A few days ago, however, I was struck by a text – which many of you must have also found – about the meaning of the numbers in relation to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The text invited to type Q33 NY, with the Wingdings font. Since changing fonts here is beyond my intellectual abilities, this will be an interactive text: please open a Word window, and follow me. You can also do it online with the Wingdings Translator.
It is claimed that “Q33” is the flight number of the first plane that hit the World Trade Center in New York, NY. When you translate the text in Q33 NY from English to Wingdings you will get an interesting message: ✈🗏🗏☠✡ one plane pointing towards two towers, a skull and a star of David.
The star of David is recognized as a symbol of Jewish identity. Jews in New York City comprise approximately 13 percent of the city’s population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of Israel.
But before we go down a conspiracy rabbit hole, let’s check the facts. The truth is that the flight numbers of the two airplanes that hit the towers were “American Airlines Flight 11” and “United Airlines Flight 175”, and the tail numbers were N334AA and N612UA. There were no flight numbers starting with Q in any nearby airport.
Also, when we look at the Wingdings character list, we notice that number 3 doesn’t translate as a tower or a city building, but simply as a page 🗏 and number 4 is several pages 🗐.
NYC in Wingdings
When we type “NYC” using the Wingdings font, we get ☠✡👍 a skull symbol, a star of David, and a thumbs up emoji.
Another theory is that the star is not a reference to Jewish people but to Muslims, who also have historically used the symbol to decorate mosques. The Q33 would then be a reference to chapter 33 of the Quran.
Others have claimed that the effect of this hidden message appeared when the numbers “911” were typed in Wingdings. But when we use the Wingdings generator again, we only obtain a computer mouse and folder symbols: 🖲📂📂
In conclusion, the Q33 NY Wingdings conspiracy theory, or the plain “NYC” translated into Wingdings coincidence seem to be just that: a coincidence that doesn’t show much evidence of anything deeper. Communication theorist Alexander Halavais points out in an essay that the existence of such myths is normal. “It is the natural attempt to make sense of a catastrophe,” he says.