Payne Stewart Incident and American Air 11

Event Stewart AA11

Time Cumulative Time Cumulative
Last Communication 13:27 0 12:14 0
First Controller Attempt to
Contact 13:33 6 12:15 1
Supervisor notified 13:38 11 12:20 6
Air Defense Sector Notified 13:55 28 12:38 24
Fighters Enroute 14:12 45 12:52 38
Fighters on Station 14:52 85 13:23 69
Key Points:
A one-hour time zone difference, if not accounted for, gives the impression that DoD
reacted faster than it actually did to the Payne Stewart incident
Therefore, all times on this chart are Coordinated Universal Time (ZULU)
FAA had a choice of vectoring a fighter on a training mission or a three-fighter air
defense scramble. It selected the single fighter to track down the Stewart aircraft.

9-11 Incident Aircraft

Impact Notification
NTSB Other Rounded Flight Time Warning
8:46:40 8:46:34 8:47 AA11 8:38 9 minutes

9:02:40 9:03:08 9:03 UA175 9:03 0 minutes

9:37:45 9:37:57 9:38 AA77 9:34 4 minutes

10:03:11 10:03:10 10:03 UA93 10:06 0 minutes

NEAPS Reaction (nearest minute)

Time Activity
8:38 Boston ARTCC Watch Desk call received AA11
8:38 Cape TRACON call received AA11
8:38 Mission Crew Commander summoned to ops floor
8:39 Loudspeaker recall for Alpha Flight
8:39 ID Section initiated separate call to Boston ARTCC
8:39 Major Deskins continued call from Boston ARTCC
8:40 Lat/Long obtained from Boston ARTCC
8:40 Trackers began looking for AA11
8:41 Otis ordered to Battle Stations
 8:41 Ground Control Position for Otis established
8:45 Scramble decision made
8:45 ID Section initiated call to New York ARTCC
8:46 Scramble order issued
8:46 AA11 picked up 8 nm from impact
8:48 Updated Lat/Long obtained from New York ARTCC
9:03 Second hijack notification from FAA
9:04 UA175 is reported as the second aircraft

Terrorist Pilot Manipulation of Aircraft Transponders

Aircraft Time Action Effect Result
AA11 1220 Off Known Target Unknown Altitude (FAA) FAA tracked, not effectively communicated to NEADS
Unknown Target Unknown Location
(NEADS) NEADS picked up target, no track, just before impact

UA175 1247 Change Known Target Unknown Location (FAA) FAA lost UA175, never communicated to NEADS
FAA picked up intruder, never communicated to
1248 Change Unknown Target Known Location (FAA) NEADS

AA77 1256 Off Unknown Target Unknown Location (FAA) FAA lost AA77 and reported as possibly crashed
Unknown Target Unknown Location
(NEADS) FAA and NEADS picked up intruder in last minutes

FAA maintained continuity, Pittsburgh Tower

UA93 1341 Off Known Target Known Location (FAA) evacuated
NEADS tracked DAL1989, followed it to west and
Wrong Target Known Location (NEADS) back
Lufthansa Flight 592, Frankfurt to Cairo, hijacked to New York
May Testimony: No domestic hijacking in last decade
Lufthansa: First hijacking since 1985
First trans-Atlantic hijacking since September 1976
Multi-agency conference 2 hours and 20 minutes after FAA first notified; FBI lead, on the ground
Otis AFB Air Defense fighters are scrambled, take handoff from Canadian jets and escort plane to
JFK

Lufthansa 592 American 11

Date February 12, 1993 September 11,2001
Goal Politcal Asylum Unknown
Type Trans-Atlantic Domestic
Hijackers 1 5
Nationality Ethiopian Saudi, Egyptian
Weapon Starter Pistol Knives, Spray
Method Pilot Hostage Crew Neutralized
Initial Reaction LE Issue Presumed LE Issue
Air Defense Otis AFB Otis AFB
Lead Pilot Duffy Duffy
Battle Cab Marr (BC) Marr (FO)
Weapons Fox (WD) Fox (SD)
ID/MCC McCain (IT) McCain (MCC/T)

Gofer 06, a Minnesota ANG C130, takes off

routinely for home, sights primary only traffic,
is vectored to follow by Washington
Approach, and is two minutes behind when it
observes the aircraft impact the Pentagon.

\n
8:33
Gofer 06, C130
:33
^Andrews AFB

Mixing Bowl 8:36

American 77, B757

Langley Scramble, a series of individual actions that don't cohere in the aggregate.

1. NEADS scrambles Langley fighters for a heading and altitude (010, FL 290) but does
not provide target data—a bearing and range. No mission, "words," is given.
2. NEADS adds a third fighter to the scramble, after battle stations has been authorized.
3. Langley Base Operations asks for "words" from NEADS and is told it has to do with
the situation in New York.
4. Langley Tower enters a standard flight plan (090 for 60) so that it can get the fighters
off the ground and at altitude as quickly as possible.
5. Langley Tower turns control over to Norfolk Approach while the fighters are taking
off and understands that someone else will head the fighters where they need to go.
6. Norfolk Approach believes the flight plan to be later information that supercedes the
scramble order.
7. The fighters take off to the east, standard air defense procedure and proceed on
runway heading (080) to 4000 altitude.
7. The lead pilot concurs that the flight plan is his second heading.
8. Norfolk Approach asks the lead pilot which direction he would like to go? The pilot
does not hear that question at the time.
9. Norfolk Approach hands off ATC to Giant Killer which is not expecting to receive the
fighters; it heard the scramble order.
10. NEADS controller recognizes his fighters are "headed for Whiskey 386.. .1 have no
idea why."
11. He is told, "call Giant Killer, no rush. There is no rush because NEADS is waiting
for the third pilot to catch up.

Net result is that no one took action or initiative to change the flight plan and the Langley
fighters proceeded into military controlled airspace over water.

AFIO (Authority for Intercept Operations)

Controllers "paired" the fighters to a "Z" point south of BWI

NEADS became aware of a target six miles from the White House and established a track
B032 on what would ultimately be identified as American Air 77.
Controllers desperately tried to gain control of the Langley fighters and took the only step
they could
NEADS declared AFIO and got the fighters headed toward Baltimore.
Controllers then paired the fighters to the new track B032 and vectored them to
Washington DC
Through either a transposition of numbers or a faulty pointer in the cockpit of the lead
pilot the fighters temporarily headed for a CAP south of Washington