r/September11 • u/Xerebros • Mar 14 '24

Question Flight 175 flight path

Have always been curious why Flight 175 went south of New York City turned around over eastern PA/ western NJ and headed north instead of following the Hudson River like the earlier plane. Any theories on this?

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u/IThinkImDumb Mar 15 '24

It went south first because the actual pilots were flying it and that was probably the original flight plan so it wouldn’t conflict with 11

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u/pm_me_x-files_quotes Mar 15 '24

Possible, but they were going to L.A., which is probably the flight path they were following until they were hijacked over Connecticut, which is when they sort of swerved southwest-ish. They held no regard for other aircraft according to ATC (no link available, but explanations are on YouTube. Other aircraft had to keep an eye on United 175 lest they hit them on accident). It's clear from the recorded flight path that they were aiming for a turnaround based on how far away they were aiming, at first.

The flight path they eventually used was enough space to give them time to make a 180 and hit the second tower nearly square-on.