggle to identify the 9/11 dead began almost immediately after the attacks in New York City, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa., where one of the hijacked planes crashed before reaching its intended target. Forensic teams were faced with challenges in identifying victims and the hijackers - some of whose remains now are in the custody of the FBI.

In Pennsylvania, the heat caused by the high-speed crash into a field caused 92 percent of the human remains to vaporize, leaving very little to work with, said Wallace Miller, the county coroner who helped to identify the victims. DNA was used to make matches to the 40 victims, plus four sets of remains from the terrorists.

Most of the 184 victims at the Pentagon also were identified using DNA. All but five were identified, said Paul Stone, spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.

But nowhere was the forensic detective work as demanding and daunting as at the 16-acre World Trade Center site. Few full bodies were recovered. Then heat, moisture, bacteria and chemicals combined to thwart forensic scientists. Some remains were so badly burned or contaminated that DNA could not be analyzed.

By April 2005, the city's chief medical examiner, Charles Hirsch, told families his office would be suspending identification efforts.

Identifications restarted in 2006 amid the discovery of bone fragments in a manhole, which led to a search that found nearly 2,000 new fragments. The latest search ended last year.