News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMine9-11norad-faa-response — Viewing Item


Norad informed 840 am

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_faa.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_faa.htm

FAA controllers detail Sept. 11 events
By Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press, 08/12/02

BOSTON -- Regional air traffic managers on Monday offered a detailed chronology of Sept. 11, when two planes were hijacked from Boston, but refused to say more about what actually happened on the planes.

American Flight 11 took off without incident at 8 a.m., and after it reached 11,000 feet was monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration's Boston Center, in Nashua, N.H., one of 20 FAA facilities nationally that monitor long-distance flights. United Flight 175 left 14 minutes later.

At first, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, as the American pilot acknowledged he had clearance to take the plane to 29,000 feet.

But then, when given permission to climb to 35,000 feet, communications fell silent, and the "blip" on the radar screen that was Flight 11 went blank, because someone on the plane turned off the transponder that sends out signals to controllers.

"We considered it at that time to be a possible hijacking," air traffic manager Glenn Michael recalled.

FAA managers held news conferences in Boston, New York and Washington on Monday, giving chronological accounts of the terrorist attacks and how they forced an unprecedented shutdown of the U.S. skies.

Representatives from Boston and the Boston Center in Nashua spoke at Logan Airport. They refused to answer questions about what happened on board -- such as how the terrorists got control -- citing the ongoing investigation.

They said there was nothing unusual about United Flight 175 while it was in this region's air space.

In fact, controllers in Nashua asked the pilot on Flight 175 if he could see Flight 11. He confirmed Flight 11 was still in the air, at about 29,000 feet.

Soon after, both flights were out of air space controlled by Nashua -- and were crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers.

After the first crash, flights from the Boston area to New York were grounded. After the second, all air traffic from Boston was halted.

"Once it became obvious what was actually transpiring, air traffic controllers reacted much like Americans reacted across the entire nation, with shock, with disbelief, with just stunned surprise that such acts could occur," said Joseph Davies, air traffic manager at Logan.

FAA officials also said Monday that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is now connected with the FAA network, and would immediately know if a hijacking had taken place.

On Sept. 11, NORAD wasn't notified until 8:40 a.m. -- six minutes before the plane struck the World Trade Center. Today, NORAD would know instantly of a suspected hijacking.

"NORAD is now linked up telephonically 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so anything that's an anomaly or a suspected anomaly that's found in the system, NORAD knows about it as quickly as we do," said David Canoles, FAA's manager of air traffic evaluations and investigations.

Air traffic controllers didn't notice anything odd Sept. 11 until communications fell silent with Flight 11's pilot 25 minutes after the plane took off at 8 a.m.

The FAA notified NORAD 15 minutes later; three minutes after that, NORAD was told United Airlines Flight 175 had been hijacked.

The first two military interceptors, Air Force F-15 Eagles from Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts, scrambled airborne at 8:52 a.m., too late to do anything about the second jet heading for the Trade Center or a third heading toward the Pentagon.

Mike McCormick, air traffic control manager at the New York Center -- the main control center for the area -- made the unprecedented decision at 9:04 a.m. to declare "ATC Zero," meaning that no aircraft could fly into, out of or through the airspace over New York and the western Atlantic.

He made the decision after the second plane, United Flight 175, crashed into the twin tower.

At 9:45 a.m., after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been struck by the hijacked planes, the FAA ordered all of the more than 4,000 aircraft in the skies over the United States to land at the nearest airport.



67 af scrambles year before 911
67 fighter chase suspicious aircraft year before 911
911 coup operated by cheney
911 panel set to detail flaws in air defenses { April 25 2004 }
Af guilty 911 { November 14 2001 }
Af pentagon tracked 1999 flight { October 26 1999 }
Af scrambled from andrews airforce base
Af standdown
Af there 5 minutes
Air security seriously flawed commission says { July 23 2004 }
Airforce chasing phantoms { June 18 2004 }
Airforce tries to explain mystery plane on 911 { September 12 2007 }
Andrews air force intercepts stray plane 2003
Andrews fighters intercept in 2005 threat { June 29 2005 }
Cheney erroneously scrambled langley jets { June 18 2004 }
Cheney stand down order { May 23 2003 }
Cheney told bush air force one is in danger
Colonel marr refused aircraft on 911
Commision probe failures of air defenses { June 1 2004 }
Complain airline emergency procedures 911 lawsuit { March 31 2003 }
Delay notifying law enforcement to be investigated { September 14 2001 }
Faa considered possible hijacking
Faa regulation loss radar
Fighters 8 minutes away
Flight 11 controllers tale { September 13 2001 }
Flight 11 loses contact 814 am { October 17 2001 }
Insiders misdirect military { May 27 2002 }
Jeb bush plane intercepted
Jesse ventura wonders about air force response { July 1 2005 }
Jets from langley sent towards atlantic ocean
Jets kept armed and fueled by NORAD { June 15 2004 }
Jets took to skies { August 29 2002 }
No planes ready 911 { August 29 2002 }
Norad informed 840 am
Norad not instantly notified
Norad not notified { August 12 2002 }
Norad ready { September 19 2001 }
Norad response google cache [htm]
Norad response times [jpg]
Norad thought hijacking excercise
Otis base 153 miles away { August 30 2002 }
Panel hears ciritic delays in air defenses on 911 { June 1 2004 }
Panelsubpoenas norad airforce response
Payne stewart jets scrambled { October 26 1999 }
Pentagon deceives commission on 911 response { August 2 2006 }
Planes not scrambled { September 11 2001 }
Planes take off from andrews { May 24 2003 }
Post 911 practice downing hijacked jets { October 3 2003 }
Prepared to order aircraft shoot down
Private plane in 1999 gets jet fighter escort { October 26 1999 }
Probe reconstructs horror
Radar lost pentagon flight 77
Response to attacks { June 3 2002 }
Scambled messages no fighters
Scrambled jets on 911 { September 15 2001 }
Scrambled messages
Shoot down order issued
Shootdown order given
Shootdown order never given to pilots { June 18 2004 }
Sonic boom scrambled jets { January 25 2003 }
Transcript flight 11 { October 16 2001 }
Two faa executives lied to 911 commission { September 2 2006 }
Two jets from andrews { February 6 2003 }
Two jets from andrews { July 26 2002 }
Where was the air force { September 11 2001 }
White house orders all military machines down

Files Listed: 66



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple