Plenty of text, but you touch on a few points. The first thing the hijackers did was turn off the transponders, that made standard ATC 'blind.' I believe very little training is spent on dealing with planes that are in controlled airspace, at low altitude, high-velocity with no radio contact. The FAA request to ground all jets to the nearest airfield would of made an incredible mess and intense workload for all the controllers involved. No one ever imagined that a threat would come 'from within.' The 'DEW' line of radar installations that forms a perimeter around North America was designed to catch those 'pesky russians' who weren't expected to have the decency to turn on some transponders and squawk the requested code. The words "lull", "false sense of security" and "aviation security" are often bandied about, quite appropriately in my opinion. I also believe in a comment that the former chief of security of El-Al made on a talk show that week: It would of never of happened in Israel, or on an El-Al jet. Matthew > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On > Behalf Of cicadajet > Sent: March 10, 2002 6:01 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Where's the Air Force? > > > Ok, "the Boeing" was "found" (Duh!), and thanks to Matthew, > the MASS MEDIA=20 "put-options" legend/myth perhaps laid to > rest..and here's something more=20 towards Matthew's point > from LATimes and Bloomberg...They're few and far=20 between > after that initial burst of reports through all the major > outlets.=20 (But then again I'm not paying for the WSJ > archives and maybe they cleared i= t=20 up much sooner).=20 > > http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091901trading.story > > Now, maybe some knowledgeable folks can fill in some of the > blanks here.... with the apparent lack of Air Force > intervention in the events of Sept 11th.= =20 =20 > > As I read about it, the USAF gets a fighter jet alongside > Payne Stewarts=20 bizjet/ in October of 1999 within 20 > minutes of ATC losing contact with the=20 pilot. This via > bang bang ATC-USAF relay. AF Fighter pilot able to peer over= > =20 at the bizjet cockpit - see that there is condensation on > the glass or=20 whatever....he's now in a position to shoot > this plane down if the order=20 > comes through the proper chain of command. =20 > > From NTSB report (supposedly): > > 9:19 am.: the flight departs=20 > 9:24: am.The Learjet's pilot responds to an instruction from > air traffic=20 control=20 > 9:33: The controller radios another instruction. No response > from the pilot.= =20 For 4 * minutes the controller tries to > establish contact. > 9:38: Having failed, the controller calls in the military. > 9:54 16 minutes later -- the F-16 reaches the Learjet at > 46,000 feet and=20 conducts a visual inspection.=20 Total > elapsed time: 21 minutes. [snip]