American Airlines Has Problems Making Contact with FAA Command Center

[Archangel]

American Airlines has problems contacting the FAA's Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, about the problems with its aircraft, according to four managers working at the airline's System Operations Control (SOC) center in Fort Worth, Texas, on this day. Craig Marquis, Craig Parfitt, Joe Bertapelle, and Mike Mulcahy will later tell the 9/11 Commission that American Airlines has "a hard time on 9/11 in getting in touch with Herndon." They will say that "[p]recious minutes were lost in building the communications bridge" between the SOC and the Command Center. The cause of these communication problems is unknown. [9/11 Commission, 11/19/2003 pdf file]

The SOC has known that there are problems on Flight 11 since 8:21 a.m., when Marquis received a call from a supervisor at the airline's Southeastern Reservations Office in North Carolina, alerting him to a call that had been received from one of the plane's flight attendants about the emergency taking place (see 8:21 a.m. September 11, 2001). Presumably the SOC starts trying to contact the FAA Command Center soon after receiving this call. It is known that the SOC will make contact with the Command Center at 9:16 a.m., if not earlier (see 9:16 a.m.-9:18 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 9, 15]

Bill Halleck, an air traffic control specialist at the SOC, is at least able to reach the FAA's Boston Center regarding Flight 11 at 8:29 a.m. (see 8:29 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 5, 453]

The four American Airlines managers will also tell the 9/11 Commission, "In the event that the [American Airlines] SOC was aware that it was the first to know about an incident [with an aircraft], the protocol would have been for the SOC manager on duty [i.e. Marquis] to have immediately autodialed to the Herndon manager on duty [i.e. Ben Sliney] with the information." However, the FAA "knew what was going on because of the intercepted communications from the cockpit." [9/11 Commission, 11/19/2003 pdf file]

(FAA air traffic controllers have been aware of problems with Flight 11 since around 8:14 a.m., when they lost communication with the plane (see 8:14 a.m.-8:24 a.m. September 11, 2001), and they subsequently hear communications made by the hijackers on the plane, beginning at 8:24 a.m. (see 8:24 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 18-19] )