9/11 communication failures still baffle FAA, Defense officials

[shraby]

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and Defense Department last week told the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist plot that they are still trying to understand how communications broke down between them on the day of the attacks.

An interim report from the commission's staff revealed a communication failure between FAA headquarters and the Pentagon's National Military Command Center as the attacks unfolded. Poor communication meant the military mistakenly thought American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, was headed to Washington, and NMCC was not notified that United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was hijacked until almost 40 minutes after the FAA confirmed the hijacking, according to a new timeline of the attacks compiled by commission staff.


"The most frustrating after-the-fact scenario for me to understand and to explain is the communication link on that morning between the FAA operations center and the NMCC," said Monte Belger, who was the acting FAA deputy administrator when the attacks occurred. "I know how it's supposed to work, but I have to tell you it's still a little frustrating for me to understand how it actually did work on that day."

(more)

<http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0604/062104c1.htm>

[Dover]

1. Well, the answers were problably in the FAA's debriefing documents

that 'disappeared'.

"I know how it's supposed to work, but I have to tell you it's still a little frustrating for me to understand how it actually did work on that day."

uh huh...

[Beam Me Up]

2. Fine. They don't know what happened.

So, tell me. If you were a senior executive officer of a MAJOR CORPORATION and your VERY EXPENSIVE SECURITY SYSTEM FAILED YOU TO THE SUM OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, not to mention great loss of life and property, would you ACCEPT an "I don't know what happened" explanation from those in charge?

In other words WILL THERE BE ACCOUNTABILITY? If not, then we can say without the least hesitation that what this IS is NOTHING BUT MORE BULL SHIT.

[Old and In the Way]

3. No accountability means nothing has changed.

Who'll be surprised when the next failure happens?