| Dr. Schilling’s report further notes that there is no evidence Atta had substantial language exposures in his lifetime that could plausibly account for the accent features identified in the analysis. Alternative narratives about Atta’s background — such as claims that he or someone purporting to be him spoke French and Hebrew fluently — likewise fail to explain why he would have adopted pronunciation patterns associated with Caribbean or West African English varieties.
The findings apply even more strongly to the other alleged AA11 hijackers, who were not only said to be native Arabic speakers from Saudi Arabia but also reportedly spoke limited English and therefore would not have been expected to speak with the fluency exhibited in the AA11 transmissions.
Further complicating the official interpretation that these transmissions came from AA11, published passenger lists for AA11 do not identify any passengers of Caribbean or West African background who might readily account for the accent characteristics identified by the analysis.
Dr. Schilling’s findings also align with notable inconsistencies contained in purported eyewitness reports from AA11 flight attendants Betty Ong and Madeline Sweeney. Ong and Sweeney apparently indicated that there were only two and three hijackers, respectively, involved in the supposed hijacking, and none of the hijackers’ seat numbers they gave were Atta’s reported seat number of 8D. In contrast, the 9/11 Commission Report asserts that there were five hijackers aboard AA11.
In addition to its AA11 findings, the report raises questions about the structure and emotionality of transmissions allegedly made by either the captain or first officer of United Airlines Flight 93 during a purported physical struggle in the cockpit. Dr. Schilling observes that the highly emotional “Mayday” transmission attributed to the pilot appears inconsistent with the standardized communication protocols and routinized language expected in aviation emergency procedures.
The report also concludes that a whispered statement at the end of UA93 flight attendant CeeCee Lyles’ voicemail appears more consistent with the phrase “it’s a frame” than with the commonly suggested alternative “you did great” — though the report emphasizes the limitations of Lyles’ whispered utterance and the degraded audio.
To help ensure the rigor of the analysis, the report was independently peer-reviewed by another forensic linguist prior to publication.
Dr. Schilling’s analysis was conducted as part of a broader effort by IC911 and its partners to prepare a major investigative report for Senator Ron Johnson’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Her report will likely be incorporated into that larger submission alongside several other major research initiatives currently underway.
The linguistic findings dovetail with multiple other areas of ongoing IC911 research. An IC911-funded flight simulator study released earlier this month concluded that the reported flight paths of AA11, UA175, and AA77 were more consistent with automated control than with manual piloting by hijackers. Additional IC911 research expected to be released in the coming months also raises substantial doubt as to whether Mohamed Atta and several other alleged hijackers actually boarded the four flights.
Taken together, these lines of evidence increasingly call into question key elements of the official narrative surrounding the 9/11 hijacking events. Fortunately, though it’s taken 25 years, the public has never been more ready to receive this evidence with an open mind. |
