Three Versions of the Official Story
Version 1: No Scrambles
In his confirmation hearing two days after the attack,
General Myers, acting head of the Joint Cheifs of Staff
on the day of the attack, said he thought that no interceptors
were scrambled until after the Pentagon was attacked.
LEVIN: Was the Defense Department contacted by the FAA or the FBI or any other
agency after the first two hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade
Center, prior to the time that the Pentagon was hit?
MYERS: Sir, I don't know the answer to that question. I can get that for you,
for the record.
LEVIN: Thank you. Did the Defense Department take -- or was the Defense
Department asked to take action against any specific aircraft?
MYERS: Sir, we were . . .
LEVIN: And did you take action against -- for instance, there has been
statements that the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania was shot down.
Those stories continue to exist.
MYERS: Mr. Chairman, the armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft. When
it became clear what the threat was, we did scramble fighter aircraft, AWACS,
radar aircraft and tanker aircraft to begin to establish orbits in case other
aircraft showed up in the FAA system that were hijacked. But we never actually
had to use force.
LEVIN: Was that order that you just described given before or after the
Pentagon was struck? Do you know?
MYERS: That order, to the best of my knowledge, was after the Pentagon
was struck.
General Myers Confirmation Hearing 9/13/01
Version 2: NORAD's Timeline
On September 18, 2001 NORAD issued a press release containing a timeline
which listed scramble times for fighters stationed at
Otis and Langley bases.
The document,
NORAD'S Response Times 9/18/01,
contains the following description of times of events:
|
AA
Flight 11 |
UA
Flight 175 |
AA
Flight 77 |
UA
Flight 93 |
| FAA notification of NEADS |
08:40 |
08:43 |
09:24 |
N/A |
| Fighter Scramble Order |
08:46 |
09:24 |
-- |
| Fighters Airborne |
08:52 |
09:30 |
-- |
| Originating Base |
Otis ANGB
Falmouth, MA |
Langley AFB
Hampton, VA |
Fighter Distance /
Time to Impact Location |
not airborne
153 miles |
8 min /
71 miles |
12 min /
105 miles |
11 min /
100 miles |
Version 3: The 9/11 Commission Report
|
AA
Flight 11 |
UA
Flight 175 |
phantom
Flight 11*
|
AA
Flight 77 |
UA
Flight 93 |
| Notification of NEADS |
08:38 |
09:15 |
-- |
09:34 |
10:07 |
| Fighters Scrambled |
08:46 |
09:24 |
|
|
| Fighters Airborne |
08:53 |
|
|
|
| Originating Base |
Otis, MA |
Langley, VA |
|
|
*Phantom Flight 11
refers to the Commission's assertion that the F-16s scrambled
from Langley were sent up, not to intercept Flight 77,
but to look for Flight 11, under the erroneous belief
that it had bypassed New York City and was headed for the capital.
|