# Why no challenge to 9/11 cell phone story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422 "2006-01-31T22:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/21 "2006-02-01T05:36:10Z")
> [@Feydeau](#): > > No, let’s don’t. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/22 "2006-02-01T06:12:13Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > See post 16. Wouldn’t have felt the need to point it out again if ElvisL1ves hadn’t made it sound like his post was the definitive answer to the question. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/23 "2006-02-01T06:22:12Z")
:dubious: His reply in no way erases the existance of the post before it. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/24 "2006-02-01T06:26:09Z")
The post before it says that most of the calls were made from sat phones, that a few were made from cell phones, and that the details of length of cell phone calls, etc. were probably a little misremembered by the families of the passengers. His post says “Because they were made from sat phones”. No mention of other calls being made from cell phones, or anything, only the definitive statement that the cell phone calls were actually made from sat phones. My post points out, because it’s not clear that he understands this, that not all of the calls were made from sat phones. He made his post nearly 45 minutes after the post before him; seemed to me it needed to be pointed out to him that not all the calls were made from sat phones. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/25 "2006-02-01T06:27:53Z")
No, I won’t tell you what you want to hear. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Citizen\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Citizen\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Citizen_Bob)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/26 "2006-02-01T07:05:07Z")
> [@Star Wars Holiday Special](#): > > Why haven’t experts debunked it? People say alot of things when there is much emotion involved. I watched a sneak-peak to A&E’s reenactment of the Flight 93 drama, and they have a call being made from the on-board sat phone (that you pick up off the backs of the seats in front of you on long flights). Without that explanation, I’ve never tried a cell phone on a plane, but it does seem unlikely that an normal analogue phone would actually work. [Slight Hijack] IF anyone can find actual video or pictures of the plane approaching the pentagon, I would be much appreciative. I’ve only seen after-explosion images released of the pentagon.[/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/27 "2006-02-01T07:50:41Z")
> [@Citizen Bob](#): > > Without that explanation, I’ve never tried a cell phone on a plane, but it does seem unlikely that an normal analogue phone would actually work. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/28 "2006-02-01T10:13:56Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Why? Because you’d need a REALLY long wire. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/29 "2006-02-01T11:00:07Z")
Hadn’t thought of that. We need a kicking-yourself smilie ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/30 "2006-02-01T14:58:56Z")
I admit it, I’m a bad person, and I don’t always remember to turn off my cell phone on flights. I usually remember mid-flight or sometime shortly after takeoff, so when turning it off, I’ve had occasion to see my phone powered on at various altitudes and conditions. I have never seen the phone pick up a tower of any sort above 10000 feet or so. Even above big cities. This as been the case with my current GSM carrier and my old CDMA one. One big hurdle for high-altitude reception is that cell towers use fairly directional antenna arrays, so that they can tailor their coverage to the geography and population distribution of an area. In most places, especially those with varied terrain and spotty population, cell towers are transmitting a decidedly non-uniform coverage pattern. The upshot of this directional behavior is that the towers are also made to broadcast generally downward, almost like a street lamp. Transmission and reception is maximized for areas at or below the level of the tower, and only a much weaker signal will exist in the half-space above the antenna array (this is due to the minor lobes resulting from the directionality). That’s not to say there’s no signal above; but the cell phone companies do try to maximize reception for us ground dwellers. They don’t tend to waste signal by beaming it toward the sky any more than they have to. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/31 "2006-02-01T19:01:40Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Well, just off the top of my head…because they did. > > Western Colorado has crappy cell phone reception. Mountains everywhere, don’t you know. In the air over Pennsylvania…no mountains. > > Don’t look for conspiracies where there aren’t any. There are plenty of real ones to go around. Yeah…the above says a lot. Don’t forget, they were flying over NYC, for goodness sake! The closest cell tower was probably atop the WTC! ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/32 "2006-02-01T19:05:16Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Yeah…the above says a lot. Don’t forget, they were flying over NYC, for goodness sake! The closest cell tower was probably atop the WTC! Clarification: While the PA story might have first come to the minds of many who replied, there were also stories from NY of loved ones receiving “good bye” phone calls. The OP didn’t say which stories s/he didn’t believe… - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/33 "2006-02-01T19:12:47Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > A few miscellaneous cell phone call conversations have been recalled by relatives of folks who were calling terrified. If they recall the conversation, they probably explain it and recall it as lasting much longer than it did – Completely normal, considering the significance of the call. As for the length of the cellphone calls, that should be easy to check, just from reading the bill received by the family. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/34 "2006-02-01T20:01:10Z")
Oh, no doubt - records can be checked… But we are only privy to the information about cell calls from news reports and from loved ones re-telling the story. Conspiracy nuts then use these examples to explain how unlikely it all was: All those calls, all those lengthy convos, etc…‘that can’t happen’, they’ll say. Right now, I don’t know how many celll phone calls were placed, at what altitudes, at what success rate, and at what length per call. Given the number of people who likely tried, and the various altitudes of the various planes at various time/locations, I expect a handful got through, and I suspect we heard about them. I also know that some lengthy calls were not on cell phones, but on airphones on the plane. At least one call was from an attendant to the airline’s offices, and Beamer’s was an airphone call to Verizon staff. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422/35 "2006-02-01T21:45:31Z")
> [@Citizen Bob](#): > > Without that explanation, I’ve never tried a cell phone on a plane, but it does seem unlikely that an normal analogue phone would actually work. You mean a normal, 2001-vintage digital cell phone? I’m not sure who was able to get through, but I would suspect that CDMA users would be more likely because of its ability to do a soft handover, simultaneously using more than one base station. But that’s a wild guess. > [@](#): > > [Slight Hijack] IF anyone can find actual video or pictures of the plane approaching the pentagon, I would be much appreciative. I’ve only seen after-explosion images released of the pentagon.[/slight hijack] Conspiracy-minded folks have been asking for these for a long time. Apparently there was a gas station security camera which caught images of the airliner, but the tape was confiscated and images have not been released. The only released images we have are from a security camera at a Pentagon parking lot gate, in which you have to use your imagination to make out an airliner pre-crash. I have no doubts at all that it was really the airliner in question, but I would like to see the government release whatever images they have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-challenge-to-9-11-cell-phone-story/342422.md?page=1)