American Airlines Operations Center Tries to Contact Flight 11, but Gets No Response

[Archangel]

The American Airlines System Operations Control center in Fort Worth, Texas. [Source: American Airlines]

Employees at the American Airlines System Operations Control (SOC) center in Fort Worth, Texas, send ACARS text messages to the pilots of the hijacked Flight 11, but receive no response. At 8:23 a.m., a flight dispatcher at the SOC sends an ACARS message to Flight 11. ACARS, meaning Aircraft Communications and Reporting System, is an e-mail system enabling company personnel on the ground to rapidly communicate with those in the cockpit of an in-flight aircraft. The message says: "Good morning.... ATC [air traffic control] looking for you on [radio frequency] 135.32." No response is received from Flight 11. [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 9-10] It is unclear which dispatcher sends this ACARS message. Peggy Houck, the dispatcher responsible for Flight 11, will tell the 9/11 Commission, in 2004, that she tries to reach the flight "via the ACARS system" shortly after 8:20 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 1/8/2004 pdf file] However, when she is interviewed by the FBI later today, Houck will say that "another" American Airlines dispatcher, besides herself, "sent an ACARS message to Flight 11... based upon ATC's attempts to contact Flight 11." [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/11/2001, pp. 5-7]

At 8:25 a.m., Bob Marino, an American Airlines air traffic control specialist at the SOC, sends another ACARS message to Flight 11. This says: "Plz contact Boston Center ASAP.... They have lost radio contact and your transponder signal." Again, no response is received from the plane. Subsequent ACARS messages sent to Flight 11 will also receive no reply. [9/11 Commission, 3/25/2004, pp. 14; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 10]