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Complete 911 Timeline
Project: Complete 911 Timeline
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(Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Air National Guard Activates Its Crisis Team to Coordinate Response to Attacks
Paul Weaver. [Source: US Air Force]The Air National Guard's Crisis Action Team (CAT) is activated and coordinates the Air National Guard's response to the terrorist attacks. [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001; US Congress. Senate, 4/24/2002; Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39-40] Major General Paul Weaver, director of the Air National Guard (ANG), instructs Brigadier General Paul Kimmel, chief operating officer of the ANG, to run the CAT. [Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9/7/2004 ]
Crisis Team Activated 'Immediately' after the Pentagon Attack - Weaver had been watching the crisis unfold on television in his 12th-floor office at Jefferson Plaza in Crystal City, Virginia, and heard the crash when the Pentagon was hit, at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). He had seen the smoke from the burning Pentagon, which the wind had blown in the direction of his building, but, he will later recall, had mistakenly thought it was caused by "airplanes that had been blown up at [Washington's Reagan] National Airport." [Air National Guard, 10/22/2001 ; 9/11 Commission, 4/29/2004] He activates the CAT "immediately" after the Pentagon has been hit, according to an ANG memorandum from late September 2001. Kimmel, meanwhile, was in a staff meeting at the Pentagon when the attacks in New York occurred (see (9:00 a.m.-9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After that meeting ended, he was scheduled to attend another meeting at the Pentagon, at 9:30 a.m., but decided to go to his 12th-floor office at Jefferson Plaza. He arrived there shortly after the Pentagon was hit.
Crisis Team Leader Contacts NORAD Commander - Kimmel and Weaver now confer, and Weaver instructs Kimmel to go to Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, DC, to run the CAT. Kimmel and his executive officer are quickly driven to the base, covering the 17-mile journey in just 12 minutes. The CAT carries out its operations at the ANG Readiness Center at Andrews. When Kimmel and his executive officer arrive there, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, "Nobody knew the extent of the attack or what was going to happen next." "My job was to get folks ready to do whatever it took," Kimmel will comment. The first call he makes after arriving is to Major General Larry Arnold, commanding general of NORAD's Continental US Region. Kimmel will recall that Arnold tells him "to get everything we've got in the National Guard ready and loaded." This, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, means "89 different flying units and 200 other kinds of geographically separated units." [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001; Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9/7/2004 ]
Crisis Team Arranges for Fighter Jets to Defend the US - The CAT contacts ANG fighter, tanker, and airlift units across the nation, so as to prepare as many aircraft as it can, as quickly as possible, to defend the US. "Our role was to coordinate the necessary Air National Guard resources to assist in making sure all civilian pilots knew to ground their aircraft," Major General Paul Sullivan, assistant adjutant general for the Ohio ANG who is also the acting deputy director of the ANG, will recall. The CAT also has to "get key members of the government back to Washington, including President Bush, who was flying aboard Air Force One," Sullivan will say. [Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39; Coshocton Tribune, 9/11/2011]
Crisis Team Continues Operating around the Clock - The CAT will be staffed mostly by personnel from ANG headquarters, but also by some ANG personnel from the Air Education and Training Command who are in the area on temporary duty, along with some individuals who are trapped in the area due to the terrorist attacks. [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001] For example, Sullivan was in Crystal City for a meeting this morning. After learning of the attacks in New York, he had offered to fly back to Columbus, Ohio, immediately, but was ordered to stay in the Washington area and take charge of the CAT as its senior director. The CAT, according to an official history of the ANG, serves as "the central point of contact assisting the mobilization, coordination, and monitoring of ANG resources worldwide for emergency missions concerning natural and man-made disasters, including terrorism." It will start working around the clock as the 1st Air Force expands the air defense of the nation in response to today's attacks. [Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39-40; Coshocton Tribune, 9/11/2011]
Entity Tags: Larry Arnold, Air National Guard, Paul Kimmel, Air National Guard Crisis Action Team, Paul Sullivan, Paul Weaver
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events
(9:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Counterterrorism 'Tsar' Clarke Possibly Told to Pass on Shootdown Authorization, Earlier than Other Accounts Claim
According to one account, counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke is given the go-ahead to authorize Air Force jets to shoot down threatening aircraft around this time. In late 2003, Clarke will recall to ABC News that, minutes earlier, he'd picked up the phone in the White House Situation Room and called Vice President Dick Cheney, who is in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House. He'd told him: "We have fighters aloft now. We need authority to shoot down hostile aircraft." [ABC News, 11/29/2003] This call appears to be one Clarke also describes in his 2004 book Against all Enemies, though in that account he will describe having made his request to Army Major Mike Fenzel, who is also in the PEOC, rather than directly to Cheney. According to that account, the call occurred shortly before Clarke learns of the Pentagon attack, so roughly around 9:36 (see (Between 9:30 a.m. and 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 6-7] Clarke describes to ABC News, "I thought that would take forever to get that [shootdown] authority." But, "The vice president got on the phone to the president, got back to me, I would say within two minutes, and said, 'Do it.'" [ABC News, 11/29/2003] If correct, this would mean the president authorizes military fighters to shoot down threatening aircraft at around 9:37-9:38. However, around this time, the president and vice president are reportedly having difficulty communicating with each other, while Bush heads from the Booker Elementary School to the Sarasota airport (see (9:34 a.m.-9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [New York Times, 6/18/2004; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/10/2006] Furthermore, this account contradicts several others. In his 2004 book, Clarke will describe being told to inform the Pentagon it has shootdown authorization slightly later, some time between 9:45 and 9:56 (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8] According to journalists Bob Woodward and Bill Sammon, Bush gives the shootdown authorization in a phone call with Cheney shortly after 9:56 (see (Shortly After 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 102; Woodward, 2002, pp. 17-18; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] The 9/11 Commission will say he gives it in a call at 10:18 (see 10:18 a.m.-10:20 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 41]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney, Flight UA 93, George Bush, Richard Clarke
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Air Force Secretary Roche and Chief of Staff Jumper Head to Operations Center, but Are Unaware that a Plane Has Hit the Pentagon
James Roche. [Source: United States Air Force]General John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, and James Roche, the secretary of the Air Force, head to the Air Force Operations Center in the basement of the Pentagon, where they will assist the Air Force's response to the terrorist attacks. [CNN, 10/10/2001; Air Force Print News, 9/11/2003; Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] Roche learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center while he was holding a breakfast meeting with several members of Congress in his office on the fourth floor of the Pentagon. He then arranged for the members of Congress to return to their offices, but stayed in his own office (see (Shortly After 8:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] Jumper learned about the attacks during a staff meeting he was chairing, but initially continued the meeting (see (9:00 a.m.-9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 136] He adjourned it at 9:20 a.m., according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. [Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9/7/2004 ] He then headed up to Roche's office. [Airman, 9/15/2011]
Roche and Jumper Possibly Unaware of Plane Approaching Washington - In the office now with Roche and Jumper are Colonel Philip Breedlove, Roche's senior military assistant, and Colonel Jack Egginton, executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff. [Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] It is unclear whether the men in Roche's office realized a suspicious aircraft was approaching Washington, DC, before the Pentagon was hit, at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Lieutenant General Lance Lord, assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, will later say that those who attended Jumper's staff meeting "heard there was another plane inbound to Washington" as they were heading to their offices after the meeting. [Air Force Space Command News Service, 9/5/2002] And Egginton will say that a few minutes before the Pentagon was hit, "We received word that another aircraft was headed toward Washington." [Air Force Print News, 9/11/2003] But according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Jumper's staff had "no idea that they [i.e. the Pentagon] would be the next target for terrorists." [Midland Reporter-Telegram, 4/2/2002]
Roche and Jumper Possibly Initially Unaware that the Pentagon Had Been Attacked - Breedlove will recall that shortly before the Pentagon was hit, while Roche and Jumper had their backs to the window, he and Egginton "saw an airplane go by really close to the building." People who work at the Pentagon or visit it regularly are used to seeing planes flying by, near the building. "But that one seemed closer than any other," Breedlove will comment. [Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] However, it is unclear whether the men in Roche's office immediately realized the Pentagon had been attacked when it was hit. The office is on the opposite side of the building to where the attack occurred and so, according to some accounts, Roche and Jumper did not feel the impact. They only realized something was wrong when they saw "people running down the halls and trying to evacuate the premises," according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. Roche will say that all he initially knew was that "the building was putting out the alert that something had gone wrong." "It was amazing, from inside the building, how little we knew about what actually went on," Tim Green, assistant executive to the Air Force chief of staff, who is with Jumper, will comment. "People outside of the building… probably knew more about what happened from the news than I did." [CNN, 10/10/2001; Midland Reporter-Telegram, 4/2/2002] Egginton and Breedlove, however, will contradict these accounts. "I felt the building shake upon impact," Egginton will say. Breedlove will recall, "We felt a tremor in the building and then alarms start flashing."
Roche and Jumper Taken to Operations Center - Breedlove will say that, in response to the attack on the Pentagon, he promptly arranges for Jumper and Roche to be escorted to the Air Force Operations Center, in the basement of the Pentagon's C Ring. He will recall that he hits the "duress button" and then security officers enter Roche's office almost immediately. "We said, 'We need to get to the bunker; we need to get down to our operations area,'" he will say. [Air Force Print News, 9/11/2003; Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] Roche, though, will give a different account. He will say that his office had been "on the phone to our Operations Center" and then "we were called down," presumably by whoever they were talking to in the Operations Center. [CNN, 10/10/2001] Roche and Jumper are escorted to the Operations Center through "smoke, alarms, and throngs of people heading for the exits," Egginton will recall. [Air Force Print News, 9/11/2003]
Roche and Jumper Learn a Plane Hit the Pentagon - In the Operations Center, members of the Air Force Crisis Action Team have already begun to assemble so as to help provide assistance to civil authorities in New York (see (9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 136] When Roche and Jumper reach the center, they will learn that the Pentagon has been hit by an aircraft (see After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [CNN, 10/10/2001] Other Air Force officials, including Lord, also head to the Operations Center after the Pentagon is hit. [Lompoc Record, 9/11/2003]
Entity Tags: John P. Jumper, Lance Lord, Philip M. Breedlove, Jack B. Egginton, James G. Roche, Tim Green
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Pentagon
After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Emergency Responders Experience Communications Problems at Pentagon
Firefighters and other rescuers at the Pentagon crash site. [Source: US Department of Defense]Emergency responders and others at the Pentagon experience serious problems with communications following the attack there. These difficulties last for several hours. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. 12-13 ; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 114] According to a federally funded report on the emergency response to the Pentagon attack, communications systems had been busy "even before American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon." But when the crash occurs, "all area communications [seem] simultaneously overwhelmed." [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A34 ] The Defense Department's book about the Pentagon attack later describes, "Almost immediately radio traffic gridlocked, land lines were unavailable, and cellular telephone networks became so overloaded that for a time Pentagon officials and employees as well as some emergency responders could not call outside." [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 114] This leads to significant problems: "Firefighters calling the [Arlington County Emergency Communications Center] couldn't get through. Relatives of Pentagon workers found cellular and land lines jammed." [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A34 ] The DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic at the Pentagon and the Rader Clinic at nearby Fort Myer are unable to establish reliable communications. Reportedly, "Hospitals and clinics could not be informed about the flow of casualties, and perhaps more damaging, communication between the fire and rescue and the emergency medical elements on-site was severely impaired." [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 114] Officer Aubrey Davis of the Pentagon police heads to the crash site with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld immediately after the Pentagon is hit. He receives frantic pleas over his radio, regarding Rumsfeld's whereabouts. But, as Davis later recalls, "the system was overloaded, everyone on the frequency was talking, everything jumbled, so I couldn't get through and they went on asking" (see (9:38 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Cockburn, 2007, pp. 1-2] Cellular and landline telephone communications remain "virtually unreliable or inaccessible during the first few hours of the response." But later on, in the afternoon, Verizon technicians and Secret Service technical staff install portable cellular towers at the Pentagon, and this significantly increases cell phone access. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. C36 ] Communications problems are experienced not just around the Pentagon but also in the broader Washington area, with some senior government officials being affected (see (After 8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Verton, 2003, pp. 149]
Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic, Arlington County Emergency Communications Center, Pentagon, US Department of Defense, Aubrey Davis, Rader Clinic
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Supervisor at Army Airfield Sees Two Unidentified Aircraft on Radar, Circling above Pentagon
Davison Army Airfield. [Source: Airnav.com]Shortly after the Pentagon crash, an air traffic control supervisor at Davison Army Airfield sees two unidentified aircraft near the Pentagon on the radar of his facility, which is located at Fort Belvoir, about 12 miles south of the Pentagon. The supervisor, who is working in the airfield's control tower, looks out the window toward where the Pentagon is and sees a large black cloud of smoke. He is told by a colleague that news reports are saying a small airplane has hit the Pentagon. He then looks at the facility's radar scope, which shows two aircraft circling above the Pentagon. The transponder of one of these is transmitting the emergency code. The supervisor will recall: "I look at where the Pentagon area is [on the radar scope], and I look, and there was an aircraft squawking 7700, meaning emergency. And it was circling—it was coming down and fast.… [A]nd there was another target with no markings or anything—it was just a target," with none of the accompanying information that would be emitted by a transponder. This second aircraft is "descending rapidly and very fast." The supervisor will recall that the two aircraft "circled around and both tags they disappeared. But they stay in the air." He will provide no further information on the identities of the aircraft or why one of them is transmitting the emergency code. [US Army Center for Military History, 11/14/2001 ] There will be eyewitness accounts of aircraft near the Pentagon around this time (see (9:35 a.m.-9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001, 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001, and (9:41 a.m.-9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Davison Army Airfield
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight AA 77, Pentagon
After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft Insists on Leaving Milwaukee and Flying to Washington, despite FAA Ground Stop
General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [Source: VisitingDC.com]Attorney General John Ashcroft insists that the plane he is traveling on take off from Milwaukee and head to Washington, DC, even though he has been discouraged from getting airborne due to the possibility of further attacks, and his pilot has been told by air traffic control that he will not be allowed to take off. [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117; Spencer, 2008, pp. 257-258] Ashcroft was flying from Washington to Milwaukee in a Cessna Citation V jet when he learned of the attacks in New York in a phone call with the Justice Department command center. He'd wanted to immediately head back to Washington, but his pilot, David Clemmer, said they would first need to land in Milwaukee to refuel (see Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). Their aircraft then landed, presumably at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport.
SWAT Team Surrounds Plane - After the plane touched down, Ashcroft and the others on board were met by a SWAT team, brandishing weapons, which surrounded the plane. Then, while Clemmer took care of refueling, Ashcroft and his fellow passengers—some colleagues of his from the Justice Department—went into the airport's evacuated terminal and found a television on which they could watch the news coverage from New York. Soon after, they learned that the Pentagon had been hit.
Ashcroft Discouraged from Taking Off - While at the airport, Ashcroft spends much of his time speaking over the phone to the Justice Department command center in Washington. He will later recall, "Some people were discouraging us from getting back on the plane until we knew whether there was going to be another attack." But Ashcroft "didn't want to wait that long," so as soon as Clemmer has finished refueling the plane, Ashcroft gives him the order to take off. [Washington Post, 9/28/2001; Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 115-117]
Ashcroft Overrules Order Not to Take Off - However, the FAA has ordered a nationwide ground stop to prevent aircraft from taking off (see (9:26 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and air traffic control has informed Clemmer that his plane will not be allowed to leave Milwaukee for Washington. [US Congress. House. Committee On Transportation And Infrastructure, 9/21/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 25; Spencer, 2008, pp. 257-258] Clemmer therefore tells Ashcroft: "I'm sorry, sir. We can't take off. I just received orders that we are not supposed to be flying." But Ashcroft responds: "No, we're going. Let's get back in the air." Ashcroft and his fellow passengers then board the plane. [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117] They are joined by another Justice Department aide and another FBI agent in addition to the one who'd been on the plane when it landed in Milwaukee. [Washington Post, 9/28/2001]
Pilot Convinces Controller to Let Him Take Off - Clemmer is eventually able to convince air traffic control to allow him to leave Milwaukee. He then takes off and heads toward Washington. However, when Ben Sliney, the national operations manager at the FAA's Command Center, hears about this, he will reportedly be "livid," and Ashcroft's plane will be ordered to land (see 10:40 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117; Spencer, 2008, pp. 258]
Entity Tags: US Department of Justice, John Ashcroft, Federal Aviation Administration, David Clemmer
(Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Army Vice Chief of Staff Keane Instructs His Operations Officer to Tell the Army around the World about the Pentagon Attack
General John Keane, vice chief of staff of the Army, instructs Major General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's director of operations, readiness, and mobilization, to inform Army facilities around the world that the Pentagon has been attacked. Chiarelli headed from his office to the Army Operations Center (AOC) in the basement of the Pentagon sometime after the second hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001) and called Keane after he arrived there. During the conversation, he alerted Keane to a suspicious aircraft that had been flying toward Washington, DC (see Shortly Before 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Fordham News, 9/10/2016] The two men were still on the phone at 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon attack occurred (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Although the building was hit far away from where his office is located, Keane felt the room shake violently. He now asks Chiarelli if he too noticed the impact. "Did you hear that?" he says. Chiarelli says no. "Pete, that plane [that was approaching Washington] just hit us," Keane says. He will later recall that he then instructs Chiarelli "to tell the US Army around the world what happened and that, given the status of the AOC, which was unharmed, we would still maintain command and control of the Army." [Fordham News, 9/10/2016; Weekly Standard, 9/11/2016] Keane will subsequently join Chiarelli in the AOC (see (Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 135; Fox News, 9/12/2011] From there, according to a report published by the Army, he will send "messages throughout the Army to inform subordinate commands that HQDA [Headquarters, Department of the Army] was still directing operations," even though the Pentagon had been hit. [Christopher N. Koontz, 2011, pp. 56-57 ]
Entity Tags: Peter W. Chiarelli, John Keane
(Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Air Force Liaison Joins FAA Teleconference, Later than FAA Claims
Sabra Kaulia. [Source: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association]The US Air Force liaison to the FAA joins a teleconference that has been established by the FAA shortly after the time of the Pentagon attack, according to her own later recollections, although an FAA statement will claim she joined it significantly earlier. [9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003; 9/11 Commission, 3/26/2004; US Department of Transportation, 8/31/2006 ]
Watches Television, Does Not Join Teleconference - The Air Force liaison, Colonel Sheryl Atkins, will recall that she arrived at FAA headquarters in Washington, DC, around five to 10 minutes after the first attack in New York (see (Between 8:51 a.m. and 8:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and went to her fourth-floor office there. She will describe: "Everybody was there around the TV. We watched the events unfold. At first, we were kind of hanging back and saying, you know, 'there's something awful going on with the air traffic system.'… But at a certain point, not too long after that, it became obvious that, you know, something really strange is going on."
Heads to Situation Room - Shortly after 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon is hit, Atkins hears CNN reporting a bomb may have gone off at the Pentagon. She will recall that she then heads up to the 10th floor of the headquarters building along with Sabra Kaulia, the program director for air traffic airspace management, and goes to the air traffic situation room, where David Canoles, the FAA's manager of air traffic evaluations and investigations, is participating in a teleconference. [9/11 Commission, 3/26/2004; US Department of Transportation, 8/31/2006 ] According to a 2003 statement provided by the FAA, the FAA established this teleconference with several other agencies "[w]ithin minutes" of the first attack in New York (see (8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003] Atkins will say she is then "in and out" of the air traffic situation room throughout the morning. She does not speak with any of the military representatives at the White House, but does work directly with Steve Nolte, the airspace manager at NORAD, and also communicates with Lieutenant Colonel Michael-Anne Cherry, who is at the FAA's Herndon Command Center, to exchange information. [9/11 Commission, 3/26/2004]
FAA Claims Atkins Joined Teleconference Earlier - In a 2003 statement it provides to the 9/11 Commission the FAA will say Atkins joined the teleconference significantly earlier than she claims. According to the statement, the "US Air Force liaison to the FAA [i.e. Atkins] immediately joined the FAA headquarters phone bridge" that was set up minutes after the first attack in New York, "and established contact with NORAD on a separate line." [9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003]
Other Liaisons Arrive Later On - As well as Atkins, who represents the Air Force, liaisons representing the other three military services within the Department of Defense (the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps) work at FAA headquarters. However, Atkins is the only military liaison currently there. The Navy and Marine Corps liaisons will arrive at FAA headquarters at around 10:30 a.m. and join Atkins on the building's 10th floor, from where they help establish and maintain critical communications channels between the Defense Department and the FAA. The Army liaison will not arrive at FAA headquarters until the following day. [Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002; 9/11 Commission, 3/26/2004]
Entity Tags: Sheryl Atkins, David Canoles, Sabra Kaulia
(Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Army Vice Chief of Staff Keane Goes to Help People near the Pentagon Crash Site before Heading to His Operations Center
General John Keane, vice chief of staff of the Army, initially goes to assist people near the crash site after the Pentagon is hit but subsequently goes to the Army Operations Center (AOC) in the basement of the Pentagon to help the military respond to the terrorist attacks. Keane ordered Major General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's director of operations, readiness, and mobilization, to bring the AOC up to full manning after he learned a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center (see (Between 8:49 a.m. and 9:02 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Fordham News, 9/10/2016; Weekly Standard, 9/11/2016] The AOC is "the Army's command and control center," according to Chiarelli. [Soldiers, 9/2004] It is "the place that people will migrate" to during an emergency, according to Brigadier General Clyde Vaughn, the Army's deputy director of operations, readiness, and mobilization. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/12/2002] And yet Keane did not go there himself in response to the attacks on the WTC and was still in his office when the Pentagon was hit. Although his office is located far away from where the attack occurred, it shook violently from the impact and subsequently started filling with smoke.
Keane Tells His Staffers to Go Home - Following the attack, Keane tells his immediate staff to call home and then evacuate. "Look, call your homes right now and make sure everybody knows you're alright," he says, "and then I want you to all to leave the building immediately." He keeps just his executive officer and his aide with him, and decides to head to the scene of the attack. "Let's go on down there and see if we can help some of these people," he says. Keane and his colleagues grab some T-shirts, soak them in water, and wrap them around their noses and mouths for protection. They then make their way toward the crash site.
Keane Is Advised to Go to the Operations Center - About 100 yards from it, the smoke becomes thicker. People there are running away from the area of the attack. Keane and his two colleagues take time ensuring that everyone is able to get out of the Pentagon. After a while, though, Keane's executive officer determines that they should be in the AOC. He tells Keane: "Look, you've got to take charge of the Army, so let's get to the operations center. We'll leave the recovery to other people." "I knew immediately that he was right," Keane will later comment. He and his two colleagues therefore go to the AOC. [Fordham News, 9/10/2016; Weekly Standard, 9/11/2016]
Keane Provides 'Leadership and Guidance' - When they get there, Keane talks to Chiarelli, who went to the operations center before the Pentagon was hit, and asks him for a situation report. Chiarelli says what he currently knows about the attacks. "I was able to tell [Keane] basically what had occurred at the World Trade Center," he will recall, adding, "We were able to tell him that the [Pentagon] had been hit—he knew the building had been hit—and that there were other aircraft in the air." [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 100] Keane subsequently provides "leadership and guidance" to the personnel in the AOC, according to a report published by the Army. [Christopher N. Koontz, 2011, pp. 56 ] He apparently stays in the operations center for the rest of the day. [Fordham News, 9/10/2016; Weekly Standard, 9/11/2016] Other senior Army leaders also go to the AOC following the attack on the Pentagon. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Rossow, 2003, pp. 67; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 135]
Entity Tags: US Department of the Army, Clyde A. Vaughn, John Keane, Peter W. Chiarelli
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Damaged Pentagon Security Cameras Allegedly Do Not Show the Crash Site
Pentagon security cameras facing the crash scene allegedly have been put out of order by the attack. [Murphy, 2002, pp. 245] John Jester, the chief of the Defense Protective Service (DPS), runs from his office at the Pentagon down to the DPS Communications Center and orders, "Get a camera up there!" [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 152-153] As the Washington Times will later note, "The attack occurred close to the Pentagon's heliport, an area that normally would be under 24-hour security surveillance, including video monitoring." [Washington Times, 9/21/2001] However, some of the Communications Center's eight wall-mounted monitor screens are blank, because the crash has destroyed the camera nearest the area of impact and cut connectivity to others. Furthermore, some of the security cameras at the Pentagon are currently inoperable because of construction work going on (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Officer Jesse De Vaughn brings up an image from a camera at the Navy Annex, located a few hundred yards from the Pentagon, which is then focused onto the crash site. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 153 and 244] Two recently installed security cameras located north of the crash site in fact captured the moment the aircraft impacted the Pentagon (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 161] The poor quality footage from these will be officially released in 2006 (see May 16, 2006). [Associated Press, 5/17/2006] Whether the cameras that were destroyed or disconnected when the Pentagon was hit captured the approaching aircraft or the moment of impact is unstated.
Entity Tags: Pentagon, Jesse De Vaughn, John Jester
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Officer in Pentagon Command Center Only Learns from TV that Pentagon Has Been Hit
The Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC) is located on the other side of the building to where it is hit. Therefore, when the attack on the Pentagon occurs, those inside it supposedly do not feel the impact. [CNN, 9/4/2002] According to Newsweek, the NMCC has been called "the primary nerve system" of the Pentagon, from where "commanders can monitor and communicate with American forces around the world." [Newsweek, 9/28/2001] A military instruction for dealing with hijacked aircraft describes it as "the focal point within Department of Defense for providing assistance" in response to hijackings. [US Department of Defense, 6/1/2001 ] But supposedly NMCC personnel do not initially realize the Pentagon has been attacked. Steve Hahn, an operations officer at the center, later says, "I didn't know [the Pentagon had been hit] until I heard the news report on television." [American Forces Press Service, 9/7/2006] Yet an article in the New York Times later claims, "During the hour or so that American Airlines Flight 77 was under the control of hijackers, up to the moment it struck the west side of the Pentagon, military officials in [the NMCC] were urgently talking to law enforcement and air traffic control officials about what to do" (see (Shortly After 8:51 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [New York Times, 9/15/2001] Furthermore, at about 8:50 a.m. according to the FAA, or 9:20 a.m. according to the 9/11 Commission, the FAA had established several phone bridges linking key players, including the NMCC (see (8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001) (see (9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The FAA states that it shares "real-time information on the phone bridges," which includes "actions being taken by all the flights of interest, including Flight 77." [9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 36] Why NMCC personnel do not therefore know immediately that the Pentagon has been hit is unclear. Also around this time, Officer Aubrey Davis of the Pentagon police is outside Donald Rumsfeld's office. He hears what he later describes as "an incredibly loud 'boom,'" when the Pentagon is struck (see 9:38 a.m. September 11, 2001). Yet no mention is made of anyone in the NMCC hearing this "boom," even though the center is located only around 200 feet from where Davis is standing. [WBZ Radio 1030 (Boston), 9/15/2001; Cockburn, 2007, pp. 1] Dan Mangino, an operations officer in the NMCC, went out earlier to withdraw some money from a cash machine (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), and rushes back to the center after the Pentagon is hit. He finds the people in it are very calm. He says, "There was no panic, no raised voices. We train for emergencies all the time, and that training took over." [American Forces Press Service, 9/7/2006]
Entity Tags: Steve Hahn, National Military Command Center, Dan Mangino
(9:38 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Senior Officials Unable to Contact Defense Secretary Rumsfeld
Stephen Cambone. [Source: US Department of Defense]Immediately after the Pentagon was hit, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left his office and headed to the crash scene (see 9:38 a.m. September 11, 2001). For the 20 minutes or so that he is gone, others are desperately trying to contact him. Among those seeking Rumsfeld are Stephen Cambone, his closest aide, who is currently in the Pentagon's Executive Support Center (see Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), and also the National Military Command Center (see 9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). Officer Aubrey Davis of the Pentagon police, who is accompanying Rumsfeld, is receiving frantic calls over his radio saying, "Where's the secretary? Where's the secretary?" Davis is unable to answer these requests. He later recalls, "I kept saying, 'We've got him,' but the system was overloaded, everyone on the frequency was talking, everything jumbled, so I couldn't get through and they went on asking." A senior White House official, who is in its Situation Room trying to coordinate a response to the attacks, will later angrily condemn Rumsfeld for having been out of touch during such a critical period. He says, "What was Rumsfeld doing on 9/11? He deserted his post. He disappeared. The country was under attack. Where was the guy who controls America's defense? Out of touch! How long does it take for something bad to happen? No one knew what was happening. What if this had been the opening shot of a coordinated attack by a hostile power? Outrageous, to abandon your responsibilities and go off and do what you don't need to be doing, grandstanding." [Cockburn, 2007, pp. 2-4; C-SPAN, 2/25/2007]
Entity Tags: Stephen A. Cambone, Donald Rumsfeld, National Military Command Center, Aubrey Davis
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon
9:39 a.m.-9:44 a.m. September 11, 2001: Passenger Lauren Grandcolas Phones Husband From Flight 93 and Leaves Message, but Accounts Are Contradictory
Lauren Grandcolas. [Source: Family photo / AP]At 9:39 a.m., Flight 93 passenger Lauren Grandcolas calls her husband in San Rafael, California, leaving him a 46-second message on the answering machine. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 42; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006] Some reports state that she is using a cell phone. [Houston Chronicle, 9/12/2001; Chicago Tribune, 9/14/2001; USA Today, 9/25/2001] But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says she uses an Airfone. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001] Her husband, Jack Grandcolas, later describes that she sounds "very, very calm." [Associated Press, 9/12/2001] According to some early reports, she says, "We have been hijacked," and "They"—presumably meaning the hijackers—"are being kind." [Houston Chronicle, 9/12/2001; Washington Post, 9/12/2001; Chicago Tribune, 9/14/2001; Time, 9/16/2001] But in other accounts, she does not specify that her plane has been hijacked. She reportedly begins, "Honey, are you there? Jack, pick up sweetie. Okay, well I just wanted to tell you I love you. We're having a little problem on the plane." She continues, "I'm comfortable and I'm okay… for now. Just a little problem. So I just love you. Please tell my family I love them too. Bye, honey." According to some accounts, Grandcolas then passes the phone to fellow passenger Elizabeth Wainio, who is sitting next to her, and tells her to call her family. [New York Times, 9/13/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 128; MSNBC, 9/11/2006] The Wall Street Journal reports that Grandcolas's voice can be heard at the end of her recorded message saying to another passenger, "Now you call your people." [Wall Street Journal, 5/26/2005] Yet, according to a summary of passenger phone calls presented at the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, this could not be the case, as Grandcolas tries to make a further seven calls over the following four minutes. These are apparently either unsuccessful or quickly disconnected, lasting between "0 seconds" and "7 seconds." They appear to include four more attempts at calling her husband, and one attempt to call her sister Vaughn Lohec. According to the summary, Wainio does not make a phone call until later, at just before 9:54 a.m. The summary also claims that, although Wainio and Grandcolas had originally been assigned seats next to each other in row 11, they are now in different parts of the plane. While Wainio is in row 33, Grandcolas is now in row 23, and there is no passenger next to her who also makes a phone call. [US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006]
Entity Tags: Elizabeth Wainio, Lauren Grandcolas, Jack Grandcolas
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Passenger Phone Calls
9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Is Wanted at Pentagon Teleconference but Cannot Be Reached
This picture of Rumsfeld (center), taken from the US Army website, is captioned, "Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld returns to Pentagon inner offices Tuesday morning after surveying the damage from the hijacked plane which crashed into the building moments before." This contradicts his claim that he was helping victims for nearly an hour after the attack. However, there is video footage of Rumsfeld helping a person on a stretcher and it is not known when this picture is taken exactly. [Source: US Army]Captain Charles Leidig, a deputy who is temporarily in charge of the Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC), is handling the NMCC's crisis teleconference. He opens the call saying, "An air attack against North America may be in progress." He mentions reports of a crash into the opposite side of the Pentagon, and requests that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld be added to the conference. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004 ] Rumsfeld has a crucial role to play in coordinating the military response to an attack on the US. According to journalist and author Andrew Cockburn, since the Cold War, "In an age when an enemy attack might allow only a few minutes for detection and reaction, control of American military power became vested in the National Command Authority, which consists of the president and the secretary of defense. Collectively, the NCA is the ultimate source of military orders, uniquely empowered, among other things, to order the use of nuclear weapons. In time of war, therefore, Rumsfeld was effectively the president's partner, the direct link to the fighting forces, and all orders had to go through him. Such orders were supposed to be transmitted from… the National Military Command Center." Cockburn adds that the NMCC is "the operational center for any and every crisis, from nuclear war to hijacked airliners." Yet, rather than join the NMCC conference, Rumsfeld has already gone out of the Pentagon to see the crash site, without telling any of his command staff where he was going, and remains out of contact for some time (see Between 9:38 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. September 11, 2001). Therefore, a few minutes after Leidig makes his request, Rumsfeld's office will report back that he is nowhere to be found. Cockburn concludes, "The chain of command was broken." [Cockburn, 2007, pp. 4-5; Democracy Now!, 3/7/2007] It is unknown whether Rumsfeld has a cell phone or pager on him, and if so, why he cannot be reached.
Entity Tags: Charles Leidig, Donald Rumsfeld, National Military Command Center
9:39 a.m.-9:44 a.m. September 11, 2001: Media Reports Pentagon Explosion
The Pentagon on fire. [Source: Press Association]Television news reports describe an explosion and fire occurring at the Pentagon, but do not specify that a plane hit it:
Two seconds after 9:39 a.m., reporter Jim Miklaszewski states on NBC News: "I don't want to alarm anybody right now, but apparently, there—it felt, just a few moments ago, like there was an explosion of some kind here at the Pentagon. We're on the E-ring of the Pentagon. We have a window that faces out toward the Potomac, toward Kennedy Center. We haven't been able to see or—or hear anything after the initial blast. I just stepped out in the hallway. Security guards were herding people out of the building, and I saw just a moment ago as I looked outside, a number of construction workers who have been working here, have taken flight. They're running as far away from the building as they can right now. I—I hear no sirens going off in the building; I see no smoke, but the building shook for just a couple of seconds. The windows rattled and security personnel are doing what they can momentarily to clear this part of the building. Again, I have no idea whether it was part of the construction work, whether it was an accident or what is going on. We're going to try to find those details and get them to you as soon as possible. But interestingly enough, one intelligence official here in the building said when he saw what appeared to be the coordinating attack on the World Trade Center, his advice was to stay away from the outside of the building today just in case." [NBC, 9/11/2001]
At 9:40, CNN coverage includes a banner stating, "Reports of fire at Pentagon." [CNN, 9/11/2001] Three minutes later, CNN producer Chris Plant reports from the Pentagon: "It's impossible for me to say… exactly what caused this. I did not hear an explosion but there is certainly a very, very significant fire in this enormous office building." [CNN, 9/11/2001]
At 9:42, ABC News reports smoke coming from somewhere behind the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House. Two minutes later it reports a "fire confirmed at the Pentagon." [ABC News, 9/11/2001]
At 9:43, CBS News reports "smoke pouring out of the Pentagon," but adds, "We don't know whether this is the result of a bomb or whether it is yet another aircraft that has targeted a symbol of the United States' power." [CBS, 9/11/2001]
However, no media outlets record video footage of the Pentagon crash, and the cause of the explosion remains unknown for some minutes afterward. The Associated Press is apparently the first source to report that a plane hit the Pentagon (see 9:43 a.m.-9:53 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Pentagon, Jim Miklaszewski
9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001: Boston Center Informs NEADS of Possible Hijacking of Delta 1989
Stacia Rountree. [Source: Vanity Fair]Colin Scoggins, the military liaison at the FAA's Boston Center, contacts NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) and incorrectly notifies it that another aircraft, Delta Air Lines Flight 1989, is a possible hijacking. [9/11 Commission, 2004; Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] Boston Center previously called NEADS at 9:27 and said that Delta 1989 was missing (see 9:27 a.m. September 11, 2001). [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/11/2001; 9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003]
NEADS Technicians Respond - At NEADS, Stacia Rountree, the ID technician who takes Scoggins's call, announces to her colleagues: "Delta '89, that's the hijack. They think it's possible hijack.… South of Cleveland." The plane's transponder is still on, and she adds, "We have a code on him now." Rountree's team leader, Master Sergeant Maureen Dooley, instructs: "Pick it up! Find it!" The NEADS technicians quickly locate Delta 1989 on their radar screens, just south of Toledo, Ohio, and start alerting other FAA centers to it. [Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006; Spencer, 2008, pp. 177] NEADS mission crew commander Major Kevin Nasypany will be notified by his staff of the suspected hijacking at about 9:41 or 9:42 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 1/22/2004 ] NEADS never loses track of Delta 1989. It will follow it on radar as it reverses course over Toledo, heads east, and then lands in Cleveland (see (10:18 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28] It will order Air National Guard fighter jets from Selfridge and Toledo to intercept the flight (see (9:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 10:01 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 178-179] But it will soon learn that Delta 1989 is not in fact hijacked. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28]
Cleveland Center, Not Boston, Handling Delta 1989 - Although Boston Center notifies NEADS of the suspected hijacking, Delta 1989 is in fact being handled by the FAA's Cleveland Center. [USA Today, 8/13/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 10-12] Cleveland Center air traffic controllers suspected that Delta 1989 had been hijacked at around 9:30 a.m. (see (9:28 a.m.-9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001), but apparently only informed the FAA's Command Center, and not NEADS, of this. [USA Today, 8/13/2002] To explain why Boston Center alerts NEADS to the flight, the 9/11 Commission will later comment that, "Remembering the 'we have some planes' remark" (see 8:24 a.m. September 11, 2001), the Boston Center simply "guessed that Delta 1989 might also be hijacked."
Similar to First Two Hijacked Planes - Like Flights 11 and 175, the two aircraft that have crashed into the World Trade Center (see 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001 and 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), Delta 1989 took off from Boston's Logan Airport. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 27-28] According to the New York Times, it left there at about the same time as Flights 11 and 175 did, meaning around 8:00 to 8:15 a.m. [New York Times, 10/18/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 32] Like those two aircraft, it is a Boeing 767. [USA Today, 8/13/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 27-28] But, unlike those flights, its transponder has not been turned off, and so it is still transmitting a beacon code. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28; Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] It is unclear what Delta 1989's intended destination is. According to some accounts, like Flights 11 and 175 were, it is bound for Los Angeles. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; New York Times, 10/18/2001; USA Today, 8/13/2002; Arizona Daily Star, 9/24/2007; Spencer, 2008, pp. 167] Other accounts will say that its destination is Las Vegas. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28; Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] Personnel at NEADS are apparently informed that Las Vegas is the intended destination. Around this time, one member of staff there tells her colleagues that the flight is "supposed to go to Vegas." [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/11/2001]
One of Numerous Incorrect Reports - The 9/11 Commission will comment: "During the course of the morning, there were multiple erroneous reports of hijacked aircraft (see (9:09 a.m. and After) September 11, 2001). The report of American 11 heading south was the first (see 9:21 a.m. September 11, 2001); Delta 1989 was the second." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28]
Entity Tags: Maureen Dooley, Stacia Rountree, Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center, Colin Scoggins, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Kevin Nasypany
(9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001: NORAD Reports that Its Commander Has Not Yet Declared Crisis an Emergency
The NORAD representative on the air threat conference call reports that NORAD has yet to give an assessment for the crisis that is taking place and adds that General Ralph Eberhart, the commander of NORAD, has not yet declared the situation an air defense emergency. [US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001] The National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon has just started an air threat conference call in response to the terrorist attacks (see 9:37 a.m.-9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 37] A NORAD representative, in their first communication over the conference call, states: "No assessment has been given for this event at this point. No assessment for the overall air situation has been given at this point." The representative adds that "CINC NORAD"—meaning Eberhart, the commander in chief of NORAD—"is not declaring [an] air defense emergency at this point." [US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001] An "air defense emergency" is defined by the US government as an "emergency condition which exists when attack upon the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, or US installations in Greenland by hostile aircraft or missiles is considered probable, is imminent, or is taking place." [US Government, 7/1/2003] British online publication The Register will later comment that this definition "sums up the tragic events of [September 11] fairly well." The declaration of an air defense emergency, according to The Register, "invokes a regulatory scheme known as Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA)." [Register, 9/17/2001] SCATANA is a procedure, developed in the 1960s, that was originally intended to clear the airspace above the US in the event of a confirmed warning of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. [Schwartz, 1998; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 11/2001] Eberhart will order a limited version of it later in the day, apparently around 11:00 a.m. (see (11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] Eberhart was at NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, when the attacks began, but at some point headed out to the NORAD operations center in Cheyenne Mountain (see (Between 9:35 a.m. and 10:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 3/1/2004 ; Colorado Springs Gazette, 6/16/2006; Denver Post, 7/28/2006]
Entity Tags: Ralph Eberhart, North American Aerospace Defense Command
9:39 a.m.-9:59 a.m. September 11, 2001: Flight 93 Begins Rapid Descent Despite Being Hundreds of Miles from Presumed Target
At 9:39 a.m., after having maintained a maximum altitude of 41,000 feet for about two minutes, Flight 93 begins a rapid descent, going down at a rate of 4,000 feet per minute. At 9:46, it interrupts this, going up from 19,000 feet to 20,500 feet, but then resumes its descent at the slower rate of 1,300 feet per minute. At 9:59, it has reached an altitude of 5,000 feet. [National Transportation Safety Board, 2/19/2002 ] The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will later describe this as a "surprising element in the navigation of Flight 93," since the aircraft begins its "rapid descent from cruise altitudes while still approximately 260 nautical miles [about 300 miles] from the (presumed) target." [National Transportation Safety Board, 2/13/2002, pp. 3 ] The target of Flight 93 is later believed to be either the White House or the Capitol building. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 14] The NTSB will note that by the times Flights 11, 175, and 77 had descended below 5,000 feet, they were all within 10 nautical miles (11.5 miles) of their targets. "UAL 93, on the other hand, descended to 5,000 feet while still 135 [nautical miles] from Washington." [National Transportation Safety Board, 2/13/2002 ]
Entity Tags: RobertMoomo
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93
Between 9:38 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. September 11, 2001: Rumsfeld Spends Brief Time at Pentagon Crash Scene and Helps Carry a Stretcher; Accounts Conflict over Details
Rumsfeld show on a video broadcast on CNN helping carry a stretcher shortly after the Pentagon attack. He is in the center of the picture, wearing a dark jacket. [Source: CNN]Within seconds of the Pentagon being hit, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rushed out of his office and headed toward the crash scene (see 9:38 a.m. September 11, 2001). According to Officer Aubrey Davis, who is currently accompanying Rumsfeld as his bodyguard, when they reach the site, "There were the flames, and bits of metal all around. The secretary picked up one of the pieces of metal. I was telling him he shouldn't be interfering with a crime scene when he looked at some inscription on it and said, 'American Airlines.'" According to Rumsfeld, a person who'd seen the attack on the Pentagon informs him a plane had flown into it. Rumsfeld later recalls: "I saw people on the grass, and we just, we tried to put them in stretchers and then move them out across the grass towards the road and lifted them over a jersey wall so the people on that side could stick them into the ambulances. I was out there for a while, and then people started gathering, and we were able to get other people to do that, to hold IVs for people. There were people lying on the grass with clothes blown off and burns all over them." [Parade, 10/12/2001; Cockburn, 2007, pp. 1-2] Versions of this story will appear elsewhere. [Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), 9/12/2001; US Department of Defense, 12/5/2001; ABC News, 9/11/2002; Vanity Fair, 5/9/2003] Video footage confirms that Rumsfeld helps carry a stretcher at the crash scene. [CNN, 8/17/2002] One report will even describe him pulling budget analyst Paul Gonzales to safety from the burning wreckage. [Daily Telegraph, 9/16/2001] However, Gonzales later offers his own detailed recollections of pulling other people to safety, which fail to involve Rumsfeld in any way. [Washington Post, 3/11/2002] Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke will say Rumsfeld is gone from the building for "about half an hour." [WBZ Radio 1030 (Boston), 9/15/2001] A Pentagon spokesperson has Rumsfeld helping at the crash site for "15 minutes or so." [Reuters, 9/11/2001] Another account will claim he loads the wounded onto stretchers for 15 minutes. [Scripps Howard News Service, 9/11/2001] However, considering the time it would have taken to walk to the crash site—each side of the enormous Pentagon is the length of three football fields—journalist Andrew Cockburn later concludes that Rumsfeld could only have been at the crash scene for a brief period. [Cockburn, 2007, pp. 3] Rumsfeld reportedly heads back into the Pentagon at the urging of a security agent, though in an interview soon after 9/11 he will claim the decision to go back inside was his own, saying, "I decided I should be in [the building] figuring out what to do, because your brain begins to connect things, and there were enough people there to worry about that." [Parade, 10/12/2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] He tells the 9/11 Commission, "I was back in the Pentagon with a crisis action team shortly before or after 10:00 a.m." (see (10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 3/23/2004] While Rumsfeld is at the crash scene, others are frantically trying to get in touch with him but are unable to do so (see (9:38 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Pentagon, Victoria ("Torie") Clarke, Aubrey Davis, Paul Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon
(9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Flight 93 Hijacker Again Warns of Bomb on Board, Flight Controllers Again Overhear; NORAD Still Not Notified
The Flight 93 hijackers (probably inadvertently) transmit over the radio: "Hi, this is the captain. We'd like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board. And we are going to turn back to the airport. And they had our demands, so please remain quiet." [Boston Globe, 11/23/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 209; MSNBC, 9/3/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] The controller responds, "United 93, understand you have a bomb on board. Go ahead," but there is no response. There was a very similar "bomb on board" warning from the same flight at 9:32 a.m. (see (9:32 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The 9/11 Commission indicates that these are separate incidents. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] Cleveland flight control apparently continues to wait for FAA superiors to notify NORAD. Earlier in the morning, Boston flight control directly contacted NORAD (see (8:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and local air force bases when they determined Flight 11 was hijacked.
Entity Tags: North American Aerospace Defense Command, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Federal Aviation Administration
9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001: Langley Jets Directed toward Washington but Given Wrong Coordinates
NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) issues coordinates to the three F-16 fighter jets launched from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia (see (9:25 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001), sending them to Washington. However, the fighters head off in the wrong direction, reportedly because NEADS has accidentally given them incorrect coordinates. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 180-181]
Communications Problems - The Langley AFB jets have already mistakenly been sent east over the ocean (see 9:30 a.m.-9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). At 9:36 a.m., the NEADS mission crew commander ordered that they be directed toward the White House (see 9:36 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 27] However, weapons director Master Sergeant Steve Citino has been having difficulty communicating with the jets. According to author Lynn Spencer, "NEADS radio coverage east of Washington is poor, and the noise level on the [NEADS] operations floor has only been exacerbating the problem."
NEADS Issues Wrong Coordinates - Citino now forwards coordinates to the Langley jets, telling them to establish a combat air patrol over Washington. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 180] Apparently, it is Tech. Sgt. Ronald Belluscio, a senior weapons director technician, who contacts the jets at this time, although he will claim he orders them specifically toward the Pentagon. He will say: "I jumped on a frequency, per the senior director, and was told to ask the Langley birds to vector over the Pentagon. I didn't know it had been hit." [Filson, 2003, pp. 65] However, Citino has apparently given out the wrong coordinates. According to Spencer, "He inadvertently transposed two of the coordinates, and the F-16s turned onto a flight path that would take them 60 miles southwest of Washington."
Aircraft Instrument Malfunctioning - What is more, as soon as the Langley jets turn onto their new heading, lead pilot Major Dean Eckmann has a problem with his aircraft. The bearing pointer on its horizontal situation indicator (HSI)—the instrument that shows a plane's position relative to its intended destination—freezes. Eckmann therefore has to get the heading from one of the other Langley pilots, Captain Craig Borgstrom. Shortly after sending the three jets in the wrong direction, Citino will contact them again with the correct coordinates (see (Between 9:41 a.m. and 9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 180-181]
Entity Tags: Craig Borgstrom, Ronald Belluscio, Dean Eckmann, Steve Citino
(Between 9:40 a.m. and 10:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001: DC Air National Guard Pilots Authorized to Take Off and Briefed on Mission
Marc Sasseville. [Source: CBC]Four pilots with the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, finally receive authorization to get airborne in their fighter jets, and are given instructions on their mission. The pilots are Lieutenant Colonel Marc Sasseville, Lieutenant Heather Penney Garcia, Captain Brandon Rasmussen, and Major Daniel Caine.
Pilot Waiting 'for Somebody to Task Me with Something' - Rasmussen will later recall that, although he and his colleagues at the unit had been aware of the attacks in New York, it is only after the Pentagon is hit (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001) that "we knew that we were going to be sticking around home and being quite busy." And until the pilots are authorized to take off, he is "just kind of standing back, waiting for somebody to task me with something." He will recall, "I was just waiting at the ops desk for someone to say, 'Okay, we've been cleared to take off and go.'"
Sasseville Briefs Other Pilots - Rasmussen says that, after Sasseville and Caine receive authorization from their wing commander to get airborne and to use missiles, Sasseville, who is the acting operations group commander, looks at Penney Garcia and says, "You're flying with me, and [Caine] you're flying with [Rasmussen], do suit up and get out there as quick as possible." According to another account, Sasseville gives his three fellow pilots a short briefing, telling them: "I have no idea what's going on, but we're flying. Here's our frequency. We'll split up the area as we have to. Just defend as required. We'll talk about the rest in the air." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Filson, 2003, pp. 82-84; Rasmussen, 9/18/2003] Sasseville will recall, "There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to talk about, because we didn't know what was going on." [Vogel, 2007, pp. 446]
Pilots Prepare to Fly - According to Rasmussen: "We were relieved to actually be given permission to go up and do something instead of feeling totally helpless. I mean we are fighter pilots, just like guard dogs chomping at the bit ready to go." The four pilots run down the hallway and throw on their gear, grabbing their helmets, g-suits, and parachute harnesses, before heading to the operations desk to get their aircraft assignments. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; Rasmussen, 9/18/2003]
Commander Gives Instructions - According to author Leslie Filson, before Sasseville and Penney Garcia head to their jets, Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard, gives them instructions, regarding their mission. As Wherley will later recall, "My translation of the rules [of engagement] to [Sasseville] was, 'You have weapons free flight-lead control.'" [Filson, 2003, pp. 82] "Weapons free" means the decision whether to shoot at a hostile aircraft rests with the lead pilot. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 44] Wherley says, "Do you understand what I'm asking you to do?" and both pilots respond, "Yes." Wherley then tells them to be careful. "It was important for them to understand that this was weapons free," he will recall. [Filson, 2003, pp. 82] However, Sasseville will tell the 9/11 Commission that he does not remember receiving the rules of engagement he is supposed to follow until later on, after he has taken off. [9/11 Commission, 3/8/2004 ]
Jets Don't Launch until 10:42 and After - The exact times when the four pilots are authorized to get airborne and receive their mission instructions are unclear. But Sasseville and Penney Garcia will take off from Andrews at 10:42 a.m., with their planes armed only with guns, and no missiles (see 10:42 a.m. September 11, 2001). Rasmussen and Caine take off at 11:11 a.m., by which time their jets have been armed with missiles (see 11:11 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 82-84; 9/11 Commission, 2004]
Entity Tags: David Wherley, Daniel Caine, Heather Penney Garcia, Leslie Filson, District of Columbia Air National Guard, Marc Sasseville, Brandon Rasmussen
9:40 a.m.-9:43 a.m. September 11, 2001: First Responders Arrive at Pentagon within Minutes of Attack
Initial firefighting efforts after the attack on the Pentagon. [Source: US Department of Defense] (click image to enlarge)Numerous area firefighters and other emergency workers promptly learn of the Pentagon crash and are able to arrive at the crash scene within 5 or 6 minutes of the attack. These responders include members of the Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) and the Fort Myer Fire Department, plus units belonging to the Fire and Rescue Department of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 66] ACFD's training officer, Captain Chuck Gibbs, reaches the crash site within 3 minutes of the attack, followed a minute later by Battalion Chief Bob Cornwell, who assumes initial incident command responsibilities. ACFD Captain Edward Blunt arrives at 9:42 and establishes Emergency Medical Services control. ACFD Truck 105 is the first unit to arrive, reaching the scene at 9:41. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A5-A6 and 1-1 ] A minute after it, Rescue Engines 161 and 162 of the Fort Myer Fire Department arrive, followed by a reserve pumper, Engine 163. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 68] MWAA fire and medical units, and the first contingent of the FBI's National Capital Response Squad, also arrive within 5 minutes of the crash. By 10:00 a.m., most of the ACFD duty shift will be engaged at the Pentagon. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A7 ] Federal, state, and local civilian police officers also arrive within minutes of the attack. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 161] Most Arlington County Police Department officers will have reached the scene within 3 hours. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. C6 ] Several factors have contributed to the prompt emergency response:
The Arlington County Emergency Communications Center (ECC), which is the focal point of all police and fire 911 calls for the county, received several calls from emergency workers who saw the low-flying plane approaching the Pentagon (see (9:36 a.m.-9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 66]
Some fire and rescue units responded after hearing the radio message of Fire Captain Steve McCoy, reporting the crash. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A4 ]
Numerous emergency units were already on the road near the Pentagon, and were able to quickly respond, after being called out to an apartment fire that was found to have already gone out (see (Shortly Before 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Fire Engineering, 11/2002]
And MWAA firefighters were already responding to a car crash at nearby Reagan National Airport, had heard the sound of the crash, and saw the resulting smoke rising into the air (see (9:20 a.m.-9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 69-70]
Entity Tags: Chuck Gibbs, Arlington County Fire Department, National Capital Response Squad, Bob Cornwell, Fort Myer Fire Department, Edward Blunt, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Shortly After 9:37 a.m.: FISA Judge Grants Five Warrantless Surveillance Requests Minutes after Pentagon Attack
Royce Lamberth, head of the FISA court which grants warrants for intelligence cases, grants five warrantless surveillance requests minutes after the Pentagon attack. Lamberth will later report being stuck in a carpool lane near the Pentagon when it is hit. With his car enveloped in smoke, he calls US marshals to help him get to his office. Lamberth will later say that by the time officers reached him, "I had approved five FISA coverages [warrants] on my cellphone." [Associated Press, 6/24/2007] Presumably this represents the start of a flurry of surveillance activity in response to the 9/11 attacks, but it is not known who was to be monitored or how their names were learned and acted on so quickly.
Entity Tags: Royce Lamberth
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, FBI 9/11 Investigation, 9/11 Investigations
9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001: Cleveland Center Notifies Regional Operations Center about Flight 93
The FAA's Cleveland Center notifies the FAA's Great Lakes Regional Operations Center about the screams and statements it heard from an unknown origin, but that are believed to have come from Flight 93. These transmissions were heard between 9:28 and 9:39 (see (9:28 a.m.) September 11, 2001, (9:32 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ] The FAA's Herndon Command Center and Washington headquarters were alerted to Flight 93 several minutes earlier (see 9:34 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 39]
Entity Tags: Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Federal Aviation Administration
(Shortly After 9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001: DC Air National Guard Commander Learns of Pentagon Attack, Rushes to Squadron Headquarters
The commander of the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, finally heads across the base to the headquarters of the 121st Fighter Squadron, which is part of the DCANG, and joins his officers in responding to the terrorist attacks. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Vogel, 2007, pp. 445-446]
Squadron Leaders Not yet Gone 'Into Action' - Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the 113th Wing of the DC Air National Guard, is in his office at Andrews. He has already given his officers the go-ahead to use the unit's missiles, so they can be unloaded from storage and put onto fighter jets (see (Shortly After 9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 156-157, 184] However, according to Captain Brandon Rasmussen, one of the DCANG pilots, it is only after the Pentagon is hit that "the squadron leadership went into action." [Rasmussen, 9/18/2003]
Wherley Runs across Base - The Washington Post will report that Wherley's "first inkling that the attacks would go beyond New York was when one of his officers, whose husband worked at the Pentagon, saw on television that the building had been hit and began shrieking." After briefly comforting the woman, Wherley dashes from his office and runs several hundred yards across the base to the headquarters of the 121st Fighter Squadron.
Wherley Doesn't Want Jets Launched Yet - Unlike other Air National Guard units, the DCANG reports to the president, rather than a state governor. [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Vogel, 2007, pp. 445] Furthermore, since the Secret Service provides protection to the president, who is the commander in chief of the US military, it has some authority over the military, including the DCANG. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 123] DCANG squadron officers have already heard from their Secret Service contacts, who have asked them about getting fighters launched (see (Shortly After 9:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 78] But after arriving at the 121st FS headquarters, Wherley says he wants more explicit authorization before launching aircraft. He tells the squadron officers: "We have to get instructions. We can't just fly off half-cocked." [Washington Post, 4/8/2002; Vogel, 2007, pp. 445-446]
Takes over Call from White House - At the operations desk, Major Daniel Caine has recently been called by a Secret Service agent at the White House Joint Operations Center, who is requesting armed fighter jets over Washington. After Wherley has arrived at the 121st FS headquarters, Caine passes the phone to him, telling the caller, "Here's my boss." Caine then says, "I'm going to fly." [Filson, 2003, pp. 78; 9/11 Commission, 3/8/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ] Despite his responsibilities as the unit's supervisor of flying, Caine has decided to get airborne himself, and heads off to join the other pilots preparing to take off from Andrews. [Filson, 2003, pp. 76; Spencer, 2008, pp. 184] Wherley will talk over the phone with the Secret Service, and try to obtain instructions for the launching of his fighter jets (see (Shortly After 9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001, (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001, (10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001, and (Between 10:16 a.m. and 10:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003; Spencer, 2008, pp. 184-185, 218]
Entity Tags: David Wherley, Daniel Caine, District of Columbia Air National Guard, Brandon Rasmussen, 121st Fighter Squadron
(9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Hijacking Simulation Scheduled as Part of NORAD Exercise
As part of a NORAD training exercise, a simulated plane hijacking was scheduled to occur around this time. It was to have been based around politically motivated perpetrators taking command of an aircraft, landing it on a Cuba-like island, and seeking asylum there. The hijacking was one of several simulated scenarios prepared for the day. Details of the other scenarios are unknown. Major Kevin Nasypany, the mission crew commander at NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) who'd helped designed the exercise, initially thought the reports of Flight 11 being hijacked were because "Somebody started the exercise early." [Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006] The exercise was canceled after the second plane hit the World Trade Center (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Vigilant Guardian, Kevin Nasypany, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Northeast Air Defense Sector
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Training Exercises
Soon after 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Pentagon Medical Staff Implement Mass Casualty Plan; Aided by Pre-9/11 Exercises
Medical workers at the first triage area set up outside the Pentagon after it is attacked. [Source: Mark D. Faram / US Navy]Soon after the Pentagon is hit, medical workers initiate their mass casualty plan (MASCAL) for dealing with disasters. Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg, a medic at the Pentagon's DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic, arrives at the center courtyard. Seeing smoke rising from the side of the building and patients staggering out, he radios the clinic: "You need to initiate MASCAL right now! We have mass casualties! I need medical assets to the courtyard!" Major Lorie Brown, chief nurse of the DiLorenzo Clinic, says that as soon as she sees people running down the corridor to evacuate, "we initiated the MASCAL, started galvanizing all of our assets and put our plan in action." [Washington Post, 9/16/2001; Office of Medical History, 9/2004, pp. 7, 39] The Pentagon has actually conducted at least three MASCAL training exercises in the previous 12 months, based around a plane crashing into the place (see October 24-26, 2000)(see May 2001)(see Early August 2001). Lieutenant Colonel John Felicio, the deputy commander for administration of the DiLorenzo Clinic, says, "The saving grace to our efforts was the two MASCAL exercises we previously had conducted.… Our scenario for both MASCALS was a plane flying into the Pentagon courtyard." Furthermore, the nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), which sends ambulances in response to the attack, has recently recovered from a four-day power loss (see August 27-31, 2001). A military report will later state: "Many believe that [this] extended emergency… helped WRAMC in its response on September 11." [Office of Medical History, 9/2004, pp. 18, 146]
Entity Tags: Pentagon, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Lorie Brown, John Felicio, DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic, Matt Rosenberg
9:40 a.m.-9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001: Airline Dispatcher Again Warns Flight 93 to Secure Cockpit
United Airlines flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger sends two messages to Flight 93, which he is monitoring, warning its pilots (who in fact are no longer in control of the plane) to secure the cockpit. At 9:40, he sends the text message to Flight 93: "High security alert. Secure cockpit. Two airliner hit NY Trade Center. And 1 aircraft in IAD missing. And one in EWR missing… too. UAL 175/93 missing." A minute later, he again sends this message to Flight 93, but with "UAL 175/93 found" added at the end. [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 43] "IAD" is the code for Washington's Dulles International Airport, from where Flight 77 took off, while "EWR" is the code for Newark Airport, from where Flight 93 took off, so presumably it is these missing aircraft that Ballinger is referring to. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ] Ballinger sent previous warning messages to Flight 93 earlier on, telling it to "Beware any cockpit intrusion" at 9:23 (see 9:23 a.m.-9:26 a.m. September 11, 2001), and to "Secure cockpit" at 9:33 (see 9:32 a.m.-9:33 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 37 and 39]
Entity Tags: Ed Ballinger
(Between 9:40 and 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Johnstown Airport Control Tower Is Evacuated Following Reports of Approaching Plane
Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. [Source: JMSA Today]At some time shortly before 10 a.m.—as early as 9:40 a.m. according to one report—air traffic manager Dennis Fritz, in the control tower at Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, 70 miles east of Pittsburgh, receives a call from Cleveland Air Traffic Control reporting a large, suspicious aircraft about 20 miles south of them, descending below six thousand feet. Despite the clear day, Fritz and his colleagues can see no plane approaching through binoculars. Soon afterwards, in response to another call from Cleveland, Fritz orders trainees and custodial staff to evacuate the tower, yet he is still unable to see any plane approaching. Less than a minute later, though, Cleveland calls a third time, saying to disregard the evacuation: The plane has turned south and they have lost radar contact with it. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/12/2001; Knight Ridder, 9/13/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 197] Wells Morrison is the agent in charge of the FBI's Mon Valley Resident Agency, a satellite of its Pittsburgh field office. He too receives a phone call informing him of this flight, though he doesn't say whom it is from. He contacts the Johnstown FBI office and instructs its agents to head to the Johnstown Airport. [Kashurba, 2002, pp. 109-110] Flight 93 crashes around 10:03 a.m. or soon thereafter (see (10:03 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001), going down in a field just 14 miles south of Johnstown. [Washington Post, 9/13/2001]
Entity Tags: Dennis Fritz, Wells Morrison
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania
(9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Flight 93 Transponder Signal Turned Off; Flight Still Closely Tracked
The transponder signal from Flight 93 ceases. [CNN, 9/17/2001; MSNBC, 9/3/2002; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] However, the plane can be—and is—tracked using primary radar by Cleveland flight controllers and at United headquarters. Altitude can no longer be determined, except by visual sightings from other aircraft. The plane's speed begins to vary wildly, fluctuating between 600 and 400 mph before eventually settling around 400 mph. [Longman, 2002, pp. 77, 214; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Entity Tags: United Airlines, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center
(9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001: FAA Command Center Identifies Ten Possible Hijacked Planes
Newark, New Jersey, air traffic controller Bob Varcadipane is talking on the phone with the FAA Command Center. He is told that the Command Center is still suspicious of at least ten planes for one reason or another, all possible hijackings. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002]
Entity Tags: Federal Aviation Administration, Bob Varcadipane
(Between 9:41 a.m. and 9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Langley Jets Heading in Wrong Direction, Redirected to Washington
A weapons director at NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) notices that the three F-16s launched from Langley Air Force Base (see (9:25 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001) are going in the wrong direction, and so he contacts them to get them on the correct course.
Citino Thinks FAA Has Redirected Fighters - The weapons director, Master Sergeant Steve Citino, recently forwarded coordinates to the jets, sending them to Washington, DC. However, according to author Lynn Spencer, he inadvertently gave them incorrect coordinates (see 9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001). Now, shortly afterwards, Citino notices that the jets are going in the wrong direction. However, he does not realize his mistake with the coordinates, and instead assumes that the FAA's Washington Center has redirected the jets so as to avoid air traffic. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 180-181] He makes this assumption even though NEADS recently declared AFIO (Authorization for Interceptor Operations) for Washington airspace, thereby giving the military authority over the FAA for that airspace (see 9:36 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 113, 150]
Fighters Given Correct Destination - Citino radios one of the three Langley AFB pilots, Captain Craig Borgstrom, and gives him the correct course heading. Citino adds: "Just to reiterate. You are under AFIO control! Take all direction from Huntress!" ("Huntress" is the call sign for NEADS.) Borgstrom acknowledges the order, but mentions that the new heading conflicts with the coordinates he has just been given. He says, "We're showing a CAP [combat air patrol] point of 250 [heading], 20 miles." Citino snaps back at him: "Negative! That's incorrect! The CAP is 312, 20 miles!" Borgstrom then relays the correct coordinates to his lead pilot, Major Dean Eckmann, and the three Langley jets set off toward their new destination. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 181]
Entity Tags: Northeast Air Defense Sector, Craig Borgstrom, Steve Citino, Dean Eckmann
(9:41 a.m.-9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Mysterious White Jet Seen Circling above the White House
The 'white jet' seen circling above the White House and Capitol. [Source: Discovery Channel]Several television networks interrupt their coverage of events in New York to report that a mysterious white aircraft is circling over the White House and the Capitol.
At 9:41 a.m., Peter Jennings of ABC News reports that "there is a plane circling the White House at the moment. And they're clearing the grounds there.… And this plane circling the White House adds to the trauma that people are feeling today, but we have no idea precisely what the means." [ABC News, 9/11/2001]
At 9:52 a.m., CNN correspondent John King, who is standing about 200 yards from the White House, says: "About 10 minutes ago, there was a white jet circling overhead. Now, you generally don't see planes in the area over the White House. That is restricted air space. No reason to believe that this jet was there for any nefarious purposes, but the Secret Service was very concerned, pointing up at the jet in the sky. It is out of sight now, best we can tell." [CNN, 9/11/2001] Another CNN correspondent, Kate Snow, also reports seeing a plane at around this time, "circling over the Capitol." She says: "Now whether that may have been an Air Force plane, it's unclear. But that seemed to be the reason, according to security guards that I talked with, towards the evacuation of the Capitol." [CNN, 9/11/2001] (The Capitol is reportedly evacuated at 9:48 a.m. (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Fox News, 9/11/2003] )
At 9:55 a.m., NBC News turns to a live report from its correspondent Bob Kur, who recalls: "And in the most surreal of this morning's scenes here at the White House, a white plane, a very big jet, was flying an unusual pattern near the White House over Lafayette Park, very slowly. It made one circle and then we have not seen it since. There was a lot of concern about what that plane might be. But, again, it's only speculation, but most people say that since flights have been cleared from US air space, and it was a totally white plane, looked unusual to all of us, that it was a government plane of some kind." [NBC 4, 9/11/2001]
A CNN comparison between video footage of this plane and an official Air Force photograph will suggest it is an E-4B. This is a militarized version of a Boeing 747 that is used as a flying command post. An E-4B has in fact just been launched from Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, DC (see (9:27 a.m.) September 11, 2001), so this could plausibly be the same plane as is witnessed by the reporters. Two government sources familiar with the incident will later tell CNN the plane was a military aircraft, but that its details are classified. Even by 2007, the Pentagon, FAA, and Secret Service will have offered no public explanation for this plane over the White House. [Verton, 2003, pp. 143-144; CNN, 9/12/2007] In 2009, John Farmer, the former senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, will claim that this "mystery plane" is an E-4B with the call sign "Venus 77" that takes off from Andrews Air Force Base at around 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Farmer, 2009, pp. 206-207, 372]
Entity Tags: Bob Kur, Kate Snow, John Farmer, E-4B National Airborne Operations Center, John King, Peter Jennings
(After 9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Officials at White House Bothered by TV and Video Conference Technical Problems
Anna Perez. [Source: Paul Drinkwater / NBC Universal]Government officials in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House are frustrated at technical problems they have with the televisions in the center, which mean they are unable to get audio from both the TV broadcast channels and the videoconferencing system at the same time. [White House, 11/1/2001; Newsweek, 12/30/2001] Two large television screens are built into a wall of the PEOC conference room, and, according to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, for most of the day one of them is tuned to CNN and the other to the Fox News Channel. Hayes will write, "Watching the uninterrupted news coverage not only provided new and timely information; it also allowed officials in the shelter [i.e. the PEOC] to understand, as they designed their public response, what exactly the American people were seeing." [Hayes, 2007, pp. 337, 342]
Officials Have Problems with Television and Video Conference Audio - But, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will later recall, the "only frustration" among those in the PEOC is "that we kept having trouble getting the TV to work.… [W]e were having trouble with the, some of the video link." Therefore, "if you were trying to do the video conference, you had trouble doing TV." [White House, 11/1/2001] The "video conference" Rice refers to is presumably the White House video teleconference being conducted by counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke (see (9:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 9:25 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 36] Anna Perez, Rice's communications counselor, will add, "[Y]ou couldn't do the SVTS [secure video teleconference system] at the same time you could do the CNN." [White House, 11/1/2001] Eric Edelman, a member of Vice President Dick Cheney's staff, will recall: "[T]he video conference that Dick Clarke was chairing was going on.… [W]e could see that, so that was on the screen, we could follow that. Not always with audio… sometimes with audio, sometimes not." [White House, 10/25/2001] According to Hayes, however, the problem is in fact that "[a]lthough the two televisions on the wall could be tuned to different channels, they could get audio from only one." Consequently, "On several occasions, the officials could see notices of 'breaking news' without being able to hear the details of those updates." [Hayes, 2007, pp. 342]
'Everybody' in PEOC Frustrated by TV Problem - Rice will recall that the problem with the televisions is "kind of frustrating to everybody." [White House, 11/1/2001] One unnamed official will recall that Cheney, who is in the PEOC for much of the day, is "cranked up" about the problem and repeatedly demands that it be fixed. [Hayes, 2007, pp. 342] Mary Matalin, a counselor to Cheney, will recall, "You can have sound on one or the other [i.e. the TV broadcasts or the video teleconference], and [Cheney] found that technically imperfect." [CNN, 9/11/2002; CNN, 9/14/2002] According to Newsweek, this is the only thing that causes Cheney's composure to break and leads to him showing any irritation while he is in the PEOC. [Newsweek, 12/30/2001]
Accounts Conflict over Whether Problem Is Fixed - It is unclear whether this technical problem with the televisions gets fixed. According to Perez, PEOC personnel are able to fix it. "It took them a little while, but they did get it together. They got it right," she will say. [White House, 11/1/2001] But according to Hayes, the problem remains unfixed. [Hayes, 2007, pp. 342] Clarke will later give a different account of the problem with getting audio from television broadcasts and the video conference simultaneously. He will write that when he goes down to the PEOC sometime around midday (see (Shortly Before 12:30 p.m.) September 11, 2001), Army Major Mike Fenzel complains to him, "I can't hear the crisis conference because Mrs. Cheney [Lynne Cheney, the wife of the vice president] keeps turning down the volume on you so she can hear CNN." [Clarke, 2004, pp. 18]
Entity Tags: Lynne Cheney, Anna Perez, Condoleezza Rice, Richard A. Clarke, Eric Edelman, Presidential Emergency Operation Center, Mike Fenzel, Mary Matalin, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney
(Shortly After 9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001: DC Air National Guard Commander Wherley Wants Orders from Someone More Senior before He Will Launch Fighters
Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG), speaks to a Secret Service agent over the phone, but declines the agent's request to launch DCANG fighter jets without first receiving an order to do so from someone more senior. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 184]
Wherley Takes over Call - Wherley has just arrived at the headquarters of the DCANG's 121st Fighter Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington (see (Shortly After 9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001). At the operations desk there, Major Daniel Caine passed Wherley a phone he was talking over, before heading off to prepare to get airborne. [Filson, 2003, pp. 78; Vogel, 2007, pp. 445]
Caller Wants Jets over Washington - Wherley finds that the caller Caine was speaking with is from the Secret Service. They want the DCANG to put up a combat air patrol (CAP) over Washington. But, according to author Lynn Spencer: "Wherley knows that there has never been a CAP anywhere over this country, much less over Washington. Such a request—coming from someone not even in the military—is unheard of." Wherley understands the power of the Secret Service, and knows that with its responsibility to protect the president it clearly has some authority over other agencies, including the military. "But still, such an order from a Secret Service agent seems rather far-reaching." He therefore tells the caller, "I would feel more comfortable receiving such an order from someone higher in the chain of command, preferably in the military."
Wherley Told to Call 'Operations Center' - According to Spencer, the agent gives Wherley "a phone number and tells him to call over to the White House Operations Center, where Vice President [Dick] Cheney has been ushered." [Spencer, 2008, pp. 184] Presumably the "Operations Center" is the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House, where Cheney is evacuated to by his Secret Service agents (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [ABC News, 9/14/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39-40] However, other accounts, including Wherley's interview with the 9/11 Commission, will state that Wherley subsequently calls someone at the Secret Service's White House Joint Operations Center (JOC), not the PEOC (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 79; 9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003] (Wherley's current call is also with an agent at the JOC. [9/11 Commission, 3/8/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 3/11/2004 ] )
Entity Tags: District of Columbia Air National Guard, David Wherley, US Secret Service
9:41 a.m.-9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001: FAA Command Center Notifies FAA Headquarters about Flight 93 Problems
The FAA's Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, provides updates to FAA headquarters in Washington, DC, about the problems with Flight 93. At 9:41 a.m., John White, a manager at the Command Center, is talking to Doug Davis, the special assistant for technical operations in air traffic services at FAA headquarters. White says that Flight 93 has reversed course from its intended flight path (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001), its transponder signal has been lost (see (9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and it is now descending and heading east. From 9:42 a.m., one of the Command Center managers (exactly who is unstated) gives the headquarters several updates on Flight 93's progress and location. At 9:46 a.m., White tells Jeff Griffith, the FAA's deputy director of air traffic, that Flight 93 is "29 minutes out of Washington, DC, and tracking toward us." Two minutes later, in another conversation with Griffith, White confirms that Flight 93 has reversed course and is heading toward Washington. [Federal Aviation Administration, 10/21/2002; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 43-44]
Entity Tags: Doug Davis, Federal Aviation Administration, Jeff Griffith, John White
9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001: Passenger Mark Bingham Makes Two Unsuccessful Attempted Calls from Flight 93
Mark Bingham, a passenger on Flight 93, makes two attempts at calling his mother, Alice Hoglan, from the plane after his previous call with her was cut off, but both attempts are unsuccessful. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/17/2001; 9/11 Commission, 5/13/2004 ] Bingham tries making the calls using a GTE Airfone near the back of the plane. [9/11 Commission, 5/13/2004 ; McMillan, 2014, pp. 122] He has just spoken to Hoglan, but the call broke off after less than three minutes (see (9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001; 9/11 Commission, 5/13/2004 ] He tries calling her again a minute and a half after that call ended, but dials the wrong number by mistake. He tries calling her once more 33 seconds later, but despite dialing the correct number this time, the attempt is unsuccessful. The first of these unsuccessful calls lasts 0 seconds while the second lasts three seconds, according to information that will later be derived from a study of GTE Airfone records of calls from Flight 93. [9/11 Commission, 5/13/2004 ] Hoglan will make no mention of her phone ringing at the time her son attempts these two calls when she is interviewed by the FBI about her experiences this morning. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001; Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/17/2001]
Entity Tags: Alice Hoglan, Mark Bingham
(Between 9:41 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Mother of Flight 93 Passenger Mark Bingham Speaks to the FBI and Tries Calling Her Son on His Cell Phone
Alice Hoglan, the mother of Mark Bingham, a passenger on Flight 93, informs the FBI that her son has just phoned her from the plane, and then calls Bingham's cell phone and leaves two voicemail messages. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/17/2001; Barrett, 2002, pp. 157-158] Alice Hoglan is currently staying at the home of her brother, Vaughn Hoglan, and his wife in Saratoga, California. [Longman, 2002, pp. 129; San Francisco Chronicle, 9/10/2003] Bingham has just called her and told her his flight was taken over by three men who said they had a bomb, but the call got broken off after less than three minutes (see (9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001; 9/11 Commission, 5/13/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 41, 99]
Bingham's Mother Realizes Flight 93 Will Likely Crash - No one in the Hoglan household was aware of the terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. But after the call from Bingham ends, Vaughn Hoglan switches on the television to see if there is any news about Flight 93 and the family sees, for the first time, the recorded footage of Flight 175 crashing into the World Trade Center (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). [BBC, 12/2001; Barrett, 2002, pp. 157] Alice Hoglan then realizes the hijacking of Flight 93 is part of a "grand and ugly scheme," and that her son's plane will likely crash, too. [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28/2005; San Jose Mercury News, 9/10/2011]
Bingham's Mother Tells the FBI about the Hijacking - Being a flight attendant with United Airlines, she calls her airline to ask about her son's plane. [Los Gatos Patch, 8/25/2011] However, she will later recall, all she gets is a recorded message, which states, "United Flight 93 left Newark at 8:01 a.m. and will arrive San Francisco, Gate 82, at 11:19 a.m." [BBC, 12/2001] She also calls 9-1-1 to report what has happened. She is put through to the San Francisco division of the FBI and speaks to an agent there. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/17/2001] The agent asks her a series of questions about the hijackers on Flight 93, but she is unable to answer them.
Bingham's Mother Leaves Messages for Her Son - Alice Hoglan then tries calling her son twice on his cell phone, intending to let him know the full scale of the attack that his plane's hijacking is part of. On both occasions, she has to leave messages on his voicemail. She makes the first call at 9:54 a.m. (Because she is flustered, she miscalculates the East Coast time by an hour during the call and also mistakenly says Flight 93 might be used as a "target" rather than as a "weapon.") She says: "Mark, this is your mom. It's 10:54 a.m. [Eastern Time]. The news is that it's been hijacked by terrorists. They are planning to probably use the plane as a target to hit some site on the ground. So, if you possibly can, try to overpower these guys if you can, 'cause they will probably use the plane as a target. I would say go ahead and do everything you can to overpower them, because they're hellbent. Try to call me back if you can. You know the number here. Okay, I love you sweetie. Bye." A minute or so later she calls Bingham's cell phone again and leaves a second, similar message. Among other things, she urges her son to "group some people and perhaps do the best you can to get control of [the plane]." [Barrett, 2002, pp. 157-158; San Jose Mercury News, 9/10/2011; McMillan, 2014, pp. 122] Bingham will never receive these messages. [ABC News, 3/30/2002] His plane will crash in a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. (see (10:03 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 14, 30]
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mark Bingham, Alice Hoglan, United Airlines, Vaughn Hoglan
9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001: First Lady and Senators Appear before Reporters, Comment on Attacks
Laura Bush with Senators Edward Kennedy and Judd Gregg. [Source: CNN]First Lady Laura Bush, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) appear before reporters and television cameras to announce that a planned Senate education committee hearing has been postponed, and to comment on the terrorist attacks in New York. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/11/2001; Bush, 2010, pp. 199] Bush was scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which Kennedy chairs, at 10:00 a.m. [USA Today, 9/10/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001] She now goes with Kennedy and Gregg to the Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building, to tell reporters there that the hearing has been called off. [Time, 12/31/2001; Bush, 2010, pp. 199] The beginning of their appearance is shown live on CNN.
Hearing Has Been Postponed, Not Canceled - Kennedy starts by emphasizing that today's hearing has been postponed, rather than canceled, and then says, "We are not going to see the business of America deferred because of terrorism, whether it's in education or another area of public policy." [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/11/2001]
First Lady Becomes 'Comforter in Chief' - After Kennedy asks her if she would like to say anything, Bush says to the reporters: "Our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims of this act of terrorism and… our support goes to the rescue workers. And all of our prayers are with everyone there right now." Then, as she and the senators turn to leave, Laurence McQuillan of USA Today says to her: "Children are kind of struck by all this. Is there a message you could tell to the nation's…" Before he can finish the sentence, Bush replies, "Parents need to reassure their children everywhere in our country that they're safe." [CNN, 9/11/2002; Gerhart, 2004, pp. 163; Bush, 2010, pp. 199] With these words, journalist and author Ronald Kessler will later write, Bush "became the comforter in chief, calmly reassuring the nation and dispensing advice on how parents should deal with the tragedy." [Kessler, 2006, pp. 136] Noelia Rodriguez, the first lady's press secretary, will later comment that Bush's response to McQuillan is "what people remember her for that day." [National Journal, 8/31/2002] As Bush, Kennedy, and Gregg are leaving the room, Bush's advance man will receive a call informing him of the attack at the Pentagon (see (9:45 a.m.-9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Bush, 2010, pp. 200]
Entity Tags: Judd Gregg, Larry McQuillan, Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy, Laura Bush, Noelia Rodriguez
(9:41 a.m.-10:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Cleveland Center Controller Tracks Flight 93
Bill Keaton. [Source: Kevin Niedermier]Cleveland Center air traffic controller Bill Keaton is responsible for guiding high-altitude flights in the airspace where Flight 93 turned off its transponder (see (9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After its transponder goes off, he follows Flight 93 on his radar scope as it travels across his sector, headed toward Washington, DC, and is instructed not to let any other aircraft come within 20 miles of it. Because its transponder is off, Keaton cannot tell the plane's altitude. He sees it disappear from his scope at the time it crashes. [USA Today, 8/11/2002; Cleveland Free Times, 9/6/2006]
Entity Tags: Bill Keaton
(9:41 a.m.) September 11, 2001: FBI Agent Already Aware of Flight 93 Hijacking
Greg Callahan. [Source: NBC News]Newark, New Jersey, flight controller Greg Callahan is talking on the phone to an FBI agent. The agent says about Flight 93: "We suspect that this aircraft has now been taken over by hostile forces." The agent describes the sharp turn it has made over eastern Ohio and that it is now heading back over southwestern Pennsylvania. Callahan says he could tell the plane is on a course for Washington. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] The FBI has been in contact with Deena Burnett and informed of what her husband, Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett, has been saying since at least 9:34 a.m. (see 9:34 a.m. September 11, 2001) [Longman, 2002, pp. 110] It is unclear where in the chain of command details of these Flight 93 calls reach, and the 9/11 Commission has not clarified the issue of what the FBI knew and when.
Entity Tags: Tom Burnett, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Deena Burnett, Greg Callahan
After 9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001: NEADS Talks to Cleveland Flight Control about Hijacking, United 93 Not Mentioned
After learning that Delta flight 1989 may have been hijacked from Boston flight control (see 9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001), NEADS calls Cleveland flight control, which is handling the flight, to discuss this. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 14] Although Cleveland flight control has been aware that United 93 has been hijacked since before 9:30, it apparently fails to mention this to NEADS. According to the 9/11 Commission, the NMCC is not notified of United 93's hijacking until 10:03 (see 10:03 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Northeast Air Defense Sector
(Shortly After 9:41 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Park Police Helicopter Provides Live Video Feed of Pentagon Crash Scene to FBI and Other Agencies
A US Park Police helicopter that is responding to the attack on the Pentagon and flying above the building transmits a live video feed of the crash scene to the FBI and other agencies, providing them with instant information about the extent of the damage and destruction at the Pentagon. [US Congress. House, 9/11/2002; National Park Service, 9/21/2002] The helicopter, which has the call sign "Eagle I," is one of two helicopters belonging to the Park Police Aviation Unit that arrived at the Pentagon minutes after the attack there (see Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Rotor and Wing, 11/2001] It has microwave "downlink" capability, which enables its crew to fly over a particular location and transmit instantaneous video images to the Park Police chief's command post and other locations.
FBI Requests Video of Crash Scene - Shortly after Eagle I arrives over the Pentagon, the crew receives a request from the FBI to send it information using the downlink on their helicopter's video camera. [McDonnell, 2004, pp. 22 ] According to Sergeant Ronald Galey, the pilot of Eagle I, the FBI arrives on the scene "within 10 minutes or 15 minutes" of his helicopter reaching the Pentagon. Galey will later recall: "We heard from them immediately: 'Start your downlink, we want to capture everything that we can.'" [US Naval Historical Center, 11/20/2001] The downlink capability then enables the crew of Eagle I "to transmit real-time images and information to people who needed them to make decisions," according to the National Park Service's account of 9/11. As well as the FBI, the images are sent to the Secret Service, the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police, and Park Police headquarters. Eagle I spends "the next four or five hours flying overhead and transmitting video images to the FBI." [National Park Service, 9/21/2002; McDonnell, 2004, pp. 23 ]
Fire Department Chief Goes Up in Helicopter - The Park Police's two Bell 412 helicopters are packed with sophisticated equipment. As well as the microwave downlink, they have an infrared heat detection system known as FLIR (forward looking infrared). When the Arlington County Fire Department later has difficulty getting its equipment to the proper locations to fight the fires in the Pentagon, its chief will be taken up in Eagle I and flown low over the building. The infrared imagery will help him locate the fires under the roof so he can better position his firefighting crews and equipment. [National Park Service, 1/17/2002; Rotor and Wing, 2/2002; McDonnell, 2004, pp. 23-24 ]
Entity Tags: Arlington County Fire Department, United States Park Police, Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Ronald A. Galey, US Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Shortly After 9:41 a.m.) September 11, 2001: NEADS Tries Unsuccessfully to Get Minnesota Jets Scrambled after Delta 1989
An F-16C Fighting Falcon of the 148th Fighter Wing. [Source: Brett R. Ewald / US Air Force]NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) tries to get fighter jets from a military unit in Duluth, Minnesota, sent after Delta Air Lines Flight 1989, but the unit is unable to respond. [9/11 Commission, 1/22/2004 ] NEADS has been contacted by the FAA's Boston Center and incorrectly told that Delta 1989 is a possible hijacking (see 9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). The aircraft is just south of Toledo, Ohio, and Colonel Robert Marr and Major Kevin Nasypany order the troops at NEADS to call Air National Guard bases in that area to see if any of them can launch fighters. [9/11 Commission, 2004; Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006]
NEADS Calls Duluth - The staff attempts to get a unit in Duluth to send jets toward the Delta flight. [9/11 Commission, 1/22/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/23/2004 ] Presumably the unit they call is the 148th Fighter Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard, which is located at the Duluth International Airport and flies the F-16 Fighting Falcon. [GlobalSecurity (.org), 8/21/2005] Unlike Otis Air National Guard Base and Langley Air Force Base, the 148th FW at Duluth is not one of NORAD's seven "alert" sites around the US. However, its mission does include "air superiority and air defense functions." [Airman, 12/1999; US Air Force, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 17]
Duluth Has 'Nobody Available' - The Duluth unit is unable to respond to NEADS's request for help. [9/11 Commission, 1/22/2004 ] The reason for this is unclear. At 9:46 a.m., a member of staff on the NEADS operations floor will report that "Duluth has night flying, so there's nobody available." [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/11/2001; Donaldson and Johnson, 6/2008, pp. 47 ] Marr will subsequently instruct NEADS personnel to contact every Air National Guard unit in the Northeast US with instructions to get their fighters airborne (see (Between 9:50 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). NEADS will also order Air National Guard jets from Selfridge and Toledo to intercept Delta 1989 (see (9:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and 10:01 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28; Spencer, 2008, pp. 178-180]
Entity Tags: 148th Fighter Wing, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Kevin Nasypany, Robert Marr
9:42 a.m. September 11, 2001: FBI Arrives at the Pentagon; Assumes Responsibility for Investigation
Logo of the FBI's National Capital Response Squad. [Source: FBI]Within five minutes of the Pentagon being hit, the first group from the FBI's National Capital Response Squad arrives there. Due to this being a terrorist attack, the Pentagon and its grounds are immediately declared a federal crime scene. Under the terms of a 1995 presidential directive, this makes them the exclusive responsibility of the FBI. The FBI immediately begins collecting evidence and is also responsible for recovering bodies. Its agents are able to confiscate security videos from a nearby gas station within minutes of the crash (see (After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). More than 700 FBI agents, assisted by hundreds of individuals from other organizations, will participate in the recovery operation. [US President, 6/21/1995; Washington Times, 9/12/2001; US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. A-7, A-23, C-1, C-54 ]
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pentagon
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, FBI 9/11 Investigation, Pentagon, 9/11 Investigations
(9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Delta Air Lines Tells Flight 1989 to Land at Cleveland Airport, but FAA Not Informed
The Delta Air Lines operations control center in Atlanta, Georgia. [Source: Public domain]Delta Air Lines instructs one of its aircraft, Flight 1989, to land at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, but the FAA's Cleveland Center, which is handling the aircraft, is not notified of this. [USA Today, 8/13/2002; Associated Press, 8/15/2002]
Pilots Instructed to Land - The pilots of Delta 1989 receive an ACARS text message from their airline's dispatch office in Atlanta, Georgia, instructing them to "Land immediately in Cleveland." [Spencer, 2008, pp. 167] According to USA Today, "Since early reports that a bomb, then hijackers, might be aboard" Delta 1989, Delta Air Lines' headquarters in Atlanta has been tracking the flight, and receiving reports on it every five minutes. [USA Today, 8/13/2002] The plane's pilot, Captain Paul Werner, quickly types a response to the message, "ok." But, a couple of minutes later, he receives another ACARS message from the airline. It says: "Confirm landing in Cleveland. Use correct phraseology." Werner and First Officer David Dunlap are puzzled. According to author Lynn Spencer: "There's such a thing as correct phraseology on the radio, but there is no such thing when typing back and forth with dispatch on ACARS. Those messages are usually casual." Werner carefully types a response: "Roger. Affirmative. Delta 1989 is diverting to Cleveland." He calls the Cleveland Center at 9:44 a.m. and requests a diversion to Cleveland Airport. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 167-168; USA Today, 9/11/2008]
Cleveland Center Not Informed - About 15 minutes earlier, Cleveland Center heard the sounds from Flight 93 as it was being hijacked, but initially thought these came from Delta 1989, and mistakenly believed the Delta flight was being taken over (see (9:28 a.m.-9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [USA Today, 8/13/2002] But the Delta pilots' normal responses to radio transmissions soon led air traffic controller John Werth, who is handling Delta 1989, to conclude that this aircraft was fine. [USA Today, 9/11/2008] However, controllers at the Cleveland Center are unaware that Delta Air Lines has instructed Flight 1989 to land, and so Werner's request for a change of course will make them suspicious of it again (see (Shortly After 9:44 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [USA Today, 8/13/2002]
Entity Tags: David Dunlap, Delta Airlines, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Paul Werner
(9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001: President Bush Arrives at the Sarasota Airport and Quickly Boards Air Force One
Bush boards Air Force One in Sarasota, Florida, waving to people below as if the day were like any other. [Source: Agence France-Presse]President Bush and his entourage arrive at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, where Air Force One is waiting, and Bush hurriedly gets onto his plane. [BBC, 9/1/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39] Bush left the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, at around 9:35 a.m. to be driven to Air Force One (see (9:34 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001; Bloomberg, 6/17/2004]
Limousine Stops Right by Air Force One - His limousine now speeds past the airport's main entrance, goes north, and veers down a tiny road leading to the airport, ignoring a sign that states, "No Airport Access." It then passes through a small, unmarked gate in a chain-link fence and races across the tarmac toward Air Force One. It swings around the plane's tail and stops behind the left wing. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 98-99] The motorcade arrives at the airport between 9:42 a.m. and 9:45 a.m., according to the 9/11 Commission Report. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39] According to journalist and author Bill Sammon, Bush's limousine reaches the airport at 9:43 a.m. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99; Washington Times, 10/8/2002]
Plane's Engines Are Already Running - Colonel Mark Tillman, the pilot of Air Force One, started two of the plane's four engines while Bush was on his way to the airport. White House chief of staff Andrew Card will later comment that he is "struck that the engines on Air Force One [are] running" when the motorcade reaches the airport, since this is "normally a protocol no-no." [United Services Automobile Association, 9/11/2011; Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] "Usually you don't start the engine until the president is already on the plane," he will say. [BBC, 9/9/2011]
President Usually Takes His Time Saying Goodbye - Normally, when his motorcade arrives at Air Force One, the president "emerges from the limo, waves to the crowd behind barricades, thanks hosts who have accompanied him, and shakes hands with the airport personnel and guests who've come to see him off," Karl Rove, Bush's senior adviser, will write. The president then "walks alone up the steps to Air Force One at a leisurely pace, stopping to wave again to the people on the tarmac." The other people in the motorcade usually only start to get on board once he is on the plane. [Rove, 2010, pp. 252]
Bush Hurries up the Stairs onto Air Force One - Today, though, the Secret Service wants to get the president onto Air Force One as quickly as possible. [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Bush therefore walks briskly up the long mobile staircase behind the left wing. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99; Walsh, 2003, pp. 207] He is "just trucking up the stairs" without his usual "Texas swagger," Tillman will describe. [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] He does find time, however, to pause at the doorway to wave to photographers before entering the plane. [St. Petersburg Times, 7/4/2004] Once he is on board, he goes to his private cabin near the front of the aircraft. A Secret Service agent tells him, "Mr. President, we need you to get seated as soon as possible." Bush then straps himself in, ready for takeoff. [Woodward, 2002, pp. 16]
Chief of Staff Is Frustrated by the Passengers Delaying Takeoff - Meanwhile, everyone who is traveling on Air Force One apart from Bush and his senior staff boards the plane through its back stairs. But before doing so they are subjected to a strict security check (see (9:45 a.m.-9:53 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99; Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Card becomes frustrated that takeoff is being delayed due to the time it takes to get so many passengers onto the plane. [White House, 8/16/2002; St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/2002] Air Force One will take off unusually quickly once all the passengers are on board. [Rochester Review, 9/2004; Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] It usually takes another 15 minutes after everyone has boarded for the passengers to get seated, the doors to be closed, and the engines to power up, according to Rove. [Rove, 2010, pp. 252] But today Air Force One will take off about 10 minutes after Bush's motorcade reaches the airport, at around 9:55 a.m. (see 9:54 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 1/27/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39]
Entity Tags: Andrew Card, George W. Bush, Mark Tillman, US Secret Service, Karl C. Rove
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush
9:43 a.m. September 11, 2001: Flight 93 Passenger Todd Beamer Reaches Phone Operator
Lisa Jefferson. [Source: Lisa Jefferson]Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer reaches a GTE operator using one of the plane's seatback phones. He had tried using his credit card on the phone, but been unable to get authorization, so his call is routed to a customer service center in the Chicago area. [Newsweek, 9/22/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 198-199; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006, pp. 11 ] Beamer initially reaches operator Phyllis Johnson, who calls customer service supervisor Lisa Jefferson over and informs her of the call. As Jefferson later recalls, "I asked [Johnson] information that I needed to report to our surveillance center. And by the time I came back, she appeared to be traumatized, and that's when I told her I would take the call over… She was just dazed." Having immediately contacted the FBI, airline security, and GTE operations personnel, Jefferson gets on the line and speaks to Beamer for the next 13 minutes (see 9:45 a.m.-9:58 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/22/2001; Orlando Sentinel, 9/5/2002; Beliefnet (.com), 2006] She later informs Beamer's wife Lisa, "[I]t was a miracle that Todd's call hadn't been disconnected. Because of the enormous number of calls that day, the GTE systems overloaded and lines were being disconnected all around her… She kept thinking, This call is going to get dropped! Yet Todd stayed connected… all the way to the end." [Beamer and Abraham, 2002, pp. 217] According to journalist and author Jere Longman, "GTE-Verizon [does] not routinely tape its telephone calls. As a supervisor, [Jefferson] would have been the one to monitor the taping, but she did not want to risk losing the call." [Longman, 2002, pp. 199] Yet an early article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will claim that, "because it was to an operator," Beamer's call "was tape-recorded." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/19/2001] Lisa Beamer will only be informed of her husband's call from Flight 93 three days later, and be read a summary of it written by Jefferson (see September 14, 2001). [Newsweek, 12/3/2001]
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Phyllis Johnson, Lisa Jefferson, Todd Beamer
(9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Palestinian Group Reportedly Claims Responsibility for the Terrorist Attacks
Logo of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. [Source: Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a radical Palestinian group, reportedly claims responsibility for the attacks on the World Trade Center. Abu Dhabi television says it has received a call from the group, claiming responsibility for crashing the planes into the Twin Towers. The details of the claim are then picked up by the Reuters news agency. It is unknown who is responsible for saying the DFLP is behind the attacks. The claim is reportedly made in an anonymous telephone call to the Arab television station. [BBC, 9/12/2001; Los Angeles Times, 9/12/2001; Ma'an News Agency, 9/11/2011] It is soon retracted, though. At around 10:00 a.m., a spokesman for the DFLP will deny the group's responsibility for the attacks (see (10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Liverpool Daily Post, 9/12/2001; Poynter Institute, 9/2/2002] All the same, the allegation about the group's involvement will reach a large audience. [Ma'an News Agency, 9/11/2011] The DFLP is a Marxist-Leninist organization that was founded in 1969. It operates mainly in Syria, Lebanon, and the Israeli-occupied territories, and is believed to have about 500 members. It began a relatively small-scale campaign of assaults and bombings in Israel and the occupied territories during the 1970s. [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/11/2001; BBC, 2/4/2002] However, it was removed from the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations in October 1999 because of "the absence of terrorist activity" by the group in the previous two years. [Associated Press, 10/8/1999; US Department of State, 10/8/1999]
Entity Tags: Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
9:43 a.m. September 11, 2001: Army's Crisis Team at the Pentagon Is 'Formally Stood Up' and Responds to Attacks
John Keane. [Source: US Army]The Army's Crisis Action Team (CAT) at the Pentagon is "formally stood up" and its members respond to the terrorist attacks. [Rossow, 2003, pp. 66; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 135; St. Louis Jewish Light, 9/8/2011] Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Stramara activated the CAT after the second hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center, at 9:03 a.m., on the orders of Major General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's director of operations, readiness, and mobilization (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 96-97] Chiarelli's intention was, he said, "to respond to the contingency in New York if requested by state and local officials." [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 134] The CAT is now "formally stood up," according to author Robert Rossow, although exactly what this means is unstated.
Senior Officials Come to Operations Center - When the CAT is activated, its members assemble in the Army Operations Center (AOC) in the basement of the Pentagon. [Rossow, 2003, pp. 64, 66] Numerous senior officials now start arriving in the AOC. These include General John Keane, vice chief of staff of the Army; Brigadier General Clyde Vaughn, deputy director of operations, readiness, and mobilization; Major General Philip Kensinger, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations and plans; and Thomas White, the secretary of the Army. More senior officers come to the AOC than would usually be the case in a crisis, according to Chiarelli, "because a large portion of the Army section of the building had been destroyed" in the attack on the Pentagon. "People had been forced out of their space," he will later say, and "were looking for some place to go." [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; US Army Center of Military History, 2/12/2002; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 135; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 98-101; Fox News, 9/12/2011]
Operations Center Personnel Unaware that a Plane Hit the Pentagon - Chiarelli arrived at the AOC shortly before the Pentagon was hit (see (Shortly Before 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and, he will recall, heard a "muffled noise" when the attack occurred, at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 98-99] Colonel Henry Huntley, who also arrived at the AOC around the time of the Pentagon attack, will recall, "Alarms started going off and there was an announcement that an explosion had gone off in the building." [Daily American, 7/8/2008] However, those in the AOC are apparently initially unaware that a plane has hit their building. Vaughn, who witnessed the attack from the road outside the Pentagon, calls Major George Sterling, the AOC commandant, and says to him, "You know that you've been hit by an airplane?" Sterling responds, "Is that what happened?" Vaughn will comment that "many people… didn't find out for some time" that the Pentagon had been hit by an airplane. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/12/2002; Rossow, 2003, pp. 15-16; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 3-4]
Support Agency Commander Unaware that the US Is under Attack - Colonel Bruce Bachus, commander of the Command and Control Support Agency, who is responsible for keeping the AOC operating, arrived at the Pentagon around the time the attack there occurred and yet he is unaware of the crisis taking place in the US when he gets to the AOC. In the AOC, Dick Mansfield, deputy director of the Command and Control Support Agency, says to him: "We've been hit! The CAT has been stood up!" But Bachus appears to be puzzled. Mansfield therefore asks him, "Sir, do you know what's going on?" Bachus says no and that he had not been listening to the radio—like he usually does—while he drove to work. He says he heard a loud sound while he was in the Pentagon's A-E Drive, and saw people shouting and running down the corridors, but he'd had no idea what was going on. Mansfield therefore has to quickly brief him on the catastrophic events of the past hour. [Rossow, 2003, pp. 9, 68]
Crisis Team Assesses How Many Army Staffers Are Missing - The "first big task" for the CAT, according to Vaughn, is "to get a count on how many people were missing on the Army staff." Chiarelli instructs Vaughn to focus on this assignment. Vaughn then announces on the CAT floor that he wants each section "to start that process of figuring out who was missing and who was not." "For a long time, our number one priority was locating and identifying and taking care of… our soldiers and civilians," Vaughn will say. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/12/2002] Lieutenant Colonel Richard Kotch, who is working in the AOC this morning, will recall that those in the operations center also "assured continuity of operations after the impact [i.e. the attack on the Pentagon]." [St. Louis Jewish Light, 9/8/2011]
Intelligence Officers Give Inaccurate Reports of Hijackings - Meanwhile, after he arrives at the AOC, Chiarelli receives reports from his intelligence officers informing him, inaccurately, about additional hijacked aircraft. He is told there are "a minimum of four aircraft that were hijacked and a possibility, at one time, [of] as high as seven." [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 99]
Operations Center Has Sophisticated Equipment - The CAT, according to Soldiers magazine, "consists of a dedicated 'hot' desk with classified and unclassified computers, and secure telephones for 24 separate Army staff sections." [Soldiers, 9/2004] The AOC, where its members assemble, is equipped with state-of-the-art communications equipment and has television sets for monitoring news coverage. [Washington Post, 8/25/1995] A glassed-in balcony overlooks the main floor and four giant screens are on the wall above the computer workstations. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 99-100]
Watch Team Regularly Communicates with Government Agencies - AOC personnel usually work around the clock to keep senior Army leaders aware of issues and events around the world. A watch team monitors the world constantly and is ready to sound the alarm if a crisis erupts somewhere. The watch team also "directs hundreds of communications daily to the FBI, the State Department, the White House command center, local law enforcement agencies, and others," according to Soldiers magazine. The AOC is equipped with an "emergency action console," which is a switchboard with a sophisticated communications system that allows watch team members to contact, at the touch of a button, the White House, the secretary of defense's office, and Army commands around the world. [Washington Post, 8/25/1995; Soldiers, 9/2004] The CAT will become "a focal point for all Pentagon activities" in response to the terrorist attacks, according to Kotch. [St. Louis Jewish Light, 9/8/2011] It will continue working around the clock in the aftermath of the attacks. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002]
Entity Tags: Bruce Bachus, George Sterling, Clyde A. Vaughn, Dick Mansfield, US Army Crisis Action Team, US Department of the Army, Richard A. Kotch, Henry Huntley, Thomas E. White, John Keane, Philip R. Kensinger Jr., Peter W. Chiarelli
9:43 a.m.-9:53 a.m. September 11, 2001: Associated Press First to Report a Plane Hit the Pentagon; CNN Still Unsure What Happened for Ten More Minutes
An Associated Press news alert at 9:43 a.m. states, "An aircraft has crashed into the Pentagon, witnesses say." [Associated Press, 2001 ; Broadcasting and Cable, 8/26/2002] This is apparently the first news of the crash. Initial television reports stated there had been an explosion at the Pentagon, but not that a plane caused it (see 9:39 a.m.-9:44 a.m. September 11, 2001). Minutes later, there is still uncertainty over what caused the explosion. At 9:49, CNN's Chris Plant reports from the Pentagon, "[I]nitial reports from witnesses indicate that there was in fact a helicopter circling the building, contrary to what the AP reported, according to the witnesses I've spoken to anyway, and that this helicopter disappeared behind the building, and that there was then an explosion" (see (9:35 a.m.-9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [CNN, 9/11/2001] It is not until 9:53 that CNN confirms, "it was a plane that crashed into the Pentagon." [CNN, 9/11/2001]
Entity Tags: CNN, Associated Press
9:44 a.m. September 11, 2001: NMCC Conference Thinks Flight 1989, Not Flight 93, Is Fourth Hijack
NORAD briefs the NMCC teleconference on the possible hijacking of Delta Flight 1989. Four minutes later, a representative from the White House bunker containing Vice President Cheney asks if there are any indications of other hijacked planes. Captain Charles Leidig, temporarily in charge of the NMCC, mentions the Delta Flight and comments, "that would be the fourth possible hijack." Flight 1989 is in the same general Ohio region as Flight 93, but NORAD doesn't scramble fighters toward either plane at this time. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Entity Tags: National Military Command Center, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Charles Leidig, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
(Before 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Air Combat Command Commander Cook Is Told the White House Wants Armed Drones over Afghanistan
Donald Cook. [Source: US Air Force]Lieutenant General Donald Cook, acting commander of the Air Combat Command (ACC), receives a call in which he is told the White House wants to know how quickly the Predator drone, a remotely controlled, unmanned plane, can be deployed over Afghanistan. Cook, who is currently at ACC headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, receives the call "less than one hour after" the first hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center (see 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001), according to journalist and author Richard Whittle, which means the call is made before around 9:45 a.m. The caller, Whittle will write, says that the "White House [wants] to know how soon the Air Force could get three Predators over Afghanistan—with missiles under their wings." The identity of the caller is unstated. Later this morning, Cook will talk to Colonel Ed Boyle, director of intelligence for the ACC, who is away in Arizona, and pass on this information to him (see (After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Whittle, 2014, pp. 236; Air and Space Magazine, 3/2015] The first Predator mission over Afghanistan will take place on September 18 and on October 7, the first day of the war in Afghanistan, the first armed Predator mission will be flown (see September 18-October 7, 2001 and October 7, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 3/24/2004 ; Grimes, 2014, pp. 335]
Entity Tags: Donald G. Cook
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan
9:44 a.m.-9:51 a.m. September 11, 2001: Pittsburgh Airport Control Tower Evacuated due to Concerns over Approaching Flight 93
The air traffic control tower at Pittsburgh International Airport is evacuated, because of concerns that Flight 93, which is heading in the direction of the airport, could crash into it. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/23/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002, pp. 11-13; Lancaster New Era, 11/3/2006]
Cleveland Center Notifies Pittsburgh Tower - At 9:44 a.m., an air traffic controller at the FAA's Cleveland Center calls the Pittsburgh Airport control tower and notifies it of the loss of radio contact with Flight 93, and the loss of a secondary radar return from that aircraft (see (9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The Cleveland Center controller also says Flight 93 has made an unanticipated turn (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and its flight path will take it close to Pittsburgh Airport, if not directly over it. [Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002, pp. 11-12] The controller at the Pittsburgh tower who answers the call, apparently Paul Delfine, begins tracking Flight 93's primary target on radar, and calls over his operations supervisor, Mal Fuller. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ; Lancaster New Era, 11/3/2006]
Supervisor Orders Evacuation - Delfine points to a plane—which Fuller only later learns is Flight 93—on a radar scope. He tells Fuller it was hijacked over Cleveland, and controllers don't know where it is heading. Fuller will later recall: "In two sweeps of the radar, I could tell it was going very fast. It was headed directly for the control tower." Fuller is aware of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and, at 9:49, gives the order, "Evacuate the facility." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/23/2001; Lancaster New Era, 11/3/2006] By 9:51, the facility has been evacuated. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ] However, one controller refuses to leave his post and remains in the tower. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 193-194]
Employees Do Not See Flight 93 Overhead - Some of the evacuated employees are so upset that they immediately head home. Others mill around in a parking lot. Fuller will later guess that Flight 93 passed directly overhead as he was heading outside, but he assumes it was too high for anyone to see it. He will recall: "We watched and watched and watched. We never saw anything." [Lancaster New Era, 11/3/2006]
Controllers Return to Facility - Minutes after evacuating, at 9:56 a small number of tower controllers will volunteer to return to their facility. Once back inside, they find that Flight 93's track is no longer visible on their radar screens. At 10:05 a.m., tower personnel will contact the FAA's Herndon Command Center to explain why they evacuated. They say they did so because there had been an aircraft, thought to be Flight 93, which appeared to be on a collision course with the tower, and this aircraft allegedly had a bomb on board. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 ; Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002, pp. 12-13] Around the time the Pittsburgh Airport control tower evacuates, while Flight 93 is heading east, NEADS battle commander Colonel Robert Marr hears that the FAA's Cleveland Center is being evacuated (see (10:17 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 73]
Entity Tags: Paul Delfine, Pittsburgh International Airport, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center, Mal Fuller
Shortly Before 9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: White House Staffers Ordered to Go to Basement Dining Room
The White House mess. [Source: Unknown]People at the White House are ordered to go to the "mess," the senior staff dining room. David Kuo, a special assistant to the president, and John Bridgeland, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, will later recall being ordered to go downstairs to the mess by armed Secret Service agents. Meanwhile, Anita McBride, the acting director of White House personnel, is instructed by members of the Secret Service to "go through West Wing offices and tell everyone to 'get out' and stay put" in the mess. [Kuo, 2006, pp. 185; Politico, 9/9/2011; Bridgeland, 2012, pp. 3] Mary Matalin, a counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, will recall, "Everyone still remaining in the West Wing was shepherded to the White House mess, where we were to await further instructions." [Carville and Matalin, 2014, pp. 138]
Mess Is a 'Tiny, Unsecure' Facility - The White House mess is an exclusive dining facility run by the US Navy, located in the basement of the West Wing, just under the Oval Office. [All Hands, 12/1/2001; National Review, 10/8/2013] Bridgeland will recall thinking "how odd it was" for White House staffers to all be evacuated to this "tiny, unsecure" facility. [Bridgeland, 2012, pp. 4] People in the mess are watching television or just waiting. [White House, 8/29/2002] Kuo will describe: "All the tables had been tossed onto their sides to make room for as many people as possible. Fifty people stood there, shocked, quiet, confused." [Kuo, 2006, pp. 185]
People Ordered to the Mess after the Pentagon Attack - The exact time at which staffers are ordered to go to the mess is unclear. Matalin will recall being told to go there "moments" after she sees Cheney being evacuated from his office, which would be some time shortly after 9:36 a.m. (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Review, 9/8/2011; Carville and Matalin, 2014, pp. 137-138] Bridgeland and Kuo will recall being ordered to go there shortly after they learn the Pentagon has been hit, which would be some time after 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon attack occurred (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Kuo, 2006, pp. 184-185; Bridgeland, 2012, pp. 3]
People in the Mess Ordered to Leave the Building - People will only spend a short time in the mess before they are told to get out of the building. The Secret Service will reportedly order them to evacuate the White House at 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 2001 ; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] Bridgeland will describe: "[A]n alarmed police officer came into the White House mess and instructed us to leave. Another officer outside was receiving the latest communications by wire (apparently alerted that United Airlines Flight 93 was headed toward the White House or US Capitol building) and commanded us, 'Take off your shoes and run as fast as you can.'" [Bridgeland, 2012, pp. 4] Matalin will recall that the order she hears, which is delivered "in a weirdly calm manner," is: "Run for your lives. A plane is going to hit the White House." [Carville and Matalin, 2014, pp. 138]
Entity Tags: Anita McBride, John Bridgeland, Mary Matalin, David Kuo, US Secret Service
(9:44 a.m.) September 11, 2001: President Bush Requests Protection for His Family
President Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna. [Source: ABC News]After boarding Air Force One, President Bush is concerned about the safety of his wife and daughters. He heads directly to his private cabin near the front of the plane, and then his first act is to order his Secret Service agents to get additional protection for his twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who are both at university, and his wife Laura, who is on Capitol Hill (see 9:16 a.m.-9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001 and 9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001). At about 10:37 a.m., Bush will be informed that all three have successfully been moved to safe locations (see (10:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [New Yorker, 9/25/2001; Woodward, 2002, pp. 16; Sammon, 2002, pp. 99-100, 108]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, George W. Bush
(Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Counterterrorism 'Tsar' Clarke Initiates Continuity of Government Plan
At some point after the White House is ordered to evacuate and while Air Force One is preparing to take off in Florida, counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke activates the Continuity of Government (COG) plan. The coordinator for Continuity of Government has joined Clarke in the White House Situation Room. Clarke asks, "How do I activate COG?" Recalling this conversation, he will later comment, "In the exercises we had done, the person playing the president had always given that order." But the coordinator replies, "You tell me to do it." Soon after, Clarke instructs him, "Go." [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8]
First Time COG Plan Activated - The Continuity of Government plan, which dates back to the Reagan administration, had originally prepared to set up a new leadership for the US in the event of a nuclear war. This is apparently the first time it has ever been put into effect. Clarke will recall, "Every federal agency was ordered… to activate an alternative command post, an alternative headquarters outside of Washington, DC, and to staff it as soon as possible." Cabinet officers are dispatched around the country, and people in Congress are taken to alternative locations.
Clarke Regularly Particiated in COG Exercises - Since the 1980s, Clarke has in fact been a regular participant in secret COG exercises that rehearsed this plan (see (1984-2004)). [Washington Post, 4/7/2004; ABC News, 4/25/2004] Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also participated (see 1981-1992). [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004] Kenneth Duberstein, formerly President Reagan's White House chief of staff, who took part in the exercises as well, will recall: "I said to myself, as we proceeded through the day [of 9/11], 'It's working.' All those days of patriotic duty were coming back and they were working." According to ABC News, "If executive branch leaders and large numbers of congressmen had been killed in an attack on the United States, the plan could have gone further, officials suggest, perhaps even with non-elected leaders of the United States taking control and declaring martial law." [ABC News, 4/25/2004] According to a White House timeline of the events of 9/11, it is in fact Cheney that "orders implementation of Continuity of Government and Continuity of Operations procedures," at 9:55 a.m., although, according to the Washington Post, Cheney only "officially implemented the emergency Continuity of Government orders," rather than activating the plan. [White House, 2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke, Continuity of Government, White House, Kenneth Duberstein
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline, Civil Liberties
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Richard Clarke
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: DC Air National Guard Commander Wherley Calls Secret Service Operations Center, Wants Instructions for Fighters
Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, calls the Secret Service at the White House, seeking instructions from someone senior—preferably a military person—to launch his fighter jets, but the only people available are Secret Service agents. [Filson, 2003, pp. 79; Spencer, 2008, pp. 184-185]
Wherley Calls Joint Operations Center - Wherley has just spoken over the phone with a Secret Service agent. After he asked to talk to "someone higher in the chain of command, preferably in the military," the agent gave him a number at the White House to call (see (Shortly After 9:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Spencer, 2008, pp. 184] Wherley now calls the Secret Service's White House Joint Operations Center. He will later recall making this call "while watching TV footage of employees evacuating the White House complex." [Filson, 2003, pp. 79; 9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003] This would mean he makes it at around 9:45 a.m., when people start running from the White House, or shortly after (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001]
Delay before Call Answered - It takes some time before anyone answers the call. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 184] According to Wherley, "the phone rings about eight times before somebody picks up." [Filson, 2003, pp. 79] The Secret Service agent that answers is Kenneth Beauchamp. Wherley knows Beauchamp from other routine work with the DC Air National Guard. [9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003] Beauchamp had spoken to DCANG officer Major Daniel Caine earlier on and told him the Secret Service did not require help from his unit (see (Between 9:05 a.m. and 9:32 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 3/8/2004 ; Spencer, 2008, pp. 124]
Beauchamp Requests Fighters - But now Beauchamp asks Wherley to launch aircraft to protect Washington. He implores: "We want you to put a CAP [combat air patrol] up over the city. We need some fighters now." However, Wherley is reportedly "not very comfortable taking orders from a Secret Service agent. That's just not how things are done." He wants to "speak to someone a little higher up the food chain," and asks, "Is there anybody else there from the military available to talk?" [9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003; Spencer, 2008, pp. 185] But, as Wherley will later comment, "[T]hey have nobody in uniform, it was all Secret Service people and a team communicating with the president." [Filson, 2003, pp. 79] Wherley therefore decides he will accept orders from the Secret Service, and says to Beauchamp: "Okay, then. What exactly do they want me to do?" [Spencer, 2008, pp. 185]
Wherley Wants Precise Instructions - Wherley wants specific instructions about setting up a CAP over Washington, and Secret Service agents at the White House will work hard to get these for him. He will wait until senior agent Becky Ediger comes on the line and gives him the information he needs (see (10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Filson, 2003, pp. 79; 9/11 Commission, 8/28/2003; Wall Street Journal, 3/22/2004 ; Spencer, 2008, pp. 218] Wherley will reportedly receive the instructions for his pilots "within a half-hour." [Washington Post, 4/8/2002]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, Kenneth Beauchamp, District of Columbia Air National Guard, David Wherley
(9:45 a.m.-9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney Tells President Bush to Stay Away from Washington
Shortly after boarding Air Force One, President Bush speaks by phone with Vice President Dick Cheney for approximately 10 minutes. [Hayes, 2007, pp. 335-336] According to the 9/11 Commission, Cheney had reached the underground tunnel leading to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House at 9:37 a.m. (see (9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). He and the Secret Service agents escorting him had paused in an area of the tunnel with a secure phone and a television. He'd then asked to speak to the president, but it had taken a while for his call to be connected. However, elsewhere in its final report, the Commission will indicate that Bush, not Cheney, makes this phone call, saying that after he'd boarded Air Force One, the president "called the vice president." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39-40] Cheney will later recall making "one phone call [to the president] from the tunnel. And basically I called to let him know that we [at the White House] were a target and I strongly urged him not to return to Washington right away, that he delay his return until we could find out what the hell was going on." [Newsweek, 12/30/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 464] He will recall, "What I was immediately thinking about was sort of continuity of government." [Hayes, 2007, pp. 335-336] According to notes made by White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who is with the president on Air Force One, at about 9:45 a.m. Bush tells Cheney: "Sounds like we have a minor war going on here, I heard about the Pentagon. We're at war… somebody's going to pay." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39 and 463; Fleischer, 2005, pp. 141] Bush instructs Cheney to call the congressional leadership and give them a briefing. [New Yorker, 9/25/2001] (However, around this time, Capitol Hill is being evacuated (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001).) The 9/11 Commission will state that, according to "contemporaneous notes," at 9:55 a.m. "the vice president [is] still on the phone with the president advising that three planes [are] missing and one had hit the Pentagon." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 40] In his book Against All Enemies, counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke will indicate that it is around the time this call occurs that he is informed that the president has authorized the military to shoot down hostile aircraft (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8] Yet various accounts of Bush and Cheney's call will make no mention of the president and vice president discussing any orders or making any decisions. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 101; Woodward, 2002, pp. 16; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39-40; Hayes, 2007, pp. 335-336] Their call apparently ends around 9:56 a.m.-9:57 a.m., as, according to the 9/11 Commission, Cheney enters the PEOC "shortly before 10:00, perhaps at 9:58." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 40] (However, some accounts will indicate that he enters the PEOC significantly earlier than this (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001).) After hanging up, Bush turns to the men who are with him at his desk: his chief of staff Andrew Card, his senior adviser Karl Rove, military aide Lieutenant Colonel Tom Gould, and Fleischer. He tells them: "That's what we're paid for, boys. We're gonna take care of this. When we find out who did this, they're not gonna like me as president. Somebody's going to pay." [Sammon, 2002, pp. 101; Woodward, 2002, pp. 17] According to some accounts, shortly after finishing this call, the president and vice president will be back on the phone with each other (see (Shortly After 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (Between 10:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney, George Bush
(Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Counterterrorism 'Tsar' Clarke Informed that President Bush Has Issued Shootdown Order, Earlier than Claimed by 9/11 Commission
According to his own account, counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke is informed that President Bush has authorized the military to shoot down threatening aircraft. Clarke had requested that this authorization be given at around 9:36 (see (Between 9:30 a.m. and 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). In his 2004 book Against all Enemies he will state that he receives a response shortly after the time people begin rapidly evacuating from the White House, and while Air Force One is getting ready to take off. This would therefore be sometime between 9:45 and 9:56. He gets a phone call from the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House, where Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are located. On the other end is Army Major Mike Fenzel. Fenzel tells Clarke: "Air Force One is getting ready to take off, with some press still on board. He'll divert to an air base. Fighter escort is authorized. And… tell the Pentagon they have authority from the president to shoot down hostile aircraft, repeat, they have authority to shoot down hostile aircraft." Clarke replies, "Roger that." In his recollection of this call, Clarke comments, "I was amazed at the speed of the decisions coming from Cheney and, through him, from Bush." Clarke then gets the attention of those on the video conference screen for the Pentagon, and informs them, "the president has ordered the use of force against aircraft deemed to be hostile." [CNN, 9/12/2001; Clarke, 2004, pp. 7-8] This description contradicts several other accounts of when the president gives the shootdown authorization. In late 2003, Clarke tells ABC News he gets the go-ahead from the vice president "within two minutes" after he requested shootdown authorization, meaning therefore around 9:37-9:38 (see (9:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [ABC News, 11/29/2003] Some accounts say that Bush gives the authorization later, at shortly after 9:56 (see (Shortly After 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 102; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] According to the 9/11 Commission, it is not given until around 10:18 (see 10:18 a.m.-10:20 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 41]
Entity Tags: Mike Fenzel, Richard A. Clarke
9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: NEADS Tells FAA's Cleveland Center that Delta 1989 Is a Confirmed Hijack, Controller Disagrees
The FAA's Cleveland Center receives a call from NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), incorrectly notifying it that Delta Air Lines Flight 1989 is a confirmed hijacking. A supervisor then rushes around the center, informing all the controllers and managers of this. [9/11 Commission, 10/2/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 10/2/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 2004]
Cleveland Realized Delta 1989 Not Hijacked - At around 9:30 a.m., Cleveland Center air traffic controllers heard the sounds from Flight 93 as it was being hijacked, but initially thought these came from Delta 1989 (see (9:28 a.m.-9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [USA Today, 8/13/2002] Due to the Delta pilots' normal responses to subsequent radio transmissions, John Werth—the controller monitoring both flights—concluded that the hijacked aircraft was in fact Flight 93. [9/11 Commission, 10/1/2003 ; USA Today, 9/11/2008] However, at around 9:39, the FAA's Boston Center guessed that Delta 1989 might be hijacked and called NEADS to report the plane as a possible hijacking (see 9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 2004; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 28] NEADS then begins alerting FAA centers of this. [Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006]
NEADS Calls Cleveland Center - Greg Dukeman, the military operations specialist in the traffic management unit at Cleveland Center, receives a call from a female member of staff at NEADS, one of its ID technicians. He passes the call on to supervisor Kim Wernica. The caller says Delta 1989 is "a confirmed hijack." Wernica then goes "running back and forth" around the center, informing controllers and managers of what she has been told. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/11/2001; 9/11 Commission, 10/2/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 10/2/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 2004]
Controller Disputes NEADS's Information - Wernica rushes up to John Werth and tells him, "It's the Delta, it's the Delta!" She says a military liaison on the phone has confirmed that the Delta jet has been hijacked. Werth responds that he is pretty sure that Flight 93, not Delta 1989, has been hijacked. When Wernica returns a few moments later, Werth tells her that Delta 1989 is "fine—at least for now." Wernica consults again on the phone and then comes back, saying, "They said it's a confirmed hijack and a bomb threat." Werth thinks to himself that the bomb threats had come from Flight 93 (see (9:32 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and is therefore convinced the caller must be confusing the two flights. He tells Wernica, "Tell them they're full of it!" [9/11 Commission, 10/1/2003 ; USA Today, 9/11/2008]
Entity Tags: John Werth, Kim Wernica, Greg Dukeman, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: United Airlines Orders Its Flights to Land
United Airlines orders all its flights to land at the nearest airport. Andy Studdert, the airline's chief operating officer, will tell the 9/11 Commission, "At approximately 9:45 I order the entire United fleet grounded, for the first time in United history." He will add, "Even before this, some individual dispatchers were already grounding their flights." [9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004] Studdert gives the instruction, "Tell them to get to the nearest airport they can." [USA Today, 8/12/2002] The FAA gives out a similar order to all its facilities around this time (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 29] American Airlines ordered its aircraft to land earlier on, at around 9:15 (see (9:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 31] United Airlines has already ordered a ground stop, preventing any new takeoffs of its aircraft (see (9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Wall Street Journal, 10/15/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 10]
Entity Tags: Andrew P. Studdert, United Airlines
9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: Flight 93 Hijacker Asks for the 'Pilot' to Be Brought Back into the Cockpit
A hijacker in the cockpit of Flight 93 asks another hijacker if they should "let the guys in" and that hijacker then suggests that they "bring the pilot back." The cockpit voice recording from Flight 93 will later reveal that, speaking in Arabic, one of the hijackers says: "How about we let them in? We let the guys in now." He then repeats his question, asking, "Should we let the guys in?" He is apparently suggesting that they allow the other hijackers on Flight 93 into the cockpit. The other hijacker in the cockpit replies, "Inform them and tell him to talk to the pilot." He then says, "Bring the pilot back." Journalist and author Tom McMillan will comment that this reference to the pilot "underscored the notion that [Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker believed to be at the controls of Flight 93] was overmatched by the Boeing 757" and is also "apparent confirmation that at least one of the United pilots—either Captain [Jason] Dahl or First Officer [LeRoy] Homer—was still alive, and likely in the first-class cabin." [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 12/4/2003; McMillan, 2014, pp. 96] However, at around this time, passenger Todd Beamer reports in a call from Flight 93 that the plane's captain and first officer are lying on the floor of the first-class cabin, and are injured or possibly dead (see 9:45 a.m.-9:58 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Longman, 2002, pp. 199; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 43] Indeed, McMillan will note that "[n]o one ever was brought to the cockpit to assist with the aircraft's operation and the hijackers never mentioned 'the pilot' again" on the cockpit voice recording. One of the hijackers in the cockpit, still speaking in Arabic, then whispers: "In the name of Allah. In the name of Allah. I bear witness that there is no other God but Allah." Less than 30 seconds later, at 9:46 a.m., the cockpit voice recorder will pick up the sound of two knocks on the cockpit door followed by the sound of the door opening. A couple of minutes after that, the recorder will pick up the sound of "distinctive knocks" on the cockpit door, again followed by the sound of the door opening. What exactly is happening on these occasions is unknown. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 12/4/2003; McMillan, 2014, pp. 96]
(9:45 a.m.-10:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Witnesses First Notice Military Jets over New York, Later than Claimed in 9/11 Commission's Account
According to the accounts of numerous witnesses on the ground near the World Trade Center, military fighter jets are first noticed flying over Manhattan either shortly before or soon after the second collapse, at 10:28 a.m. Some witnesses recall fighters arriving just before this collapse:
Emergency medical technicians Dulce McCorvey and Michael D'Angelo hear fighters flying over Manhattan at unspecified times after the first tower's collapse. [City of New York, 10/3/2001; City of New York, 10/24/2001]
Fire Lieutenant Sean O'Malley and firefighters Pete Giudetti and Dan Potter notice jet fighters flying overhead soon before the second collapse. [City of New York, 10/12/2001; City of New York, 12/6/2001; Smith, 2002, pp. 49-50]
Other witnesses say the fighters arrive soon after this collapse:
Deputy Fire Chief Robert Browne, police officer Peter Moog, and emergency medical technicians Richard Zarrillo and Jason Katz notice fighters overhead immediately after, or fairly soon after, the second tower's collapse. [City of New York, 10/24/2001; City of New York, 10/25/2001; City of New York, 12/20/2001; Fink and Mathias, 2002, pp. 79-80]
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and Office of Emergency Management Director Richard Sheirer are heading north together after leaving their temporary command post on Barclay Street (see (9:50 a.m.-10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001). In some accounts, all three of them recollect hearing the first military jets overhead soon after the second tower's collapse. [Kerik, 2001, pp. 339-340; Giuliani, 2002, pp. 14; 9/11 Commission, 5/18/2004 ] However, according to another account, Giuliani hears the first jet slightly earlier, at around 10:20 a.m. And, in his private testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Kerik claims to have heard a fighter jet coming when he was heading to the temporary command post on Barclay Street, i.e. shortly before 9:50 a.m. [Barrett and Collins, 2006, pp. 348-349]
A few witnesses claim the fighters arrive earlier on, before the first collapse at 9:59 a.m.:
Emergency medical technician Frank Puma and Port Authority Freedom of Information Administrator Cathy Pavelec say they see fighter jets overhead at unspecified times before the first collapse. [City of New York, 12/12/2001; Fink and Mathias, 2002, pp. 68]
The fighter(s) are presumably the F-15s launched from Otis Air Force Base at 8:46 a.m. (see 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001). However, the 9/11 Commission will claim that these arrived over Manhattan at 9:25 a.m. (see 9:25 a.m. September 11, 2001), which is significantly earlier than most of the witnesses on the ground recall.
Entity Tags: Dulce McCorvey, Jason Katz, Frank Puma, Dan Potter, Sean O'Malley, Pete Giudetti, Peter Moog, Rudolph ("Rudy") Giuliani, Robert Browne, Richard Sheirer, Michael D'Angelo, Cathy Pavelec, Richard Zarrillo, Bernard Kerik
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, World Trade Center
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Reporter Told to Stay Away from Senate Office Building Window because Plane Is 'Headed Right for Us,' but First Lady Not Evacuated
Ann Gerhart. [Source: Simon & Schuster]Ann Gerhart, a Washington Post reporter, is warned by a Capitol Police officer to stay away from a window of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, because, the officer says, a suspicious plane is heading their way, and yet the first lady is allowed to remain in the building at this time and is only evacuated later on. [National Journal, 8/31/2002; Gerhart, 2004, pp. 163] Gerhart is in the Russell Senate Office Building, just north of the Capitol building, where she has been watching Laura Bush, the president's wife, appearing before reporters and cameras alongside Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) (see 9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Gerhart, 2004, pp. 160-163; Bush, 2010, pp. 199]
Officer Says, 'We're under Attack' - After Bush's appearance has ended, Gerhart hurries to phone her newspaper and file the quotes. But, Gerhart will later recall, "As I moved closer to one of the building's tall, beautiful leaded glass windows to get better cell phone reception, a Capitol Police officer practically tackled me." The officer yells at her, "Get away from the window!" Gerhart asks, "Why?" and the officer replies: "Because we're under attack! There's still one plane up there and it's headed right for us!" Gerhart then glances through the window and sees "huge clouds of thick smoke billowing up from the south." She asks the officer what this is and is told, "A plane's gone into the Pentagon." [Gerhart, 2004, pp. 163-164]
First Lady Not Evacuated, despite Concerns - The Capitol building will be evacuated at 9:48 a.m., apparently because of the concern that a plane is heading toward it (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; CNN, 9/11/2006] The Russell Senate Office Building will also be evacuated. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001] However, despite the fear that a plane is heading toward Capitol Hill, the first lady remains in the Russell Office Building at this time. She goes to Gregg's office (see (9:45 a.m.-9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and will only be taken from the building to a "secure location" at 10:10 a.m. (see (10:10 a.m.-10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Journal, 8/31/2002; Kessler, 2006, pp. 136; Bush, 2010, pp. 200]
Entity Tags: US Capitol Police, Laura Bush, Ann Gerhart
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Military Office Director Told Not to Bring President Back to Washington
Mark Rosenker, the director of the White House Military Office, who is traveling with President Bush in Florida, is advised by the White House Situation Room not to bring the president back to Washington, DC. Air Force One's flight plan currently has Washington as the destination of the president's plane. [White House, 8/29/2002] And while he was being driven to Air Force One from the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Bush had been "itching to get back to Washington," according to Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, who was with the president in his limousine. [White House, 8/12/2002] But as he was traveling in the president's motorcade, shortly before it arrived at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Rosenker learned that a secure phone call from the Situation Room was holding for him. After the motorcade reaches the airport (see (9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001), therefore, Rosenker enters Air Force One and goes to an area at the back of the plane where he takes the call. The identity of the person in the Situation Room he speaks with is unstated. Rosenker will later recall that the person "indicated that it would be best if we did not come back to Washington, and that we should try to find some escort aircraft for us." Rosenker then heads to the to the communications area of the plane and waits for takeoff, so he can then discuss these matters with the pilot, the president's military aide, and Card. [White House, 8/29/2002] Air Force One will divert from its original course and head west at around 10:10 a.m. (see (10:10 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and then at around 10:20 a.m., Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana will be chosen as its new destination (see (10:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 325]
Entity Tags: Mark Rosenker
9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: United Headquarters Learns Flight 77 Has Crashed into the Pentagon
United Airlines headquarters receives a report that an aircraft has crashed into the Pentagon. They learn it is Flight 77. [9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004]
Entity Tags: United Airlines
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight AA 77
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Key Government Building next to the White House Is Evacuated
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building. [Source: White House]The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), a government building located next to the West Wing of the White House, is evacuated. [CNN, 9/11/2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] The EEOB is where most of the president's staff works. [New York Times, 1/8/2009] It is evacuated on the orders of the Secret Service. [Washington Post, 1/27/2002] Carl Truscott, the Secret Service special agent in charge of the presidential protective division, recently learned that a suspicious aircraft was flying toward the White House, and as a result said he would initiate the evacuations of the White House and the EEOB (see (Shortly After 9:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). He then instructed a "White House security representative" to evacuate the White House. [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001]
Guards Scream at People to Leave Building - Lloyd Blanchard, who works for the Office of Management and Budget in the EEOB, will later describe the evacuation. He will recall seeing "security personnel… moving frantically through the building, telling everyone to evacuate." Blanchard and his colleagues are unaware of why, specifically, they are being ordered to leave the building. [IEM, 9/11/2011] Cesar Conda, a domestic policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, whose office is in the EEOB, will recall seeing guards "screaming to everyone to 'move' and 'run' out of the White House complex." [Politico, 4/23/2009] The New York Times will describe bomb squads "racing through the upper floors of the [EEOB], screaming, 'Get out, get out, this is real!'" [New York Times, 9/16/2001] And Ron Christie, the deputy assistant to the vice president for domestic policy, will describe the scene on the second floor of the EEOB, writing: "[T]he offices containing the vice president's Secret Service detail were flung open. Men and women I'd never seen before ran out with automatic weapons. They began to shout: 'Everybody evacuate the building. Get out now!'" [Christie, 2006, pp. 129]
Some People Hear Recorded Evacuation Order - Apparently, some people in the EEOB hear an announcement instructing them to evacuate, but others do not. Time magazine will describe a recorded announcement going off. It will report: "Staff members in the [EEOB]… were huddled in front of their TV screens when they heard from TV reporters that they were being evacuated. Then the tape loop began. 'The building is being evacuated. Please walk to the nearest exit.'" [Time, 9/14/2001] According to White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, who is in the EEOB, "[A]larms sounded, a steady, electronic beep, followed by a recorded male voice [saying,] 'Evacuate the White House.'" [Knight Ridder, 9/16/2001] And Major Robert Darling, who is in the White House Airlift Operations office on the fourth floor of the EEOB, will recall, "The building's intercom suddenly came to life and ordered all personnel to evacuate the White House and the adjoining Eisenhower Executive Office Building." The announcement states: "Evacuate the White House complex! All personnel are to evacuate the White House complex immediately!" [Darling, 2010, pp. 46]
Some People Hear 'No Alarm Bells' - However, Yvonne Boulding, who works for the Office of Management and Budget, hears no announcement. "There was no announcement to evacuate," she will recall. "Everybody just started yelling, 'Get out, get out.'" [Boston Globe, 9/11/2001] And according to Mitch Daniels, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, "There was some confusion" but "no alarm bells went off." Daniels will say that people instead decide to leave the building based on "word of mouth." [New York Times, 9/12/2001]
Commotion, but No Evacuation Order Earlier On - Apparently no order was given to evacuate the EEOB earlier on, even when the nearby Pentagon was hit at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Conda will recall that at the time he heard the boom in the distance from the Pentagon attack, the EEOB had not yet been evacuated. He had, however, already noticed "a lot of commotion, with the Secret Service agents scurrying up and down the marbled hallway" outside his office. [Politico, 4/23/2009] Just before the evacuation begins, Christie saw a Secret Service officer he is friends with outside the office of Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on the second floor of the EEOB. The agent waved frantically when he noticed Christie and then told him: "Ron, you need to get out of here. I've heard there's another plane inbound to the White House and it could get here in less than two minutes. You need to get your staff, get out, and stay away from the windows." [Christie, 2006, pp. 128-129] The EEOB will be mostly empty by 10:05 a.m., according to a Secret Service timeline. [United States Secret Service, 9/12/2001] The White House is evacuated around the same time as the EEOB is (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 2001 ; CNN, 9/12/2001]
Entity Tags: Yvonne Boulding, Lloyd Blanchard, Eisenhower Executive Offices Building, US Secret Service, Cesar Conda, Ron Christie, Mitch Daniels, Scott Stanzel, Robert J. Darling
9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: Tom Burnett Makes Third Call; Says Flight 93 Passengers Are Making Plans to Defeat Hijackers
Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett calls his wife Deena Burnett for the third time. She is able to determine that he is using his cell phone, as the caller identification shows his number. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001 ] She had just seen the television reports about the Pentagon being hit, and mistakenly thought Tom's plane had crashed into it. [Longman, 2002, pp. 111] She asks, "Tom, you're okay?" but he replies, "No, I'm not." Deena tells him, "They just hit the Pentagon." She hears him repeating this information to people around him. She continues: "They think five airplanes have been hijacked. One is still on the ground. They believe all of them are commercial planes. I haven't heard them say which airline, but all of them have originated on the East Coast." She doesn't know who is involved in the attacks. [Sacramento Bee, 9/11/2002; Burnett and Giombetti, 2006, pp. 65-66] The hijackers had earlier told the passengers there was a bomb on Flight 93 (see 9:27 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001 ; Longman, 2002, pp. 107] But now Tom appears to doubt this. He asks Deena, "What is the probability of them having a bomb on board?" He then answers himself: "I don't think they have one. I think they're just telling us that for crowd control." Based on her experience as a former flight attendant, Deena says, "A plane can survive a bomb if it's in the right place." Tom continues: "[The hijackers are] talking about crashing this plane into the ground. We have to do something. I'm putting a plan together." He says "several people" are helping him. "There's a group of us." Deena is surprised, but reassured, at her husband's calmness. She will recall that it is as if he were at work, "sitting at his desk, and we were having a regular conversation." He tells her he will call back, and then hangs up. A policeman then arrives at Deena Burnett's house, no doubt in response to her earlier 911 call (see 9:31 a.m.-9:34 a.m. September 11, 2001), and follows her inside. [Sacramento Bee, 9/11/2002; Burnett and Giombetti, 2006, pp. 66]
Entity Tags: Tom Burnett, Deena Burnett
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Lynne Cheney Arrives at the White House, but Guards Try to Stop Her Car Entering the Grounds
Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, arrives at the gate of the White House, but guards initially try to prevent her car from entering the grounds. [Newsweek, 12/30/2001; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/2/2002; Hayes, 2007, pp. 334] Cheney learned of the plane crashes at the World Trade Center while she was at a hair salon in Washington, DC (see (8:48 a.m.-9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001), but her Secret Service agents only evacuated her from there after they learned an unidentified aircraft was flying toward the White House (see (Shortly After 9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After initially driving toward the vice president's residence, the agents changed direction to instead take Cheney to the White House. [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; White House, 11/9/2001] The White House is being evacuated when Cheney's car arrives at its gate. [Newsweek, 12/30/2001] (It begins evacuating at around 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 2001 ; CNN, 9/12/2001] ) Cheney will later describe: "This was not the scene I've seen on camera, where people are now starting to run or anything.… [P]eople were all going in the other direction [to us] in a rather calm way when I arrived." However, the guards at the gate will not let Cheney's car enter the grounds. Cheney will say they have "no idea who we [are] and [are] confused that somebody would want to be coming in" when everybody else is leaving. Cheney's driver takes the car over the curb and onto the sidewalk, to try and get Cheney to the White House, but a fire engine is driven in front of the car, to block its path. Eventually, though, Cheney's car is allowed onto the grounds. [White House, 11/9/2001; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/2/2002; Hayes, 2007, pp. 334] Cheney will enter the White House at 9:52 a.m. (see 9:52 a.m. September 11, 2001). [United States Secret Service, 11/17/2001 ; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 40]
Entity Tags: Lynne Cheney
9:45 a.m.-9:58 a.m. September 11, 2001: Passenger Todd Beamer Describes Situation on Flight 93, Though Accounts Are Contradictory
Todd Beamer. [Source: Family photo]After having trouble getting authorization on an Airfone to call his family (see 9:43 a.m. September 11, 2001), Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer is able to speak to GTE customer service supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Jefferson, who quickly alerts the FBI about Beamer's call, talks to him for 13 minutes. According to a report in the London Observer, she has the FBI simultaneously on another line, offering guidance. She immediately asks Beamer for details of the flight, like "What is your flight number? What is the situation? Where are the crew members?" With the help of a flight attendant sitting next to him, Beamer details the numbers of passengers and crew on the plane. He says the hijackers have divided the passengers into two groups, with ten of them in first class at the front of the plane, and 27 in the back. (Jefferson's written summary of the conversation will say that the larger number of passengers was in the front. However, Beamer's wife later says that Jefferson informed her it was in fact the other way around.) According to some reports, Beamer says three people have hijacked the plane. Two of them, armed with knives, are in the cockpit and have locked the door; the third is in first class with what appears to be a bomb strapped around his waist. A curtain has been closed separating first class from the coach section of the plane. Other accounts claim the hijacker with the bomb is in fact in the rear of the plane. According to one report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Beamer describes four hijackers in total: the two in the cockpit, the one with the bomb guarding the passengers in the back of the plane, and a fourth in first class. But the Orlando Sentinel says Beamer tells Jefferson he is free to talk because the hijacker in first class has closed the curtain, indicating there is no hijacker at the back of the plane. (Beamer himself is at the back of plane, calling from a phone in row 32.) According to an early article in Newsweek, he says that one passenger is dead and he doesn't know about the pilots. However, journalist and author Jere Longman later writes that Beamer describes to Jefferson two people on the floor in fist class, possibly dead. The flight attendant next to him can be overheard saying these are the plane's captain and co-pilot. The attendant does not mention their names or say they are wearing uniforms, but she sounds certain. Beamer then repeats what the attendant has told him. At some point in the call, Beamer asks, "Do you know what [the hijackers] want? Money or ransom or what?" He seems unaware of the other hijackings that have occurred. Jefferson informs him of the two planes crashing in New York. [Chicago Tribune, 9/16/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/19/2001; Newsweek, 9/22/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/22/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; Observer, 12/2/2001; Longman, 2002, pp. 198-200; Orlando Sentinel, 9/5/2002; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006, pp. 11 ] Beamer says of the hijackers, "It doesn't seem like they know how to fly the plane." [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/17/2001] He also tells Jefferson about himself, including where he is from, that he has two sons, and that his wife is expecting a third child in January. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/22/2001] He tells her, "I just want to talk to somebody and just let someone know that this is happening." [Longman, 2002, pp. 204]
Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Lisa Jefferson, Todd Beamer
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93, Passenger Phone Calls
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Airborne Operations Center Launches from Base near Washington
An E-4B National Airborne Operations Center, with the call sign "Venus 77," takes off from Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, DC, in response to the attack on the Pentagon. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001 ; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004; Farmer, 2009, pp. 206] The E-4B is a highly modified Boeing 747, fitted with sophisticated communications equipment, which can serve as a flying military command post during a national emergency. The US military has four of these planes. [Federation of American Scientists, 4/23/2000; Dayton Daily News, 9/12/2001; Verton, 2003, pp. 143] Venus 77 takes off at 9:43 a.m., according to John Farmer, who will be senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission. [Farmer, 2009, pp. 206] But the flight tracking strip from Andrews Air Force Base will record it as having taken off at 9:45 a.m. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001 ; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004] The plane is initially directed toward Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. But shortly after taking off, its pilot tells air traffic control that he wants to fly to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. [Farmer, 2009, pp. 206] Wright-Patterson is one of the few designated bases for the E-4B. Another E-4B has actually been on the ground there and takes off around this time (see Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Dayton Daily News, 9/12/2001] The pilot of Venus 77 is cleared to head to Wright-Patterson and so he turns west. But he then says he wants to turn back east and hold south of Washington. He will be cleared to do so at 9:47 a.m. and his plane will eventually settle into a holding pattern over Richmond, Virginia. [Farmer, 2009, pp. 206-207] Farmer will claim that Venus 77 is the "mystery plane"—an unidentified white aircraft—seen over Washington around this time (see (9:41 a.m.-9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Farmer, 2009, pp. 372] However, that plane was reported to be "circling the White House" at 9:41 a.m., before Venus 77 takes off. [ABC News, 9/11/2001] Another E-4B, with the call sign "Word 31," took off from Andrews Air Force Base at around 9:27 a.m. (see (9:27 a.m.) September 11, 2001), so that aircraft might be the "mystery plane" seen flying over Washington. [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001 ; Verton, 2003, pp. 143-144; 9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004]
Entity Tags: John Farmer, E-4B National Airborne Operations Center
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Evacuated after Secret Service Learns of Plane en Route to Washington
Secret Service with automatic weapons directing people away from the White House. [Source: Associated Press]The White House is evacuated after the Secret Service receives what the Associated Press describes as a credible threat of a terrorist attack against it. [Associated Press, 2001 ; CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001] Minutes earlier, in the White House Situation Room, Secret Service Director Brian Stafford informed counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke that an aircraft was heading in their direction, and said he was going to order the evacuation of the White House (see (9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 7] The Secret Service learned of this aircraft by monitoring radar and over an open line with the FAA (the "hijack net"), which enable them to receive real time information about the hijacked aircraft. The Secret Service, which has been using an air surveillance system called Tigerwall for some time (see (September 2000 and after)), tracks both American 77 and United 93 as they approach Washington and assumes the White House is a target. Secret Service agent Barbara Riggs will later say, "The Secret Service prepared to defend the facility," although the precise nature of the preparations is unclear. [New York Times, 9/12/2001; MSNBC, 9/22/2001; Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004; PCCW Newsletter, 3/2006] A slow and orderly evacuation of the White House had in fact begun earlier on (see (9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). But now the Secret Service orders people to run so as to evacuate faster. [CNN, 9/11/2001; ABC News, 9/11/2002]
Entity Tags: Barbara Riggs, US Secret Service
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 93
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: National Security Adviser Rice Heads to White House Bunker on Orders of the Secret Service
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is escorted toward the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the bunker below the White House, by Carl Truscott, the Secret Service special agent in charge of the presidential protective division. [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; White House, 11/1/2001; Felix, 2002, pp. 227] Rice was in the White House Situation Room when the Pentagon was hit at 9:37 a.m., according to her own later recollections, and had subsequently looked up and seen the television footage of the burning building. [White House, 11/1/2001; Bumiller, 2007, pp. xiii]
Rice Told She Must Go to the PEOC - "[T]he picture had just come up on television of the plane lodged in the side of the Pentagon," Rice will recall. "And no one had told me. I literally turned and looked at the picture and saw it." She will say: "And then there were incoming reports that there had been a car bomb at the State Department, that there was a large fire on the Mall near the Washington Monument, and [I was] just trying to sort through the information when a Secret Service agent [i.e. Truscott] came and said: 'You have to go to the bunker. The vice president is already there. There may be planes heading for the White House.'" [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] Rice will say Truscott is "quite firm" when he talks to her. [White House, 8/7/2002]
Secret Service Agent Is Heading to the PEOC from Nearby Building - Truscott has just come from his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, where he was meeting with other Secret Service agents to discuss security matters. One issue the agents discussed was providing protection for Rice (see (9:18 a.m.) September 11, 2001). During the meeting, Truscott learned that a suspicious aircraft was flying toward Washington, DC (see (Shortly After 9:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and instructed a "security representative" to evacuate the White House. He then left his office and headed toward the PEOC, meeting Rice on his way there. [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001]
Rice Is 'Pushed Along' toward the PEOC - Rice briefly talks on the phone with President Bush and warns him not to return to Washington before she leaves the Situation Room (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Felix, 2002, pp. 227; White House, 8/2/2002; White House, 8/6/2002] She is then escorted down toward the PEOC. [White House, 11/1/2001] She will recall being "pushed along" the corridors by Truscott as she heads there. [White House, 8/2/2002] Truscott and Rice will encounter Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, in the underground tunnel leading to the PEOC, and then enter the PEOC shortly before 10:00 a.m. (see (Shortly Before 9:59 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; Bumiller, 2007, pp. xiii] White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke will contradict Rice's account, however, indicating that Rice headed to the PEOC significantly earlier, roughly around 9:15 a.m. (see (9:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 3-4]
Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, Carl Truscott
(9:45 a.m.-9:53 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Passengers Are Subjected to a Strict Security Check while Boarding Air Force One
Secret Service agents inspecting the luggage of members of the media travel pool at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. [Source: Steve Nesius / Associated Press]Secret Service agents subject reporters and other individuals who are traveling with President Bush to a strict security check as they are getting onto Air Force One. Bush's motorcade has now arrived at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Florida, where Air Force One is waiting (see (9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99; Rochester Review, 9/2004] The plane's crew members have been told there is a "great potential that we are going to be under attack sitting on the ramp" at the airport, according to Colonel Mark Tillman, the pilot. They have also been told there are "unidentified people all around the airport," and that there is a "possibility that we were subject to the plan to go ahead and assassinate the president" (see (9:04 a.m.-9:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [United Services Automobile Association, 9/11/2011] Reporters who are heading for the rear entrance to Air Force One are stopped by Secret Service agents and ordered to drop whatever they are carrying for a security sweep. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99] One reporter, White House correspondent Richard Keil, will later recall seeing "a dozen additional Secret Service agents" at the airport, "each with bomb-sniffing dogs." "We usually have our bags inspected only once in the morning, as long as we remain inside the secure 'bubble' in which the president travels," Keil will write. But now, "everyone's bag had to be re-swept." [Rochester Review, 9/2004] Even staffers who are wearing special lapel pins showing they are White House employees have their belongings checked by the bomb-sniffing dogs. [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99] Passengers also have to confirm who they are before being allowed onto the plane. "There was a lot of attention to our credentials, who we were," Sandy Kress, Bush's senior education adviser, will comment, adding: "We had to show ID and our badge, not just the badge. And this even though the crew knew most of us." [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Meanwhile, a military aide standing at the foot of the rear entrance to the plane snaps: "If you're not essential, you're not getting on the airplane! We gotta hurry up and get out of here." [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99] Tillman will recall that Secret Service agents and the plane's own security staffers are "double, triple-checking the manifest," and the bomb-sniffing dogs "search everything" that comes onto Air Force One. "We didn't want to take any chances," he will comment. [United Services Automobile Association, 9/11/2011; US Air Force, 2/29/2012 ] The mood, according to journalist and author Bill Sammon, is "extraordinarily tense." [Sammon, 2002, pp. 99]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, Mark Tillman, Richard Keil, Barnett A. ("Sandy") Kress
9:45 a.m.-9:55 a.m. September 11, 2001: American Airlines Briefly Loses Contact with Third Plane, Receives Message from Cockpit Indicating It Is Hijacked
Personnel at the American Airlines System Operations Control (SOC) center in Fort Worth, Texas, are panicked when they temporarily lose communication with a third American Airlines flight, and they also receive a text message from the plane mistakenly signaling that it has been hijacked. At 9:45 a.m., according to the Wall Street Journal, the airline loses radio contact with the plane, which is flying from Boston to Seattle. SOC personnel are therefore "convinced it [is] a third hijacking," following American Airlines Flights 11 and 77.
Pilots Send Message Indicating a Hijacking - The plane with which communication is lost appears to be American Airlines Flight 189. According to Donald Robinson, a dispatcher at the SOC who is currently dealing with transcontinental flights, the airline receives a text message from Flight 189 signaling it has been hijacked. Robinson will later tell the FBI that Flight 189 is the "only known flight that sent a hijack message back to the dispatchers." This "hijack message" is sent using ACARS, an e-mail system that enables airline personnel on the ground to communicate with those in the cockpit of an in-flight aircraft. After receiving the message, Robinson sends a message back to Flight 189, asking the pilots if they are "squawking" the universal code signifying a hijacking. The normal procedure in these circumstances is to send a series of ACARS messages to the plane so as to verify whether a hijacking is indeed in progress and, if so, to obtain information about it.
Dispatcher Later Suggests Message Was Sent Accidentally - Robinson will tell the FBI he believes the crew of Flight 189 mistakenly sent the message that includes the hijack code because a warning message they received from American Airlines made them fear an impending hijacking. (After it learned of the two plane crashes at the World Trade Center, American Airlines had become concerned for its remaining transcontinental flights, and sent them all a message instructing them to keep their cockpit doors shut.) Robinson says that when pilots type the hijack code into an ACARS message, the message is sent automatically, whereas normally it is necessary to press the send key to transmit an ACARS message. He says he suspects the crew did not realize this, and probably keyed in the code "in order to be ready for a possible problem." Alternatively, he suggests, "the code was squawked by mistake." However, this is just speculation, and Robinson says it is "unknown why the cockpit sent this message."
Communication Restored after 10 Minutes - The loss of communication with the aircraft is due to a "radio glitch," according to the Wall Street Journal, and everyone at the SOC calms down when radio contact with the flight is restored 10 minutes after it is lost. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001; Wall Street Journal, 10/15/2001]
Entity Tags: American Airlines, Donald A. Robinson Jr.
(Shortly After 9:44 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Change of Course and Pilot's Failure to Respond to Message Lead Cleveland Center to Again Suspect Delta 1989 Is Hijacked
Having earlier concluded that it was not hijacked, air traffic controllers at the FAA's Cleveland Center again become suspicious of Delta Air Lines Flight 1989, after its pilot requests a change of course and then fails to respond to a message.
Pilot Requests Diversion - Cleveland Center controllers initially thought the sounds from Flight 93 as it was being hijacked had come from Delta 1989, but soon decided they had come from Flight 93 (see (9:28 a.m.-9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [USA Today, 8/13/2002] However, without notifying the Cleveland Center, Delta Air Lines has just instructed Delta 1989 to land at Cleveland Hopkins Airport (see (9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After the plane's pilot, Captain Paul Werner, calls the Cleveland Center at 9:44 a.m., requesting an immediate diversion, controllers there become suspicious. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 167-168; USA Today, 9/11/2008]
Supervisor Reports Concerns over Teleconference - USA Today will later describe: "The Delta flight wants to land in Cleveland? And the captain's request comes before he can know that the FAA wants every flight down. On this day, the fact that the pilot requests to be rerouted before he is ordered to land seems suspicious. Why the urgency? Controllers don't know that Delta officials, also concerned about the flight, have ordered Werner to land in Cleveland." After Delta 1989 makes an abrupt 30-degree turn back toward Cleveland Airport, a supervisor at the Cleveland Center announces the apparently suspicious development on an FAA teleconference.
Coded Message Confirms No Hijacking - As Delta 1989 begins its descent toward Cleveland, a Cleveland Center controller radios Werner with a coded message to check whether his plane has been hijacked. The controller says, "Delta 1989, I hear you're 'late' today." (The controller is using the code word for a hijack, which has been replaced with the word 'late' in subsequent accounts of this incident, for security reasons. Pilots can use this code word to alert controllers to their situation if they are unable to do so openly because hijackers are in the cockpit.) Werner reassures the controller that all is okay, saying: "Negative. Delta 1989 is not a 'late.'"
Lack of Response Causes More Suspicion - Then, as the plane descends, it receives another message from the Cleveland Center. But Werner, who is busy, fails to respond to it. This arouses further suspicion. According to USA Today: "On the ground, controllers in Cleveland Center grow alarmed. Why didn't he respond? Have both jets—the United [Flight 93] and the Delta flights—been hijacked?" [USA Today, 8/13/2002; Spencer, 2008, pp. 168-169]
Entity Tags: Paul Werner, Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center
9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: Meeting Originally Scheduled to Discuss Response to a 'Disaster' Hitting the Pentagon
Mike Grojean. [Source: Rice University]A meeting was originally scheduled to take place at this time in an area of the Pentagon that was destroyed when the building was hit and that was, ironically, intended to discuss what to do if a disaster should hit the Pentagon. The meeting was apparently going to take place in the office of Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel, on the second floor of the Pentagon. Its participants were going "to discuss contingency plans in the event of a disaster at the headquarters of the US military," according to the Birmingham Post. "Planners had envisaged a major flood or a hurricane strike on the Pentagon," the Post will report, but "[n]o one had considered a suicide bombing involving a passenger aircraft." Those who would have been at the meeting were "supposed to discuss deployment of their small team in times of national emergency, natural or otherwise." They were also going "to consider the emergency relocation of staff." The meeting would have been attended by Maude and Major Mike Grojean, leadership policy officer at the Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. Whether any other individuals were scheduled to attend is unstated. The meeting, though, was canceled at around 9:30 a.m. due to the attacks on the World Trade Center. At that time, Grojean had been walking down a corridor on his way to the meeting. A colleague of his received a call, informing him that the meeting had been called off, and then shouted down the corridor to Grojean, "Your meeting is canceled." Grojean therefore turned around and headed back toward his office. [Birmingham Post, 9/11/2003; Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, 9/9/2011] The time the meeting was scheduled to start at—9:45 a.m.—is just eight minutes after the Pentagon attack took place (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 10] Maude's office was destroyed in the attack. [CNN, 9/6/2002] Maude was meeting there with eight members of his staff when the building was hit and all nine men died in the attack. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 36-37] He was the highest-ranking military officer killed in the Pentagon attack. [USA Today, 9/25/2001] Grojean headed to the Army Operations Center in the basement of the Pentagon after the attack and will spend the rest of the day there. [Birmingham Post, 9/11/2003; Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, 9/9/2011]
Entity Tags: Timothy J. Maude, Michael Grojean
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: National Security Adviser Rice Calls President Bush before Heading to White House Bunker
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice briefly talks on the phone with President Bush and warns him against returning to Washington, DC, before she is escorted to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the bunker below the White House. [White House, 11/1/2001; BBC Radio 4, 8/1/2002 ; White House, 8/2/2002] Carl Truscott, the Secret Service special agent in charge of the presidential protective division, has just come into the White House Situation Room and told Rice she must go to the PEOC because a plane may be heading toward the White House (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; White House, 8/6/2002] But before she goes to the PEOC, Rice wants to talk to the president.
President Told that Washington Is 'under Attack' - Bush has now arrived at the Sarasota airport after leaving the Booker Elementary School (see (9:43 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [White House, 8/2/2002; New York Times, 9/11/2002] Rice calls him and says: "Mr. President, here's what's going on. The Pentagon has been hit." He tells her, "I'm getting ready to come back [to Washington]." [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] Bush is "very calm" as he talks, Rice will later recall. Franklin Miller, a senior national security official who "does defense policy" for Rice, is with the national security adviser. [White House, 10/24/2001; White House, 11/1/2001] He whispers to her, "Tell him that it may not be wise to come back here, because Washington is under attack." [White House, 8/2/2002] Rice therefore tells Bush: "Sir, you can't come back here. Washington's under attack." [MSNBC, 9/11/2002]
Rice Is Being 'Pushed' to Go to the Bunker - The call between Bush and Rice is only short. Rice will say this is because she is "being pushed" by Truscott "to get off the phone and get out of the West Wing." [White House, 8/2/2002; CBS News, 9/11/2002] "I had people pulling at my arm, saying, 'You have to go to the bunker,'" she will recall. [White House, 11/1/2001] After she has finished speaking to Bush, Rice heads toward the PEOC. She will enter it shortly before 10:00 a.m. (see (Shortly Before 9:59 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [White House, 8/2/2002; Bumiller, 2007, pp. xiii]
Entity Tags: Franklin Miller, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Carl Truscott
(9:45 a.m.-10:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Secondary Explosions Heard inside Pentagon
Chris Braman. [Source: California State University, Fullerton]A number of witnesses hear secondary explosions inside the Pentagon in the immediate aftermath of the attack there. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Washington Post, 9/11/2001] Some possible explanations are later suggested for these explosions, though their exact causes are unclear.
Captain William Toti, the special assistant to the vice chief of naval operations, hears and feels numerous explosions while he assists in the rescue efforts at the crash site. [Proceedings, 9/2002; Washington Post, 11/17/2006; McKinney Courier-Gazette, 9/12/2008] A month later, Toti will recall, "One of the things I haven't seen reported in any of the papers was that periodically, for about the next hour [after he arrives at the crash site], there were secondary explosions going off in the hole in the Pentagon." While he is standing about 30 yards from the point of impact, Toti hears "pop… pop, pop… pop, pop, pop… pop." He will say these explosions are "loud. Scary, absolutely scary. The make-you-jump kind of explosions." [US Naval Historical Center, 10/10/2001] Toti and two Army officers that assist him with the rescue efforts fear the explosions, which come from "the fissure" in the building, "are bombs." [Washington Post, 11/17/2006] But, Toti will recall, about an hour after he arrives at the crash site, he is "standing with some FBI guys and we were musing as to what the source of the explosions was, and we concluded that they were the oxygen canisters from the airplane. You know, the things [that] produce oxygen for the passengers in an emergency." Toti will say this possible explanation is the "best thing we could think of." [US Naval Historical Center, 10/10/2001]
Army Lieutenant Colonel Ted Anderson and Army Staff Sergeant Chris Braman go into the Pentagon near the crash site to rescue injured victims. They are reportedly "stunned by secondary explosions." One of these is a "fire department car exploding," according to Anderson. The causes of the other explosions are unclear. [Newsweek, 9/28/2001; Washington Post, 9/8/2002]
Lieutenant Commander David Tarantino, a Navy flight surgeon, and Navy Captain David Thomas go into the Pentagon to search for survivors. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 54-55] They feel "secondary explosions and wondered whether the whole building would cave in or if they were under more attacks," according to The Washingtonian. [Washingtonian, 12/2001] Tarantino will later recall that there are "secondary explosions going on." [US Naval Historical Center, 9/25/2001]
Colonel Jonathan Fruendt, an Army physician, is heading toward the Pentagon's center courtyard shortly after the crash when he hears an explosion. "I heard another loud boom," he will later recall. As soon as the explosion occurs, people in the corridor with Fruendt "instantly froze in position, and then they turned around and started running back, away from the exit." Fruendt will later comment: "No one has really explained to me exactly what that noise was. Some people said, later, maybe it was some fuel or one of these vehicles, something around the original crash site that blew up.… Other people said it was a sonic boom from the fighters that were flying over the Pentagon." But, he will add, "No one has ever confirmed [the cause of the explosion] with me." [Office of Medical History, 9/2004, pp. 73-74]
Some witnesses say the crash at the Pentagon is "followed by an explosion about 15 minutes later that could be heard miles away," according to the New York Times. This is "apparently the sound of a large portion of the Pentagon collapsing," the Times will report. [New York Times, 9/12/2001] However, that section of the Pentagon collapses at 10:15 a.m., more than 35 minutes after the crash (see 10:15 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 19]
Entity Tags: David Thomas, Christopher D. Braman, Jonathan Fruendt, David Tarantino, Ted Anderson, William J. Toti, Pentagon
(9:45 a.m.-9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001: First Lady and Entourage Go to Senator's Office after Learning of Pentagon Attack
The Russell Senate Office Building Caucus Room. [Source: Architect of the Capitol]First Lady Laura Bush and those accompanying her head toward the office of Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) after they learn of the attack on the Pentagon and Bush's Secret Service agents instruct them to go to the basement of the building they are in. [CNN, 9/11/2002; Bush, 2010, pp. 200] Bush has just appeared before reporters in the Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building, on Capitol Hill, alongside Gregg and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) (see 9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Advance Man Told of Pentagon Attack - As Bush and the senators are walking out of the Caucus Room, John Meyers, the first lady's advance man, receives a call on his cell phone. The caller, a friend of his, says that "CNN was reporting that an airplane had crashed into the Pentagon," Bush will later write. [Time, 12/31/2001; Bush, 2010, pp. 199-200]
Secret Service Says First Lady and Staff Cannot Leave Yet - Before going to the Caucus Room, Bush spent time in Kennedy's office (see 9:16 a.m.-9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001). [National Journal, 8/31/2002; CNN, 9/11/2002] She now goes back there. Then, she will recall, she begins "moving quickly toward the stairs, to reach my car to return to the White House." But suddenly, Ron Sprinkle, Bush's lead Secret Service agent, turns toward the first lady and her staff and tells them they need to head immediately to the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building, Bush will recall. [Bush, 2010, pp. 200] Andi Ball, the first lady's chief of staff, who is with Bush at this time, will give a slightly different account. She will say that as Bush and her staff are walking down the corridor, on their way to the cars that will take them to the White House, Bush's Secret Service agents tell them, "[W]e can't go right now." The agents say they all "need to go back and wait a few minutes." Ball will add: "Our agents thought another plane was coming toward Washington. The Capitol was being evacuated." [Kessler, 2006, pp. 136] (The Russell Senate Office Building and the nearby Capitol building are evacuated at 9:48 a.m., apparently due to concerns that a plane is heading toward Capitol Hill (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; CNN, 9/11/2006] )
First Lady and Entourage Go to Senator's Office - The group then takes off "at a run," according to Bush. Gregg suggests they all go to his office, which is on a lower floor and is an interior room. Bush's Secret Service agents then tell Meyers that they are waiting for the emergency response team to arrive. They say the team will take the first lady away but leave her staff behind. Overhearing this conversation, Bush turns back and says, "No, everyone is coming." Bush and her entourage then reach Gregg's office, where they will remain until the Secret Service takes them away to a "secure location" at around 10:10 a.m. (see (9:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001, (Shortly After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001, and (10:10 a.m.-10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Journal, 8/31/2002; Bush, 2010, pp. 200]
Entity Tags: John Meyers, Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy, US Secret Service, Andrea Ball, Laura Bush, Judd Gregg, Ron Sprinkle
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Langley Pilot Instructed to Identify Unknown Aircraft and Survey Pentagon; Doesn't Realize a Plane Hit It
An F-16 launched from Langley Air Force Base is directed toward two unidentified aircraft and then asked to inspect and report on the damage to the Pentagon. Major Dean Eckmann, one of the three F-16 pilots who took off from Langley at 9:30 (see (9:25 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001), is reportedly flying in the Washington area. He will later recall, "I set up a combat air patrol with air traffic controllers," and then, at around 9:45, "they come back to me and say there are a couple [of] unknowns heading north on the Potomac River toward the White House." He is flying above 20,000 feet but heads straight down and reaches his target in "no time," he says. The unknowns turn out to be a military helicopter and a law enforcement helicopter apparently heading towards the Pentagon to assist there. Eckmann flies over the Capitol and Mall area, he recalls, "to clear the area and make sure nothing else was coming in."
Instructions to Inspect the Pentagon - Then Captain Craig Borgstrom, one of the other two Langley pilots, calls him and says that NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) wants to know the extent of the damage at the Pentagon. Eckmann flies over it and reports that the two outer rings have been damaged. NEADS wants to know if he can tell what has happened. He guesses it was "a big fuel tanker truck because of the amount of smoke and flames coming up and nobody indicated anything about an airplane. And there was no airplane wreckage off to the side." [Filson, 2003, pp. 66] But he will give a different account to the 9/11 Commission, telling it: "I reverted to the Russian threat.… I'm thinking cruise missile threat from the sea. You know you look down and see the Pentagon burning and I thought the bastards snuck one by us.… [N]o one told us anything." According to the Commission, the Langley pilots have not been briefed about why they were scrambled. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 45 and 465] Eckmann will in fact say, "[W]e didn't actually find out it was an airliner [that hit the Pentagon] until the next day." [Associated Press, 8/19/2002]
Conflicting Times - Eckmann's F-16 is presumably the first fighter to arrive over the Pentagon following the attack there. When precisely this occurs is unclear (see (Between 9:49 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). However, according to numerous witnesses on the ground, the first fighter does not fly over the Pentagon until significantly later than Eckmann describes, at around 10:40 a.m. (see (10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Creed and Newman, 2008, pp. 130-131] And according to some accounts, this is not Eckmann's plane, but an F-16 from Andrews Air Force Base, piloted by Major Billy Hutchison. [Filson, 2003, pp. 81-82; Spencer, 2008, pp. 235-236]
Entity Tags: Dean Eckmann, Craig Borgstrom
(Between 09:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Construction Trailer Is Source of Smoke, Small Explosions
According to a fireman's account, firefighting efforts at the Pentagon are hampered by smoke and small explosions coming out of a construction trailer near the impact site. On the morning of 9/11, Russell "Rusty" Dodge, Jr., an assistant chief with the Fort Belvoir Fire Department, is at Fort Meyer, about a mile from the Pentagon, for a training exercise (see Before 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). He is one of the first to arrive on the scene. He tries to put out the fires, but a construction trailer is a serious obstacle. He will later recall, "[T]hat trailer was the main producer of smoke on the outside of the building…." The trailer "was producing some severe fires and subsequent mini explosions due to highly flammable chemicals in it…. Luckily the chemical containers were caged. Otherwise the fires would have been worse." [MDW News Service, 10/4/2001]
Entity Tags: Russell "Rusty" Dodge, Jr., Pentagon, Fort Belvoir Fire Department
(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Senior FAA Manager, on His First Day on the Job, Orders All Planes Out of the Sky Nationwide
FAA National Operations Manager Ben Sliney. [Source: Publicity photo]Ben Sliney, FAA's National Operations Manager, orders the entire nationwide air traffic system shut down. All flights at US airports are stopped. Around 3,950 flights are still in the air. Sliney makes the decision without consulting FAA head Jane Garvey, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, or other bosses, but they quickly approve his actions. It's Sliney's first day on the job. [CNN, 9/12/2001; New York Times, 9/12/2001; Washington Post, 9/12/2001; MSNBC, 9/22/2001; USA Today, 8/12/2002; Associated Press, 8/12/2002; USA Today, 8/12/2002; USA Today, 8/13/2002; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; Newsday, 9/10/2002] Seventy-five percent of the planes land within one hour of the order. [USA Today, 8/12/2002] The 9/11 Commission will later remark that this "was an unprecedented order" that the "air traffic control system handled… with great skill." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 29] The Washington Post has reported that Mineta told Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down," even adding, "[Expletive] pilot discretion." [Washington Post, 1/27/2002] However, it is later reported by a different Post reporter that Mineta did not even know of the order until 15 minutes later. This reporter "says FAA officials had begged him to maintain the fiction." [Slate, 4/2/2002]
Entity Tags: Ben Sliney, Federal Aviation Administration, Jane Garvey, Monte Belger, Norman Mineta
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Key Day of 9/11 Events
(After 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Plane Carrying Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Shelton Spends Hours in a 'Holding Pattern' before Being Allowed into US Airspace
The plane that has been flying General Henry Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over the Atlantic Ocean has to spend two hours in a "holding pattern" near Greenland and then more time in a holding pattern over Canada before it is cleared to fly back into the United States. [Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] Shelton was flying toward Europe for a NATO conference (see 7:15 a.m. September 11, 2001), but, after he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center, ordered that his plane turn around and return to the US (see (8:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). However, air traffic controllers have denied the request to do so because US airspace has been shut down (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002, pp. G-1; Shelton, Levinson, and McConnell, 2010, pp. 430-432]
Plane Has to Fly in a Holding Pattern near Greenland - Therefore, although Shelton's plane, nicknamed "Speckled Trout," does turn around, it doesn't initially fly back to the United States. For a couple of hours, since its crew doesn't have clearance to return to the US and it doesn't have a destination, the plane goes into a "holding pattern" near Greenland. Captain Rob Pedersen, the flight navigator, comes up with a list of alternative landing sites, which include Thule Air Base in Greenland and Naval Air Station Keflavik in Iceland. Although the crew decides to head back to the US, Pedersen will later recall, it is still difficult to get a security clearance, even for such a high-profile passenger as Shelton.
Plane Goes into Another Holding Pattern over Canada - Speckled Trout eventually reaches Canada, but the plane is still refused entry into US airspace and so it goes into a holding pattern again. "In the beginning we had a few problems convincing [the air traffic controller] to allow us back into the country, [even though] we were ordered at a significantly high level to come back," Pedersen will recall. "You can't say over the radio who you are carrying because they don't have secure communications at the FAA.… We had to tell them over an open line that we had a DV Code 2, which is a ranking that a lot of DVs [distinguished visitors] fall under." Eventually, the crew receives permission to fly into the US, although the time when this occurs is unstated. "It took a little bit of time, and I'm sure there were a lot of phone calls made, before they let us back in," Pedersen will say. [Air Force Magazine, 9/2011 ] Shelton, however, will contradict this account and claim his plane is cleared to enter US airspace significantly earlier. He will recall that those on the plane are told they have permission to enter US airspace 10 minutes after he talks on the phone with General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (see (Shortly After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001), which would mean they receive clearance possibly as early as around 10:15 a.m. [Shelton, Levinson, and McConnell, 2010, pp. 432-433]
Myers Takes Shelton's Place as Chairman While Shelton Is outside the US - After flying over New York, Speckled Trout will land at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, DC, at 4:40 p.m. (see 4:40 p.m. September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001 ; UNC-TV, 1/27/2013] While the plane is being denied permission to enter US airspace, Myers remains as the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Shelton's place. This is "how the law reads whenever the chairman is out of the country," Shelton will write. "Until I crossed back into United States airspace, all the decisions would be Dick's to make, in conjunction with Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and the president." [Shelton, Levinson, and McConnell, 2010, pp. 432]
Entity Tags: Rob Pedersen, Henry Hugh Shelton
9:46 a.m. September 11, 2001: NMCC Teleconference Still Looking to Include Defense Heads Rumsfeld and Myers
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office, and acting Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers' office, report to the NMCC teleconference that they are still trying to track down Rumsfeld and Myers, respectively, and bring them into the conference. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] Rumsfeld is apparently outside the Pentagon looking at the Flight 77 crash site (see Between 9:38 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. September 11, 2001), though counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke suggests Rumsfeld is elsewhere in the Pentagon for much of the time (see (Between 9:38 a.m. and 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Myers' whereabouts in the period after the Pentagon crash have not been fully explained (see (Between 9:55 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Rumsfeld and Myers do not enter the NMCC until about 10:30 a.m. (see (10:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, National Military Command Center, Richard B. Myers
After 9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: White House Situation Room Requests Gas Masks, but Receives Too Few of Them
Personnel in the White House Situation Room request protective gear, in case there is a chemical or biological attack, but when someone arrives with gas masks for them, they find there are too few to go around. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8-9; McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011] While most people in the White House evacuate, beginning at around 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001), those in the Situation Room stay where they are (see (Shortly After 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke and about a dozen others remain at work there, keeping information flowing to key government officials. [Daily Telegraph, 9/10/2010; McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011] Beverley Roundtree, Clarke's secretary, calls and tells Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, a member of Clarke's counterterrorist staff, that she and the rest of Clarke's staff in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, will also be staying where they are instead of evacuating. Gordon-Hagerty, realizing she will not be able to persuade Roundtree to leave, says to the secretary, "Okay, okay," and adds, "then bring over the chem-bio gear." Responding to Gordon-Hagerty's request, Roundtree subsequently comes to the Situation Room with gas masks, which she distributes to the people there. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8-9] However, Clarke and his colleagues face an "anxious moment" when they realize there are too few gas masks for the people in the Situation Room. "[S]ome questioned the apparent lottery, while others wondered what they didn't know," McClatchy Newspapers will later report. [McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke, Beverley Roundtree, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Richard Clarke
After 9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: Commerce Secretary Evans Is Not Evacuated in Line with the Continuity of Government Plan
Don Evans. [Source: US Department of Commerce]Authorities fail to evacuate Secretary of Commerce Don Evans from his office at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC, in line with "Continuity of Government" (COG) plans and so Evans eventually decides to go home of his own accord. [Arkin, 2013, pp. 173-174] The COG plan was apparently activated by White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke shortly after 9:45 a.m. (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8] Whereas, earlier in the day, "executive agents and protective details all across the government had been operating in precautionary mode," military expert and author William Arkin will later describe, "now everything was official, mandatory, and automatic." And yet no one comes to move Evans to an alternate location, even though he is 10th in line for the presidency. The commerce secretary therefore stays in his office all morning, waiting for someone to contact him and tell him what to do. [Arkin, 2013, pp. 173-174; NBC News, 9/11/2016] Furthermore, while other government departments are evacuated, no one takes the initiative to evacuate the Commerce Department, where 5,000 people work (see Before 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Draper, 2007, pp. 143] Apparently, "those in charge had completely forgotten about [Evans] and his department," Arkin will comment. Eventually, Evans arranges for an aide to drive him to his home in McLean, Virginia, where he spends the rest of the day watching television. Arkin will criticize authorities for their failure to move Evans to an alternate location, writing, "After almost 50 years of preparations and practice, after constructing an elaborate and foolproof edifice, the executive agents had overlooked a major branch of the executive office, or were too busy—or had their own plans." [Arkin, 2013, pp. 174; NBC News, 9/11/2016]
Entity Tags: US Department of Commerce, Continuity of Government, Donald L. Evans
(9:46 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Firefighters Are Dispatched after the Secret Service Incorrectly Reports that a Plane Has Hit the White House
Engine Company 16. [Source: District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department]The District of Columbia Fire Department (DCFD) sends engines to the White House after the Secret Service incorrectly reports that a plane has crashed into the presidential residence and the building is on fire. As well as reporting the supposed plane crash and fire, the Secret Service says the White House, or at least part of it (the specific details are unclear), has collapsed. In response to the report, the fire communications center dispatches a "box alarm" from Engine Company 16, the station that serves the White House. [Washington City Paper, 9/21/2001; Journal of Emergency Medical Services, 4/2002 ; Firehouse Magazine, 10/31/2002] A box alarm consists of four engines, two trucks, a rescue company, and a battalion chief. [Journal of Emergency Medical Services, 4/2002 ] Since the alleged incident is at the White House—the home of the US president—the response is increased by sending an additional battalion chief and the deputy fire chief, Rogers Massey, to deal with it. And because a building collapse has been reported, the DCFD's cave-in task force, which comprises Rescue 3, Battalion Chief 3, Engine 15, and the hazmat (hazardous materials) task force, is also sent. However, when the crews arrive at the White House, they are promptly told to leave. A uniformed Secret Service officer waves them away and says: "Get the f_ck outta here! There's a plane coming in!" Lieutenant Jeff Wright, one of the firefighters involved in the response, will later recall the turn of events, saying: "It was mass confusion. We go down to the White House and no one knows what's going on. We could see smoke coming from Virginia [where the Pentagon is located]." The report of the incident at the White House is investigated and determined to be unfounded. However, after he receives intelligence reports from the FBI, Special Operations Battalion Chief Michael Sellitto decides he will keep his units near the White House in case attacks should subsequently occur there or at the Capitol building. [Washington City Paper, 9/21/2001; Journal of Emergency Medical Services, 4/2002 ; Firehouse Magazine, 10/31/2002] The DCFD will also respond to the attack on the Pentagon, which occurred at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). It will dispatch a box alarm to the Department of Defense's headquarters at around 9:48 a.m. [DCFD (.com), 9/12/2001; Washington City Paper, 9/21/2001; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 72]
Entity Tags: District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, US Secret Service, Jeff Wright, Michael Sellitto, Rogers Massey, Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Shortly After 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Situation Room Personnel Refuse to Evacuate and Compile a List of Their Names in Case They Are Killed
The White House Situation Room. [Source: Chuck Kennedy / White House]Staffers in the White House Situation Room remain where they are despite being advised to evacuate and a list of their names is sent out, in case an aircraft should crash into the White House. At 9:33 a.m., a supervisor at Washington's Reagan National Airport called the Secret Service Joint Operations Center at the White House to report that an unidentified aircraft was heading toward the White House. The supervisor warned, "[I]f you've got people [at the White House], you'd better get them out of there" (see (9:33 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/14/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 9; McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011] Most personnel evacuated from the White House at around 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001]
Situation Room Personnel Decline the Advice to Leave - Meanwhile, Rob Hargis, the senior duty officer in the Situation Room, receives a call from a National Security Council official, who urges him and his colleagues to get out of the White House. Hargis turns to the others in the Situation Room and says: "We have been ordered to evacuate. If you want to go, go now." However, everyone stays silent and no one gets up to leave. Hargis therefore tells the caller, "We're staying." He thinks the White House would be disconnected from the crisis if the Situation Room stopped operating at such a critical time. [McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011] According to Franklin Miller, a senior aide to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, at some point Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley gives the instruction to keep the Situation Room running and there is in fact never any question about its personnel leaving. [New York Times, 3/30/2004]
Counterterrorism Chief Allegedly Asks the Staffers to Evacuate - White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke will later claim that, apparently around this time, he is concerned for the safety of those with him in the Situation Room, and so he huddles them together and asks them to leave. He tells them: "We will be the next target. It's no shame to relocate. Some of you have kids too. Think about them." But the staffers all decline his request. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 12] However, Miller will dispute whether Clarke makes this offer, calling his claim "a complete fiction" (see March 30, 2004). [New York Times, 3/30/2004]
List of the Staffers' Names Is Sent to the CIA - All the same, Miller is concerned for the safety of those in the Situation Room. "The White House could be hit; we could be going down," he thinks. He therefore quietly compiles a list of the names of everyone in the room, he will recall, "so that when and if we died, someone would know who was in there." The list is passed to Scott Heyer, a communications officer in the Situation Room, and Heyer e-mails it to the CIA operations center. [New York Times, 12/30/2001; McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011] For the rest of the day, about a dozen staffers will remain in the Situation Room, working frantically to keep information flowing to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and key White House personnel. [Daily Telegraph, 9/10/2010; McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011]
Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Richard A. Clarke, Franklin Miller, Scott Heyer, Rob Hargis, Stephen J. Hadley
(Shortly After 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Langley Pilots Start Receiving Confused Radio Communications
The three pilots launched from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia start receiving confusing communications over their radios. Apparently, shortly after one of them first sees the Pentagon on fire (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001), the pilots' radio frequencies become cluttered with orders and chatter. One of them will later describe: "It was like getting 10 hours of conversation in about 10 minutes. No one knew what was going on." [New York Times, 11/15/2001] Journalist and author Jere Longman will refer to the pilots receiving a "jumble of radio communications." [Longman, 2002, pp. 76] According to one of the pilots, Craig Borgstrom, he and the two others are on different frequencies but share a common intra-flight channel, and are "hearing a lot of chatter but nothing about airliners crashing into buildings." He will later recall: "There was some confusion for us, this was very abnormal. We were all three on different frequencies… and were getting orders from a lot of different people." [Filson, 2003, pp. 66]
Entity Tags: Craig Borgstrom
(Shortly After 9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Employees Convene at DaimlerChrysler Building and Continue Their Work
Anita McBride. [Source: American University]A large number of government employees gather at the office of DaimlerChrysler in Washington, DC, after being evacuated from the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and continue their operations there. [Automotive News, 10/8/2001; Politico, 9/9/2011] The White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to it were evacuated at 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 1/27/2002] After they left these buildings, many staffers went north to Lafayette Park, across from the White House, but were unsure what to do.
DaimlerChrysler Manager Wants Staffers to Come to His Building - Anita McBride, the acting director of White House personnel, calls her husband, Timothy McBride, who is vice president of Washington affairs for DaimlerChrysler and works at the company's office a couple of blocks from the White House. "I knew he would know what to do even more than I," Anita McBride will later comment, "and his immediate instinct was to bring everybody there" to the DaimlerChrysler building. Anita McBride tells her husband she is on the way to his office. She then gathers together the White House staffers who are around her and heads there. [Politico, 9/9/2011; National, 9/11/2011]
Equipment Set Up for Staffers to Use - Most of the DaimlerChrysler employees are leaving the building as the White House staffers are arriving. But before they go, they set up their computers, phones, televisions, and other resources for the White House staffers to use, and also order food for the staffers. Timothy McBride served as assistant to the president for management and administration during the administration of former President George H. W. Bush and, in that position, was responsible for many emergency procedures. "So I did have the benefit of being able to anticipate some of what the [White House] staff might need to carry on their functions," he will comment.
Secret Service Secures the Building - After the first staffers arrive, other White House employees learn that their colleagues have assembled at the DaimlerChrysler building and go to join them. [National Journal, 8/31/2002] Soon, 72 members of the White House staff have made it to the building, the largest number of White House employees currently gathered in a single location. [Politico, 9/9/2011] They include speechwriters, photographers, and people from communications, the National Economic Council, Cabinet affairs, and legislative affairs. [National Journal, 8/31/2002] Members of the Secret Service lock down the building and ensure that only people with White House passes are able to gain access. Anita McBride calls the White House Situation Room and lets officials there know who is at the DaimlerChrysler building. Arrangements are then made for a few senior staffers to return to the White House (see (12:00 p.m.) September 11, 2001).
White House Employees Continue Their Work - The staffers who remain at the DaimlerChrysler building quickly set up operations and continue their work. The building becomes "a White House annex," Anita McBride will comment. [Politico, 9/9/2011; National, 9/11/2011] Some of the staffers discuss how the government can continue to function, and put together checklists of the things various federal departments and agencies should do. [Bridgeland, 2012, pp. 5] Speechwriters David Frum, John McConnell, Matthew Rees, and Matthew Scully work on a speech for President Bush to deliver from the Oval Office this evening. They are assisted by another speechwriter, Michael Gerson, who is at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, but is able to communicate with them by phone. [Frum, 2003, pp. 117, 120; PBS Frontline, 7/7/2004; Draper, 2007, pp. 140]
Officials Consider How Previous Crises Were Managed - Ken Mehlman, the White House political director, instructs Brad Blakeman, the deputy assistant to the president for appointments and scheduling, and Barry Jackson, the director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives, to go on the Internet and research what, if any, significance the date of September 11 has in the Muslim world. Mehlman also instructs Blakeman and Jackson to research how former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan responded to crises during their presidencies. And he directs Logan Walters, the president's personal aide, and Ashley Estes, the president's personal secretary, to come up with a schedule based on how crises were managed during past presidencies. [Draper, 2007, pp. 140-141]
Staffers Stay at Building until Late Afternoon - Secret Service agents periodically brief the White House staffers on what is happening in Washington and elsewhere. The staffers will remain at the DaimlerChrysler building until about 5:30 p.m., after word is received that the president is heading back to Washington. The speechwriters will then go to the White House while the other staffers will go home. [National Journal, 8/31/2002; Politico, 9/9/2011]
Entity Tags: Michael Gerson, Barry Jackson, Timothy McBride, Anita McBride, Matthew Scully, Matthew Rees, US Secret Service, Ken Mehlman, Brad Blakeman, Logan Walters, DaimlerChrysler, Ashley Estes, David Frum, John McConnell
9:47 a.m. September 11, 2001: Internal Collapse at WTC South Tower Reported
A man who is on the 105th floor of the South Tower calls emergency 9-1-1 to report that floors below his location, "in the 90-something floor," have collapsed. The 9-1-1 operator types a record of this call into the Special Police Radio Inquiry Network (SPRINT) data link, which will be passed on to the New York fire department's Emergency Medical Service (EMS). It isn't known when the call is made exactly, but the EMS Dispatch computer apparently receives the call record at this time. However, because it is classified as a "supplement message," it is not yet read by anyone. The police dispatcher dealing with the area around the WTC also receives the call record, but misinterprets it as meaning that the floor the person is on has collapsed. EMS dispatchers are dealing with an enormous volume of calls as well as performing many other tasks under extreme pressure during the crisis, so a report later concludes that the EMS operators didn't have the time to review the information before the collapse of the South Tower at 9:59 (see 9:59 a.m. September 11, 2001), and the fire chiefs never received the information. [New York City Fire Department, 8/19/2002]
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, WTC Investigation, World Trade Center
(9:47 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Passenger Jeremy Glick Tells of Vote to Take Over Flight 93
On Flight 93, Jeremy Glick is still on the phone with his wife, Lyz. He tells her that the passengers are taking a vote if they should try to take over the plane or not. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001] He later says that all the men on the plane have voted to attack the hijackers. [Toronto Sun, 9/16/2001] When asked about weapons, he says they don't have guns, just knives. This appears to contradict an earlier mention of guns. His wife gets the impression from him that the hijacker standing nearby, claiming to hold the bomb, would be easy to overwhelm. [Longman, 2002, pp. 153-154]
Entity Tags: Jeremy Glick, Lyz Glick
9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001: Capitol Building Evacuated due to Reports of Approaching Plane, but Evacuation Is Chaotic
Senator John Kerry looks up to the sky as he and others evacuate. [Source: CBC]The Capitol building in Washington, DC is evacuated. [Associated Press, 8/21/2002] It is the first time in US history this has ever happened. [Chicago Tribune, 9/12/2001; New York Times, 9/12/2001] Both the Senate and the House are in session at the time. [CNN, 8/17/2002] Capitol Police officers go through the building and order people to leave at once. [Washington Post, 9/12/2001; CNN, 9/11/2002]
Reports of Plane Approaching the Capitol - The evacuation appears to be in response to reports of a plane heading toward the Capitol. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; CNN, 8/17/2002; Bamford, 2004, pp. 80-81] According to CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash, "the Capitol Police were hearing, in their radio, that there was a plane—another plane in the air, likely headed for the Capitol." [CNN, 9/11/2006] When a Capitol Police officer instructs Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to leave the building, he says: "We have word that an airplane is heading this way and could hit the building anytime. You need to evacuate."
'Nothing Orderly' about Evacuation - However, there are problems with the evacuation. According to Daschle, "The fire alarm system, which was working in the nearby Senate office buildings, was never activated in the Capitol, so there were people who weren't aware that an evacuation was taking place." Also, some individuals are reluctant to leave. [Daschle and D'Orso, 2003, pp. 109-110] Rep. Bob Stump (R-AZ) will recall: "They tried to throw me out three times, but they didn't succeed. I figured I was safer in the building than out on the street." [Associated Press, 9/11/2001] Daschle will recall that there is "nothing orderly" about the evacuation. Outside the building "No one knew what to do or where to go. People congregated on the grass and in the parking lot. Senators and staff were mixed in with tourists, all staring up at the sky, wondering what might be headed our way." [Daschle and D'Orso, 2003, pp. 110] CNN will report, "[S]ome of the most high ranking officials in the United States government were just kind of scattered around this area without a gathering point." [CNN, 9/11/2006]
Sergeant at Arms Concerned over Poor Security - Al Lenhardt, the Senate's sergeant at arms, will later say how alarmed he was "to see members of Congress and their staffs mixed in with visitors and passersby wandering in the open around the Capitol grounds. One of the tactics that terrorists have been known to employ is to create a diversion to move their intended target to the area where the actual attack will take place. Al imagined a bomb or gunfire erupting right there on the lawn outside the Capitol." [Daschle and D'Orso, 2003, pp. 111] Eventually, many of the members of Congress go to the Capitol Police headquarters, which then serves as their command center for the day (see (9:55 a.m. and After) September 11, 2001 and (10:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m.) September 11, 2001). [CNN, 9/11/2002; Daschle and D'Orso, 2003, pp. 112]
Entity Tags: Al Lenhardt, Robert Lee Stump, US Capitol Police, Tom Daschle
(9:49 a.m.-10:54 a.m.) September 11, 2001: NORAD Does Not Tell the Air Threat Conference Call about Its Combat Air Patrol over Washington
NORAD fails to notify the Pentagon's air threat conference call that its fighter jets have set up a combat air patrol (CAP) over Washington, DC, until at least 50 minutes after the CAP has been established. [US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001 ; US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001; 9/11 Commission, 6/9/2004] The National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon commenced an air threat conference call at 9:37 a.m. in response to the terrorist attacks (see 9:37 a.m.-9:39 a.m. September 11, 2001). A NORAD representative has been on the conference from the outset. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 37-38] However, an after-action report produced by the NMCC will state that NORAD is "unable to provide accurate updates on [the] CAP status in [the] air threat conference." It takes "50 minutes from the time the CAP [is] established overhead DC for NORAD to report it in the conference." [9/11 Commission, 6/9/2004]
Combat Air Patrol Is Established by 10:00 a.m. - F-16 fighters that were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, at 9:24 a.m. (see 9:24 a.m. September 11, 2001) reach Washington and set up a CAP over the city at 9:49 a.m., according to a timeline provided to CNN by "informed defense officials." [CNN, 9/17/2001] The 9/11 Commission, however, will conclude that the F-16s establish the CAP at "approximately 10:00 a.m." (see (Between 9:49 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 34] This would mean that NORAD informs the air threat conference call that a CAP has been established over Washington at around 10:39 a.m. to 10:50 a.m., according to the NMCC's after-action report.
Transcripts Suggest NORAD Reports the CAP at a Later Time - However, transcripts of the air threat conference call will indicate that NORAD reports that a CAP has been established over Washington even later than this, at 10:55 a.m. At about 10:08 a.m., the NORAD representative on the conference is asked if they can provide "information on fighter coverage over the Washington area." The NORAD representative says, "We have no further information at this point." At 10:40 a.m., the NORAD representative indicates that a CAP has not yet been established, but will be soon. They report: "We have confirmation currently of two fighters… currently inbound. Estimate time 10 minutes overhead at CAP point north of Langley [Air Force Base] for protection of the Washington, DC, area."
NORAD Says the CAP Has Been Established at 10:55 a.m. - But 13 minutes later, at 10:53 a.m., the NORAD representative says there is still no CAP over Washington. They report, "We have two F-16s scrambling out of Andrews Air Force Base," just outside Washington (see 10:42 a.m. September 11, 2001), but add that there is "no airborne CAP at this time." Two minutes later, the NORAD representative indicates that a CAP has at last been set up over Washington. "We have a report of two fighters airborne over DC," they say. At around 11:05 a.m., the NORAD representative will be asked to confirm "that two F-16s are still on CAP in the vicinity of Washington" and they will reply, "That is affirmative." [US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001 ; US Department of Defense, 9/11/2001]
Entity Tags: North American Aerospace Defense Command
(After 9:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Communications Problems Experienced around Capitol Building
Candy Crowley. [Source: CNN]After the Capitol building in Washington is evacuated (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001), those located around it—including members of Congress—experience serious problems communicating by phone and other means. CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley will describe: "Nobody knew anything.… Nobody had any way to communicate.… The cell phones went down. Eventually… the personal BlackBerrys that bring your e-mail to you, they went down. And inside the Capitol, remember [there are] still switchboard operators there. Inside the Capitol, the phones worked only on and off." According to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), there is "no communication whatsoever going on." [CNN, 9/11/2002] Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) will recall: "People were punching their cell phones to no avail. The lines were jammed." [Daschle and D'Orso, 2003, pp. 110] Consequently, for more than an hour Daschle's own staff is unable to establish where he is. [Washington Post, 1/27/2002] House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was experiencing communications problems even before he was evacuated from the Capitol, while trying to contact Vice President Dick Cheney by phone (see (9:04 a.m.-9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Hastert, 2004, pp. 6; Hayes, 2007, pp. 336] Whether others at the Capitol also experienced similar difficulties prior to the evacuation is unclear. What causes these problems is uncertain. However, numerous other people in the Washington area, including senior government officials, also experience serious communications problems throughout the day (see (After 8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy, Tom Daschle, Dennis Hastert
9:49 a.m.-9:53 a.m. September 11, 2001: Passenger Marion Britton Says Two Other Flight 93 Passengers Had Their Throats Cut
Marion Britton. [Source: US Census Bureau]Flight 93 passenger Marion Britton calls her longtime friend Fred Fiumano at his auto repair shop in New York City, and talks to him for just under four minutes. According to the Chicago Tribune, she is using a cell phone. [Chicago Tribune, 9/30/2001; US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006] Journalist and author Jere Longman writes that, because her own cell phone is not working, Britton is using a borrowed phone (i.e. a cell phone). She gives Fiumano the phone number belonging to another passenger and tells him to write it down. [Longman, 2002, pp. 162 and 166] However, during the 2006 Zacarias Moussaoui trial, the prosecution claims that Britton, who had been assigned a seat in row 12 of the plane, makes her call from a phone in row 33, presumably meaning a seatback phone rather than a cell phone. [US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 7/31/2006, pp. 12 ] Britton is crying. She tells Fiumano her plane has been hijacked and has made a U-turn. When he tells her that the World Trade Center is on fire, she replies, "I know, and we're going to go down." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/22/2001; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/2001] Britton says, "They're gonna kill us, you know, we're gonna die." [MSNBC, 9/11/2006] Fiumano tries to reassure her, but she responds, "Two passengers have had their throats cut." [New York Times, 4/13/2006] (In passenger Todd Beamer's call from Flight 93 (see 9:45 a.m.-9:58 a.m. September 11, 2001), a flight attendant is reportedly heard in the background saying that two men lying on the floor in first class, possibly dead, are the plane's pilot and co-pilot. It is unclear if these are the two people that Britton refers to as having had their throats cut, and she'd simply mistaken them for passengers. [Longman, 2002, pp. 199] ) Fiumano hears a lot of yelling and screaming, and then the line goes dead. He tries calling Britton back but is unable to get through. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/22/2001]
Entity Tags: Marion Britton, Fred Fiumano
9:49 a.m. September 11, 2001: FAA Command Center Suggests Launching Fighters in Response to Flight 93; FAA Headquarters Unable to Request Them
Doug Davis. [Source: Federal Aviation Administration]John White, a manager at the FAA's Command Center, suggests to Doug Davis, the special assistant for technical operations in air traffic services at FAA headquarters, that fighter jets should be launched in response to Flight 93. However, FAA headquarters is apparently unable to act on this suggestion. [Federal Aviation Administration, 10/21/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 29; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/10/2006] In the last few minutes, the Command Center has warned headquarters that Flight 93 is "29 minutes out of Washington" and approaching the city (see 9:41 a.m.-9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 44]
Command Center Asks about Launching Fighters - Davis now tells White, "They're pulling Jeff [Griffith, the FAA's deputy director of air traffic] away to go talk about United 93." White asks, "Uh, do we want to think, uh, about scrambling aircraft?" Davis replies, "Oh, God, I don't know." White says, "Uh, that's a decision somebody's gonna have to make probably in the next 10 minutes." However, Davis only responds, "Uh, ya know everybody just left the room." [Federal Aviation Administration, 10/21/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 29] This conversation takes place 13 minutes after the FAA's Cleveland Center asked the Command Center whether anyone had asked the military to launch fighter jets to intercept Flight 93 (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 40]
Person Who Could Request Fighters Is Unavailable - Apparently there is only one person at FAA headquarters who is authorized to request military assistance, and Ben Sliney, the Command Center's national operations manager, is told that no one can find him. Sliney will later recount: "I said something like, 'That's incredible. There's only one person. There must be someone designated or someone who will assume the responsibility of issuing an order, you know.' We were becoming frustrated in our attempts to get some information. What was the military response?" [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/10/2006] This lack of response to Flight 93 contrasts with the FAA's earlier reaction to Flight 11, when Boston Center air traffic controllers contacted NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) themselves (see (8:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and even called military bases directly (see 8:34 a.m. September 11, 2001 and (8:34 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 20]
Entity Tags: Ben Sliney, John White, Doug Davis, Federal Aviation Administration
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