Terry Sliney tells his staff to collect any and all reports of suspicious activities involving planes in the air. “It was intended to be utilized when you can no longer provide air traffic control services generally due to equipment malfunctions.”ĩ:10 a.m. “It's the first time that ATC Zero had ever been used for an event like this,” he tells HISTORY. Mike McCormick orders “ATC Zero,” or the complete shutdown of airspace around New York City no planes can take off or land. Ben Sliney, in his first day on the job as national operations manager for the FAA in Herndon, Virginia, orders a “ground stop,” banning planes nationwide from taking off.ĩ:05 a.m. TRACON to New York Center: “Another one just hit it hard… The whole building just, ah, came apart.”ĩ:04 a.m. UAL 175 flies into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The “severe clear” weather means staffers at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Center (TRACON) see it dive toward the World Trade Center.ĩ:03 a.m. New York Center controllers try to get a visual fix on UAL 175. It is escalating big, big time…” 'It Sounded Like a Life-or-Death Struggle'ĩ:02 a.m. New York Center/Peter Mulligan to FAA Command Center: We have several situations going on here. There was “some slowness in realizing that we were dealing with an additional hijack, because, by gosh, we already had two,” recalls Dan Creedon, departure controller at Reagan National Airport. Controllers struggle to keep up with unfolding events. “I have never had a controller scream like that.”ĩ a.m. Suddenly, a controller shouts an order for him to make an immediate turn to avoid colliding with UAL 175. “There was no chatter, no talk, no anything,” he later told Garrett Graff, who compiled an oral history of the day’s events in the book The Only Plane in the Sky.
Gerald Earwood, piloting a Midwest Express flight from Milwaukee to New York’s La Guardia Airport, can’t reach controllers. Could it have crashed? Indianapolis controllers consider the possibility.Ībout 9 a.m. AA 77 deviates from its course and pulls its transponder. Mike McCormick realizes UAL 175 probably “was going to be another weapon to be used on the World Trade Center.”Ĩ:54 a.m. “We may have a hijack,” he tells another controller. Air traffic controllers in Indianapolis receive the last routine communication from AA 77.īottiglia notes that UAL 175 has changed its transponder and is climbing rapidly.
Control in trminal and control out on the back of the tv full#
Bruce Barnett, operations manager at New York Center in Ronkonkoma, warns McCormick that a possibly hijacked flight is heading toward New York at full speed.Ģ008 Proposition 8 is passed in California, banning same-sex marriageĨ:51 a.m. Jeremy Powell: Is this real-world or exercise?īoston Center/Cooper: This is not an exercise, not a test.Ĭontrollers note that AA 11 has deviated from its flight path. Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS)/Sgt. Zalewski-who often speaks to pilots from Saudi Arabia and Egypt-recognizes Atta’s accent as Middle Eastern.Ītta: Don’t try to make any stupid moves.Īt this point, controllers reach out to their military contacts.īoston Center/Joseph Cooper: We need you guys to scramble some F-16s or something to help us out. Then controllers hear Mohamed Atta when the lead hijacker accidentally broadcasts a message meant for passengers on the air traffic control channel.Ītta: We have some planes. The hijackers turn off the transponders for AA 11. WATCH: 9/11 Documentaries on HISTORY VaultĨ:21 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Boston’s Logan Airport. Controllers chalk the lack of response up to multitasking. “I’m like, my god, maybe they’re drinking Dunkin’ Donuts coffee up there,” Zalewski recalls thinking. After guiding the flight’s initial climb, Zalewski can’t get a response from the pilots.īoston Center/Zalewski: American 11, climb, maintain flight level three-five-zero.īoston Center/Zalewski: American 11, Boston?īoston Center/Zalewski: American one-one, the American on this frequency, how do you read me? The plane had taken off from Boston’s Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. Soon, he is trying to figure out what is happening with American Airlines Flight 11. In the windowless Nashua, New Hampshire bunker that houses Boston Center-the FAA facility that guides aircraft crisscrossing the skies above New England and much of New York-Peter Zalewski, a 20-year veteran, starts his shift at 7 a.m. READ MORE: 9/11 Commission Report 'We Need You Guys to Scramble Some F-16s'
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