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FAA Headquarters Informed of Flight 11 Hijacking, but Does Not Contact the Pentagon to Request Assistance

Started by Archangel, August 03, 2017, 07:47:05 PM

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Archangel

August 03, 2017, 07:47:05 PM



FAA headquarters in Washington, DC. [Source: FAA]		Four minutes after it is informed of the suspected hijacking of Flight 11 (see 8:28 a.m. September 11, 2001), the FAA Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, passes on word of the hijacking to the operations center at FAA headquarters in Washington, DC. The headquarters is apparently already aware of the hijacking, as the duty officer who speaks with the Command Center responds that security personnel at the headquarters have just been discussing it on a conference call with the FAA's New England regional office. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 19; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 11]

According to the 9/11 Commission, "FAA headquarters is ultimately responsible for the management of the national airspace system," and the operations center there "receives notifications of incidents, including accidents and hijackings." FAA headquarters has a hijack coordinator, who is "the director of the FAA Office of Civil Aviation Security or his or her designate." Procedures require that, if a hijacking is confirmed, the hijack coordinator on duty is "to contact the Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC) and to ask for a military escort aircraft to follow the flight, report anything unusual, and aid search and rescue in the event of an emergency." Yet, the Commission will state, although "FAA headquarters began to follow the hijack protocol," it does "not contact the NMCC to request a fighter escort." [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 16-19]

Mike Canavan, who would normally be the FAA's hijack coordinator, is away in Puerto Rico this morning, and it is unclear who—if anyone—is standing in for him in this critical role (see 8:30 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 5/23/2003; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 17]
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