STAND DOWN | 125 Min 2 CD | Audio
Book
Why America’s Air Defenses Failed on Sept. 11
by William Thomas
OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, NORAD was three days
into Operation Vigilant Guardian. Held twice a year to
tweak NORAD’s continent-spanning surveillance,
communications and interception web, North American air
defenses that morning were aggressively alert and battle
staffed, with key officers needed to make immediate decisions
stationed in the "battle cabs" of each interlinked
air force command post.
Anything out of the ordinary – inside or outside
continental airspace – would have been jumped on
instantly as some sneaky part of the drill! Suspect planes
would have been plotted on powerful radars, and interceptors
immediately launched - just as regulations required.
For reasons not yet explained, on Sept. 11, Operation
Vigilant Guardian saw America’s air defenses locked
on the North Pole for a simulated attack by a former
Cold War enemy who was now an ally.
Who’s idea was that? ROUTINE INTERCEPTS
In the year before Sept. 11, from the previous September
through June 2001, NORAD scrambled fighters 67 times
to intercept wayward aircraft…
FAA AND MILITARY: LOOKING THROUGH THE SAME RADAR EYES
NEADS protects some of the most high-value terrorist
targets in the USA. Conveniently concentrated on the
country’s Northeast corridor, this target rich
environment of 20 million people has its own dedicated
air defense force.
Sharing powerful radars tied into the Federal Aviation
Administration’s air traffic control network,
the Northeast Air Defence Sector (NEADS) can draw on
eight armed alert fighters. The Joint Surveillance
System, a billion-dollar network of long range Air
Route Surveillance Radars provides total air defense
and air traffic control for the continental United
States. New Model 4 Air Route Surveillance Radars out
to 250 nautical miles.
Military radar operators at more than a dozen sites
along the US East coast “look at everything in
the air” - according to a former radar defense
operator, who says his Maine radar outpost “often” scrambled
interceptors on its own authority, without waiting
to hear from the FAA or their own higher command.
----------------------
8:43:
TWO F-16S ALREADY AIRBORNE NEAR MANHATTAN.
Armed with practice bombs for runs over New Jersey’s
Pine Barrens near Atlantic City, the intimidating interceptors
are just eight minutes from Manhattan at cruising speed.
Flying flat-out, the fighters from the Atlantic City-based
177th Fighter Wing can be over the WTC in less than
three minutes. Either way, they would have had time
to try disrupting Flight 11’s flight path with
close passes. Or – as the Pentagon later admitted
to considering – ramming.
8:46:
OTIS SCRAMBLE
Nasty and Duff ordered to scramble. The distance from
Cape Cod to New York City is about 170 miles as a Strike
Eagle flies.
“
1,200 MPH” - ARNOLD
Referring to the same interceptions, Gen. Arnold subsequently
stated: “Our pilots were coming at about 1.5
mach, which is, you know, somewhere - 11 or 1200 miles
an hour.”
If so, they would have intercepted Flight 175.
“ SCALDED APES”
Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver - the Strike Eagles out of Otis
had flown “like a scalded ape … topping
500 mph.” But two of the world’s fastest
fighters were unable to catch up to an airliner flying
faster.
A NORAD press bulletin providing actual flight times
also insists that none of its interceptors flew faster
than the speed of sound. Elapsed flight times show
Nasty and Duff taking much longer to reach Manhattan
than going supersonic would have required. NORAD’s
news bulletin accurately states that the fighters actually
flew at just 500 MPH.
But the F-15 can fly faster than 1,870 miles per hour.
447 MPH
Instead of flying two-and-a-half times faster than
a bullet, Nasty and Duff drive their supersonic “air
superiority” fighters at a leisurely 447 mph – ostensibly
to intercept a Boeing 767 flying 43 mph faster.
These clipped Eagles take 11 minutes to cover the same
distance. Utilizing only one-quarter power, the F-15
Strike Eagles are still eight minutes and 71 miles
away when Flight 175 strikes the South Tower.
----------------------
9:22:
SUPERSONIC OVER PENNSYLVANIA
An earthquake monitor 60 miles from Shanksville, Pennsylvania
picks up a sonic boom caused by a supersonic jet.
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LANGELY SCRAMBLED AFTER WAITING 1 HOUR
Pentagon professionals paid and pledged to defend American
airspace have waited more than an hour after watching
Flight 11 go rogue - including 30 critical minutes
after Flight 77 turned abruptly toward them and the
White House less than a dozen miles away - before thinking
to scramble the Air National Guard F-16’s out
of Langley to protect the capitol.
----------------------
“ WE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THIS”
Acting air defense commander General Richard Myers
later said: "You hate to admit it, but we hadn't
thought about this."
But they had.
Just 11 months before - between October 24 and 26,
2000 - NORAD had trained “for a passenger plane
crashing into the Pentagon".
On 911 - as Flight 77 took off from Dulles International
- the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office operating
all U.S. spy satellites was about to conduct an emergency
drill in which a simulated plane from Dulles International
dives into their building.
----------------------
PLENTY OF TIME FOR OTIS JETS TO REACH FLIGHT 77
American Airlines Flight 77 is the only threat left
in the eastern sky. With no remaining bogeys on their
scopes, air force doctrine dictates that the two unemployed
Otis F-15s already in the area be redirected to “honor
the threat” of an incoming hijacked jumbo jet.
Even if Nasty and Duff loaf along at 532 mph - or 28%
of top speed - they will still have 26 minutes to deal
with Flight 77 before it nears the Pentagon.
----------------------
MEANDERING INTERCEPTORS FROM LANGLEY
Nearly half-an-hour after receiving the belated order
to scramble, Langley’s clipped Falcons coast
in over the burning Pentagon. Slowed down to just 410
mph, it has taken the 1,500 mph-capable fighters 19
minutes to cover the 130 miles from Virginia.
It should have taken just over seven minutes to reach
the Pentagon. Which would have put them overhead about
the time Flight 77 was making a predatory circle.
Instead, the supersonic jets fly no faster than a WWII
prop-driven fighter.
----------------------
ANDREWS
But it hardly matters. Sitting on the Andrews ramp
just 10 miles away, are two fully armed and fueled
supersonic interceptors tasked with protecting the
capitol from airborne terrorist threats on 15 minutes’ notice.
But on Sept. 11, these routinely scrambled Andrews
interceptors were “stood down” as Flight
77 bored in toward the headquarters they were supposed
to protect!
----------------------
NO DIVERSIONS
Why weren’t any of the fighters on training flights
or patrolling Air Defense Intercept Zones just off
the Atlantic Coast – or engaged in Vigilant Guardian
- was diverted to intercept four commandeered jetliners?
----------------------
TWO DOZEN AIR BASES
In the most heavily armed nation on Earth, at least
two-dozen air force installations are within fast flying
time of the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
10:02
FLIGHT 93 COCKPIT TAPE
Air traffic controllers Flight 93the last five to seven
minutes recorded on Flight 93’s cockpit tape
are “filled with violence and yelling in both
Arabic and English.”
According to three Newsweek reporters: “The Investigators
are looking into the possibility that the heroes came
very close to the cockpit.”
So what brought down Flight 93?
9:58
SHOOTDOWN OVER PENNSYLVANIA
As the hijackers fight with passengers and crew in
the cabin of Flight 93, an F-16 is lining up to take
the shot. As a flight controller in New Hampshire later
described the picture on his scope: “An F-16
fighter closely pursued United Airlines Flight 93.
The F-16 made 360-degree turns to remain close to the
commercial jet. He must’ve seen the whole thing.”
Onboard the doomed airliner, a desperate male passenger
locks himself inside one of the toilets and dials 911. “We’re
being hijacked, we’re being hijacked!” Just
before contact was broken, he hears an explosion and
sees white smoke coming from the plane. “We’re
going down!” he shouts.
The last sound heard
on Flight 93’s
Cockpit Voice Recorder is wind noise - suggesting
the plane
had been holed. Some witnesses also report seeing smoke
and flames coming from the Boeing as it fell.
SECONDARY CRASH SITE
Light debris from the crash, eight miles from the
crash site, included something that looked like a
rib bone, pieces of airliner seats, small chunks
of melted plastic, bank checks and other debris began
washing ashore at the marina.
At the secondary impact site eight miles away – half
of one of the large engines weighing 1,000 pounds
came down – which is what happens when a jet
turbine is blown off of an airliner’s wing
by a heat-seeking explosive warhead. It will take
the air force two more hours to deny firing on the
doomed airliner.
UNITED 23 TO LA THWARTED
United Flight 23, prevented from pushback by Norman
Mineta’s emergency grounding orders. Onboard
the fuel-heavy airliner three angry Arabian passengers
loudly demanded that the flight proceed to Los Angeles.
Kicked off the plane, the would-be hijackers vanished
before police showed up.
ANGRY FORMER CONTROLLER
At least one former Pentagon air traffic controller
is still angry. “All those years ago when I
was at the Pentagon, this wouldn’t have happened,” the
former Pentagon air traffic controller wrote a 911
investigator.
“ ATC Radar images were - and are - available in the
understructures of the Pentagon, and any commercial
flight within 300 miles of Washington DC that made
an abrupt course change toward Washington DC, or
turned off their transponder and refused to communicate
with ATC, would have been intercepted at supersonic
speeds within minutes by fighters out of Andrews
AFB. Why there were no fighters from Andrews up baffles
me. If we could get fighters notified, scrambled,
and airborne within about six- minutes from Andrews
AFB then, we could now.”
SOURCES:
ABC News 10/25/99; 10/17/02
All Fall Down: The Politics of Terror and Mass Persuasion
American Forces Press Service 10/23/01
AP 8/13/02; 8/22/03; 11/11/03
Baxter Bulletin 9/11/01
Boston Globe 9/15/01; 11/23/01
CBC 11/27/01
CNN 10/26/99; 9/11/01; 6/20/02; 9/4/02
Christian Science Monitor 9/13/01;3/8/02
Cleveland NewsChannel5 11/9/01
DOD CJCSI 3610.01A 6/1/01
FAA news release 8/9/02; FAA Order 7610.4J 7-1-2
Globe & Mail 6/13/02
Guardian 9/12/01; 10/17/01
Parade 10/12/01
Los Angeles Times 9/12/01
MDW News Service 9/28/01
Mirror 11/13/03
MSNBC 912/01
Myers Confirmation 9/13/01
NBC 9/11/01; 9/23/01
Newsday 9/10/02
Newsweek 11/27/01
New York Times 9/13/01; 10/16/01; 9/11/02
Post-Gazette 9/13/01
Record 9/14/01
San Diego Union-Tribune 9/12/01
S.C. Spangler/Tribune-Review 9/12/01
Telegraph 9/13/01 .
Time 8/12/02
Village Voice 9/13/01
Washington Post, 9/17/01; 9/21/01; 11/8/03
White House Press Release 10/5/01
WorldNetDaily.com 1/25/03
ATC recordings – or search Google
http://emperor.vwh.net/indict/indict-2.htm
NORAD
http://www.standdown.net/noradseptember182001pressrelease.htm
NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND
News Release
DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE
DEFENSE COMMAND,
250 S Peterson Blvd, Suite 116, PETERSON AFB, CO 80914-3190
(719) 554-6889 Website: http://www.norad.mil/
Contact: (719) 554-6889 18 September, 2001
NORAD’s Response Times
PETERSON AFB, Colo. --The following timelines show NORAD’s response
to the airliner hijackings on September 11, 2001.
* All times are Eastern Daylight Time; NEADS = North East Air Defense Sector,
NORAD
** Scramble = Order to get an aircraft airborne as soon as possible
***Estimated = loss of radar contact
**** Flight times are calculated at 9 miles per minute or .9 Mach
***** The FAA and NEADS established a line of open communication discussing
AA Flt 77 and UA Flt 93
American Airlines Flight 11 – Boston enroute to Los Angeles
FAA Notification to NEADS 0840*
Fighter Scramble Order (Otis Air National Guard Base, Falmouth, Mass. Two F-15s)
0846**
Fighters Airborne 0852
Airline Impact Time (World Trade Center 1) 0846 (estimated)***
Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location Aircraft not airborne/153
miles
United Airlines Flight 175 – Boston enroute to
Los Angeles
FAA Notification to NEADS 0843
Fighter Scramble Order (Otis ANGB, Falmouth, Mass.
Same 2 F-15s as Flight 11) 0846
Fighters Airborne 0852
Airline Impact Time (World Trade Center 2) 0902 (estimated)
Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location
approx 8 min****/71 miles
American Flight 77 –Dulles enroute to Los Angeles
FAA Notification to NEADS 0924
Fighter Scramble Order (Langley AFB, Hampton, Va. 2
F-16s) 0924
Fighters Airborne 0930
Airline Impact Time (Pentagon) 0937(estimated)
Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location
approx 12 min/105 miles
United Flight 93 – Newark to San Francisco
FAA Notification to NEADS N/A *****
Fighter Scramble Order (Langley F-16s already airborne
for AA Flt 77)
Fighters Airborne (Langley F-16 CAP remains in place
to protect DC)
Airline Impact Time (Pennsylvania) 1003 (estimated)
Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location
approx 11 min/100 miles
(from DC F-16 CAP)
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