Steven O'Brien

This is a new article. As such is has been set to unassessed. It is classified as a stub, and categories require improvement. This article has been assessed as havingUnknown importance.

Good scope?N Timeline? +Y wikified?N red links < 10?N all red links fixed?N referenced?N Illustrated?N Googled and added info? N Checked 9/11 records archives? N Checked Wikinews? N Checked Wikisource? N

Steve O'Brien is a lieutenant colonel in the Minnesota Air National Guard's 133rd Airlift Wing.

O'Brien has become known because of a notable coincidence on 9/11, when he and his crew flew close, in space and time, to the crashes of two of the four airliners hijacked that day, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93. The former hit the Pentagon, while the latter later crashed in a field in western Pennsylvania.

O'Brien's flight on September 11, 2001

O'Brien's flight tracks AA Flight 77

On September 11, 2001, O'Brien was flying a Minnesota Air National Guard C-130H (Hercules) cargo airplane. He and his crew were on a return journey to Minnesota after having delivered supplies in the Caribbean . He took off from Andrews Air Force Base, just southeast of Washington, D.C. , at about 9:30 am (EDT),^{[citation needed]} and headed "north and west". "[We] had a beautiful view of the Mall", he remarked. O'Brien noticed "this airplane up and to the left of us, at 10 o'clock. He was descending to our altitude, four miles or so away. The plane came nearer until it pretty much filled our windscreen. Then he made a pretty aggressive turn, so he was moving right in front of us, a mile and a half, two miles away."^{[citation needed]}

Washington Reagan National Airport air traffic control asked O'Brien to identify the aircraft. He reported that the plane was either a 757 or 767 Boeing airliner, and that its silver fuselage meant it was probably an American Airlines jet. Controllers asked ("vectored") O'Brien to follow the plane (later identified as the errant AA Flight 77) as it approached Washington, D.C. from the west. He attempted to, having difficulty picking it out in the East Coast haze. O'Brien saw a fireball, and initially believed the aircraft had hit the ground, but then saw the west side of the Pentagon. He reported to the control tower, "Looks like that aircraft crashed into the Pentagon sir".

O'Brien's flight sees smoke from the crash of UAL Flight 93

The Hercules resumed its scheduled flight path. When crossing western Pennsylvania at about 10:00 am, local air traffic control asked them to try to spot another errant aircraft, Flight 93. Black smoke was seen barreling from an open field on the left hand side of the Hercules.

O'Brien's flight was 17 miles from the crash site. His flight observed the smoke within 1 minute 37 seconds of the crash of Flight 93.

Crew members

• Steven O'Brien, Lt. Col., aircraft commander
• Jeffrey Rosenthal, Master Sgt., flight engineer

Timeline

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Historycommons.org - link

9.36 a.m. September 11, 2001: Military Cargo Plane Asked to Identify Flight 77

in a template This article has been assessed as havingUnknown importance.

Good scope?N Timeline? +Y wikified? +Y red links < 10?N all red links fixed?N referenced?N Illustrated?N Googled and added info? N Checked 9/11 records archives? N Checked Wikinews? N Checked Wikisource? N

Washington Reagan National Airport air traffic control instructs a military C-130 cargo plane that has just departed Andrews Air Force Base to intercept Flight 77 and identify it.

Remarkably, this C-130 is the same C-130 that will be 17 miles from Flight 93 when it later crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside . The pilot, Lt. Col. Steve O’Brien, will claim that he took off around 9:30 a.m., planning to return to Minnesota after dropping supplies off in the Caribbean. He will describe his close encounter:

“When air traffic control asked me if we had him (Flight 77) in sight, I told him that was an understatement—by then, he had pretty much filled our windscreen. Then he made a pretty aggressive turn so he was moving right in front of us, a mile and a half, two miles away. I said we had him in sight, then the controller asked me what kind of plane it was. That caught us up, because normally they have all that information. The controller didn’t seem to know anything.”

O’Brien reports that the plane is either a 757 or 767 and its silver fuselage means it is probably an American Airlines plane. “They told us to turn and follow that aircraft—in 20 plus years of flying, I’ve never been asked to do something like that.”

O’Brien and his crew, Maj. Robert Schumacher and flight engineer Master Sgt. Jeffrey Rosenthal , are unaware of the attacks in New York. Schumacher will say that, after being directed to follow Flight 77, he first thought that the plane was having technical difficulties, “that the pilots were really just trying to fly the airplane, and get it on the ground safely.” After the impact, O’Brien tunes in to a news broadcast, but is surprised to hear about a second crash in New York, not at the Pentagon. He will recall: “The first thing we heard on there was ‘We’re now hearing about a second airplane hitting the World Trade Center.’ That was not what we were expecting to hear. We were expecting to hear about an airplane impacting the Pentagon… and the light goes on, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, the nation’s under attack!’” The 9/11 Commission will report that O’Brien specifically identifies the hijacked plane as a Boeing 757 . Seconds after impact, he reports to the Washington tower, “Looks like that aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, sir.”

9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Witnesses See Military Cargo Plane near Flight 77; Pilot Later Implies He Is Far Away

in a template[1]

A C-130 transport plane that has been sent to follow Flight 77 is trailing only a short distance behind the plane as it crashes. This C-130, originally bound for Minnesota , is the same C-130 that will be 17 miles from Flight 93 when it later crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside

A number of people see this plane fly remarkably close to Flight 77: Kelly Knowles says that seconds after seeing Flight 77 pass, she sees a “second plane that seemed to be chasing the first [pass] over at a slightly different angle.”

Keith Wheelhouse says the second plane is a C-130; two other witnesses,Pam Young and Kelly Knowles are not certain. Wheelhouse “believes it flew directly above the American Airlines jet, as if to prevent two planes from appearing on radar, while at the same time guiding the jet toward the Pentagon.” As Flight 77 descends toward the Pentagon, the second plane veers off west.

USA Today reporter Vin Narayanan , who sees the Pentagon explosion, later says, “I hopped out of my car after the jet exploded, nearly oblivious to a second jet hovering in the skies.”

USA Today Editor Joel Sucherman sees a second plane but gives few details.

Brian Kennedy , press secretary for a Congressman, and others also see a second plane.

An unnamed worker at Arlington National Cemetery , which is about a mile from the Pentagon, will recall that “a mysterious second plane was circling the area when the first one attacked the Pentagon.”

Darrell Stafford , an interment foreman, at Arlington Cemetery also sees a second plane. He will recall:

“There was a second plane behind it.… It appeared to be a cargo plane… mostly white.… I think it was somebody who observed him [Flight 77] and was following him and saw where he was going or what was going on… he was probably behind that far and when he saw [the explosion], he banked it back hard and went back the other way.”

John O’Keefe is driving in his car when he sees the Pentagon crash. He will recall:

“The first thing I did was pull over onto the shoulder, and when I got out of the car I saw another plane flying over my head.… Then the plane—it looked like a C-130 cargo plane—started turning away from the Pentagon, it did a complete turnaround.”

Phillip Thompson, a former Marine, is sitting in traffic when he witnesses the crash of Flight 77 and then sees a cargo plane overhead. He will recall that, following the Flight 77 crash, “a gray C-130 flew overhead, setting off a new round of panic. I tried to reassure people that the plane was not a threat.”

The pilot of the C-130, Lieutenant Colonel Steve O’Brien, will later be interviewed, but his account differs from the on-the-ground eyewitnesses. He will claim that just before the explosion, “With all of the East Coast haze, I had a hard time picking him out,” implying he is not nearby. He also says that just after the explosion, “I could see the outline of the Pentagon,” again implying he is not nearby. He then asks “the controller whether [I] should set up a low orbit around the building,” but he is told “to get out of the area as quickly as possible.” He will add, “I took the plane once through the plume of smoke and thought if this was a terrorist attack, it probably wasn’t a good idea to be flying through that plume.”

10:08 a.m. September 11, 2001: Military Cargo Plane Pilot Asked to Verify Flight 93 Crash

in a template

Cleveland Center air traffic controller Stacey Taylor has asked a nearby C-130 pilot to look at Flight 93’s last position and see if he can find anything. Remarkably, this C-130 pilot, Lt. Col. Steve O’Brien, is the same pilot who was asked by air traffic control to observe Flight 77 as it crashed into the Pentagon earlier on (see 9.36 a.m. September 11, 2001). O’Brien tells Taylor that he saw smoke from the crash shortly after the hijacked plane went down. An article in the Independent will later suggest that Flight 93 might have been brought down by the US military using “electronic warfare applications” that can disrupt the mechanisms of an airplane (See August 13, 2002); it will refer to this C-130, since “in 1995 the Air Force installed ‘electronic suites’ in at least 28 of its C-130s—capable, among other things, of emitting lethal jamming signals.”

References

• Bob Von Sternberg, "'Hey, center, what's going on in New York? ...'", Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Sept. 11, 2002.
• 9/11 Commission Report,26 July 2004,Page 25, Page 26 , Page 29 , Page 30
• 9/11 Commission Report, Notes, p.462, note 170 (HTML version).
• Sheree Savage, "Witnessing, now remembering the 9-11 attacks", NorthStar Guardian online (133rd Airlift Wing publication), Sept. 11, 2006.
• "Profile: Steve O'Brien", Cooperative Research.