On this day in history . . .This from the Van Nuys, California, Valley News on Thursday, July 22, 1971:

747 Rams Window at Airport [title]

 

[complete article]

“An American Airlines Boeing 747 jetliner plowed through a plate glass window at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday when it advanced too far into the passenger loading area.

            An airline spokesman said there were no injuries in the incident which occurred shortly after noon.

            The spokesman said Flight 11 had just arrived from Boston with 165 passengers on board when it crashed through the giant second-floor plate glass window in the American Airlines satellite at the airport.

            The force of the impact pushed a large supporting beam about two feet into the nose section of the airliner, the spokesman said.

            The spokesman added that damage to the intricate radar equipment carried in the nose of the plane was not immediately known. The cause of the accident was under investigation.”

 

Harking back to that odd statement by Dr. Condoleezza Rice that nobody could have foreseen airplanes being used as weapons to crash into buildings – it has already been amply pointed out that, in fact, government personnel among other individuals had anticipated aircraft’s being used exactly thus. Beyond the specific incidents, there is also the general point that anything that can be crashed accidentally into a building can be deliberately crashed into one. This country, land of abundance, has a proud history of craft crashing into buildings – cars, trucks, delivery vans, single-engine planes, jets, helicopters, motorcycles . . . you name it.