LAT: Air Authorities Were in Chaos, 9/11 Panel Says

[DeepModem Mom]

THE SEPT. 11 COMMISSION
Air Authorities Were in Chaos, 9/11 Panel Says
The government was vastly unprepared and fumbled its response to the terrorist strikes, investigators find. The FAA is taken to task.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Federal aviation authorities and the nation's air defense command were unprepared in virtually every way for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were forced to improvise amid chaos and miscommunication, the commission staff investigating the attacks said Thursday.

The report faulted the government for failing to anticipate a suicide-style hijacking and then bungling the response at nearly every level once the terrorist operation began to unfold that morning at Boston's Logan International Airport....

***

The report also noted that none of the agencies involved was trained to handle such a crisis, and told a story of overwhelmed air traffic controllers, fighter pilots and others doing the best they could to respond.

Among a litany of mistakes and missed opportunities cited in the report, most were traced to the FAA. Although the military came in for its share of criticism, its response to the hijackings in large measure was constrained by tardy notification from the aviation agency....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror18jun18,1,7041431.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If for no other reason

this should be why Bush should not be elected. But knowing him, he'll blame it all on Clinton.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Additional LAT article, with controller transcript excerpts --

THE SEPT. 11 COMMISSION
FAA Staff Blindsided by Attacks
Transcripts of radio transmissions from 9/11 highlight the weaknesses of the system and the efforts of individual air traffic controllers.

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The first person in the government to realize that something had gone awfully wrong on Sept. 11, 2001, was Pete Zalewski, an air traffic controller at his radar screen in a darkened, windowless room in a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Nashua, N.H.

For 10 minutes or so, Zalewski had been trying to figure out why American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles had stopped responding to his radio calls and why an automatic identification signal sent by the plane had suddenly vanished from his screen.

He suspected a mechanical problem. But then a radio transmission from the cockpit of the Boeing 767 came over his headset.

"We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you'll be OK. We are returning to the airport." A few seconds later, at 8:24 a.m., the unfamiliar voice spoke again: "Nobody move. Everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-faa18jun18,1,2219330.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Cooley Hurd]

3. From the same article...

But individuals at the FAA's Boston Center in New Hampshire and its New York Center on Long Island also seized the initiative when they could.

Boston Center called for military planes directly instead of going through the FAA's Washington headquarters, which would have taken longer. It also stopped all departures, and New York declared its airspace off-limits to all planes.

Why the hell did it take the interceptors from Otis AFB so long to get off the ground then (to, at least, stop Flt 175 from hitting the WTC's South Tower)???

:wtf:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. The better question is when was NORAD first notified of the hijackings?

Flight AA 11:

8:13am: AA 11 is believed to be hijacked.

8:40am: NORAD notified 27 minutes after the first indication.

8:46am: AA 11 crashes into WTC.

8:46am: Planes scrambled (ordered to fly) from Otis ANG Base.

8:52am: Planes in the air.

After 9:03: Planes arrive in NYC area.


Flight UA 175:

8:42am: Plane first suspected as being hijacked.

8:46am: Planes scrambled (ordered to fly) from Otis ANG Base.

8:52am: Planes in the air.

9:03am: UA 175 crashes into WTC.

After 9:03: Planes arrive in NYC area.

[Tracer]

6. Regarding the planes from Otis ...

I carefully read the entire story in this morning's Boston Globe and the 911 Commission discovered that the Otis planes DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO GO!

No one could tell them what their target was and so they were directed to the military air zone south of Long Island and told to circle around.

Furthermore, later on, the planes from Langley were told to head north to BALTIMORE, but misunderstood the order and performed a standard procedure that took them "90 miles east (over the ocean) for 60 minutes".

The whole day seems to have been a textbook case of chaotic incompetence and noone knowing who had any authority to make decisions.

[madrchsod]

4. meanwhile

georgie is reading to the kids then takes off and hides out till everything is safe. of course the real guys were in charge back in washington working on the final script revisions so chickenman could understand the story line. but to their dismay george still got it wrong...