Local FAA and NORAD staff reacted about as well as possible to 9/11 as it happened, but nobody at all was prepared or trained for anything like it.
United 93 would probably have reached Washington before anyone in the air knew they were authorized to shoot it down; although in the event, by the time NORAD knew it was hijacked, it had already crashed in Pennsylvania.
Tracking the planes by radar was extremely difficult (the hijackers disabled the transponders that would normally be used), and was made harder by the software in use.
High-level coordination doesn't seem to have been particularly great initially. However to my reading it doesn't seem from the timings that even much faster high-level reaction could have prevented American 77 from hitting the Pentagon.
There seemed to be some ambiguity about the chains of command; although Bush -> Rumsfeld -> military was the 'correct' route, the order to shoot down seems to have initially gone via Cheney. The fact that Rumsfeld went to help at the crash site at the Pentagon rather than dealing with the national situation seems like a clear failing on his part, to me.
Yes, I think this happened *after* Cheney contacted him to say that he'd given shootdown orders. I would also be amazed if he didn't know about the WTC by this time (10:30 or so).
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-22 08:41 am (UTC)Local FAA and NORAD staff reacted about as well as possible to 9/11 as it happened, but nobody at all was prepared or trained for anything like it.
United 93 would probably have reached Washington before anyone in the air knew they were authorized to shoot it down; although in the event, by the time NORAD knew it was hijacked, it had already crashed in Pennsylvania.
Tracking the planes by radar was extremely difficult (the hijackers disabled the transponders that would normally be used), and was made harder by the software in use.
High-level coordination doesn't seem to have been particularly great initially. However to my reading it doesn't seem from the timings that even much faster high-level reaction could have prevented American 77 from hitting the Pentagon.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-22 09:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-22 04:54 pm (UTC)(I read the document some hours ago, and don't feel inclined to read it again just yet. (-8 )
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-22 04:58 pm (UTC)