Boston Center Starts Notifying Chain of Command

[Archangel]

Boston flight control begins notifying the chain of command that a suspected hijacking of Flight 11 is in progress. Those notified include the center's own facility manager, the FAA's New England Regional Operations Center (ROC) in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the FAA Command Center in Herndon, Virginia (see 8:28 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/17/2001 pdf file; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 11]

According to the 9/11 Commission, this is consistent with FAA protocol: "From interviews of controllers at various FAA centers, we learned that an air traffic controller's first response to an aircraft incident is to notify a supervisor, who then notifies the traffic management unit and the operations manager in charge. The FAA center next notifies the appropriate regional operations center (ROC), which in turn contacts FAA headquarters." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 458]

But according to Ben Sliney, the national operations manager at the FAA's Command Center, "the protocol was in place that the center that reported the hijacking would notify the military.... I go back to 1964, where I began my air traffic career, and they have always followed the same protocol." [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]

Yet Boston Center supposedly will not contact NORAD about Flight 11 until about 12 minutes later (see (8:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Already about ten minutes have passed since controllers first noticed a loss of contact with Flight 11 (see (8:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Boston reportedly also contacts several other air traffic control centers about the suspected hijacking at this time (see 8:25 a.m. September 11, 2001).