# WTC hit by plane flight no Q33NY ??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612 "2001-09-19T16:28:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/1 "2001-09-19T16:28:41Z")
Somebody has just shown me a new internet rumour about the WTC thing. Apparently: One of the flights was number Q33NY; whae you format this using the Wingdings font, you get a plane, two printed pages (Which arguably look like tall buildings), a skull and crossbones and a star of David (arguably an explosion, or maybe the skull with the star are supposed to symbolise trouble for Israel, I dunno) Anyway, I’m taking it with a modicum of NaCl; at most, it’s a slightly gruesome coincidence, I’m not about to go all **Seethuart** on you, but can anyone confirm if Q33NY **was** one of the flights? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/2 "2001-09-19T16:41:58Z")
The flights were 11, 77, 93, and 175. The aircraft tail numbers, which more closely resemble your ‘Q33NY’, were N334AA, N644AA, N591UA, and N612UA respectively. So I’d say it’s a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/3 "2001-09-19T16:51:06Z")
Thanks for that, I thought it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/4 "2001-09-19T16:53:20Z")
You do get a couple of odd things with those fonts if you type NYC in all capitals Webdings gives you an eye, a heart, and a skyline Wingdings gives you a skull and crossbones, star of david and a thumbs up symbol Kind of interesting, if meaningless, coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/5 "2001-09-19T16:57:03Z")
Ok, so let’s see if we can squeeze an interpretation out of those: N334AA looks like: a skull and crossbones (death) Two documents (towers) Three documents (three new towers?) Two hands raised with fingers in V formation (defiance or victory) =“You destroyed two towers, we’ll build three, you lose” I really must go and lie down now. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/6 "2001-09-19T20:44:32Z")
All civil aircraft in the U.S. have registrations beginning with “N”. There are up to five more characters which can be numeric and/or alphabetic (with at least one numeric), with alphabetic characters appearing after numerics and no more than two alphabetic characters. For example: N64245 (all numeric) N5728T (numeric w/alpha) N663AA (numeric with 2 alpha) N1KE (“personalized” with one numeric and two alpha) I don’t know about the validity of the old NC and NX registrations from the olden days. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/7 "2001-09-19T21:02:49Z")
Mangetout, the flight number you list might be the “real” flight number the tower uses in conjunction with the plane. As far as I know, the tower/pilot use a different flight number than the ticketed flight number. (I don’t think much of the font thing in Word…but did want to tell you that each flight has anoither flight number, not just a tail number and ticketed flight number) ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2001, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-hit-by-plane-flight-no-q33ny/82612/8 "2001-09-19T21:25:29Z")
[http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/fracture/wingding.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/fracture/wingding.htm)