18TH ST WITNESS LOCATION

As a sideline, I decided to see what I could learn from this previously unpublished witness located by Citizen Investigation Team (CIT) in November 2007, and still unpublished. Here is what I had to go on, from a report on their third trip to Arlington:

"We caught our plane Monday late afternoon but not without doing some canvassing for some new witnesses in the neighborhoods right before the driving range of Army Navy Country Club where Jamal saw the plane. Most people weren't home because they were at work just like they would have been on 9/11 but almost all the retired people we found confirmed that they heard the plane or knew that it flew over the area. However we did find one more person who actually saw the plane and although he did not remember the color he further corroborates the flight path that has been getting established for us by the the people of Arlington."[source]

That's it. Date: Nov. 12. Time: afternoon (sun: southwest). Witness location: between houses like these near the ANCC driving range. I scanned the hood for matching surroundings and found this as the best fit, a residence on S. 18th St. The direction he’s indicating – about due north - makes no sense as a flight path, but seems just the direction he looked to see the plane - ie, he was south of it.
Jamal ElKournayti’s literally read description (as seen in CIT's The White Plane) puts plane right over this witness' house. CIT’s now-passe impossible proposal (not gospel but the only specific model they’ve yet offered) puts the plane entirely south of his house. In either case he would not likely recall it north enough to warrant a lateral indication; he’d be pointing straight up. Clearly we’re looking for a path that passed a bit further north of these.
Interestingly, the official path runs at a heading of 60 degrees real according to the FDR – almost exactly the heading elKournayti’s account yields when read literally – and running about 16-1700 feet north of his path and this witness’ location. I think this path, here in purple and ending where the last frame of data shows it, is a quite possible contender for both witnesses, since much other evidence suggests it happened whether or not it fits their years-later descriptions or doesn’t. Jamal’s memory would have to be tainted with massive perspective error to give a path directly over the trees near his position, but for this witness, well… that’s all I had to go on.