9/11 Timeline - A Graphic Representation of the Inability of the Bush Administration to deal with Terorists
  8:00 8:05 8:10 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 8:35 8:40 8:45 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:30 9:35 9:40 9:45 9:50 9:55 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:15 10:20 10:25
7:59
AA Flight 11 takes off from Boston's Logan Airport 		8:13
AA Flight 11
hijacked 		8:25
Boston ATC notifies other ATC centers of Flight 11 hijacking 		8:46
Flight 11 hits the north tower,
1World Trade Center 		10:28 WTC North Tower collapses
  8:14
UA Flight 175 takes off from Boston's Logan Airport 		8:42
UA Flight 175 hijacked; NORAD notified at 8:43 		    9:03
Flight 175 hits the south tower,
2 World Trade Center 		9:59
WTC South
Tower collapses
  8:20
AA Flight 77 takes off from Washington's Dulles Airport 		8:50
AA Flight 77
is hijacked 		9:05
Clearly it's terrorism, but no fighters are send to intercept Flight 77 		9:41 Flight 77 crashes
into the west side
of the Pentagon
  8:42
UA Flight 93 takes off from Newark Int'l Airport 		  9:16
The FAA informs NORAD that
UA Flight 93 may have been hijacked 		10:06 Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylviana, a 15 minute flight from Washington DC.
President George W. Bush is in Sarasota, Florida. Around 8:45 he motorcades to Booker Elementary. On arrival, he watches TV. Later says "I saw an airplane hit the tower...horrible accident".   9:02 Bush reads story w/
2nd-graders about a pet
goat; 9:05 is told of 2nd
WTC attack; reads for
at least 7 more minutes 		9:27
Spk
with
V.P.
  		9:30 Bush
speaks to reporters right on schedule
 		9:41 Bush is boarding Air Force One at the Sarasota airport 9:55 Bush takes off from the Sarasota, Florida
airport on Air Force One with no military escort.
Bush talks to Cheney on the phone. Cheney recommends that Bush authorize the military to shoot down any plane under control of the hijackers. Bush agrees.
8:30 Vice President Dick Cheney
is at his office in the White House. 		  9:27
Spks
with
Bush
9:32 Secret Service
agents rush Cheney to underground bunker at
the White House
 		9:55 Cheney speaks to Bush on the phone. A bit later, an aide asks Cheney, "There is a plane 80 miles out. There is a fighter in the area. Should we engage?" Cheney immediately answers "Yes."
Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts  8:46 Scrambles 2 F-15s  9:11 2 F-15s patrol over New York City
Langley Air Force Base in southeastern Virginia   9:27 Scrambles 3 F-16s which take off at 9:30 and fly towards New York (!)
Andrews Air Force Base near Washington DC   9:03 Ordered to 'Prepare' 9:41 Finally ordered to scramble; F-16s take off around 9:50
Ohio Air National Guard unit based at Toledo Express Airport    10:01 Scramble 2     10:17 Two F-16s take off
All Other Air Defense Units  
  8:00 8:05 8:10 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 8:35 8:40 8:45 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:30 9:35 9:40 9:45 9:50 9:55 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:15 10:20 10:25

All the words and pictures above are clickable if you want more information.

Key:
Normal Actions,
Normal Responses
Crisis Actions,
Crisis Responses
Death
  
(press F11 in many browsers for a better view)

Often you can learn quite a lot from what didn't happen, but seemingly should have:

  1. At 9:05, according to Bush himself, "Andy Card came and said, 'America is under attack.'" Why did the President do nothing for at least 7 minutes other than read a story about a pet goat with a group of second-graders?

  2. Why didn't the Secret Service wisk Bush away? If America was under attack and the President was exactly where his previously published schedule said he would be, wouldn't he be in danger?

  3. By 9:05, both WTC towers have been hit. Flight 77 has been reported hijacked for 15 minutes. Yet no fighters are scrambled until 9:27 - and those (from Langely AFB) were sent towards New York. Why weren't they scambled earlier? Why were they not sent to intercept Flight 77?

  4. Around 9:05, at Syracuse, New York, an ANG commander [tells Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) commander Robert] Marr, 'Give me 10 minutes and I can give you hot guns. Give me 30 minutes and I'll have heat-seeker [missiles]. Give me an hour and I can give you slammers [Amraams].'" Marr replies, "I want it all." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] Yet supposedly, the first fighters don't take off from Syracuse until 10:44 - over an hour and a half later. Why the delay when "hot guns" were all that were required and they supposedly would be ready by 9:15?

  5. By 9:20, both Flight 77 and Flight 93 have been reported as hijacked. But why are no fighters scrambled from Andrews AFB until 9:41 - when the Pentagon is hit by Flight 77?

  6. Why does Air Force One take off and fly around aimlessly for many hours - with no military escort? Wouldn't Bush have been safer staying on the ground at some "undisclosed location" than flying the "hostile skies" in a distinctively marked, unescorted plane?
The conspiracy theorist, of course, are having a field day with the above questions. Their answers run the gamut from plausible to ridiculous: But if you aren't a conspiracy theorist, you are left with the realization that the Bush Administration's reaction to an attack on America was to sit; to sit and read a story with children and to sit in fighter planes on the ground. Whatever the reason behind the Bush Administration's appalling lack of response on 9/11, it's quite clear they were incapable of protecting America from terriorism.

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Detailed Timeline for September 11, 2001   This is the source for much of the material presented here.
G. W. Bush's actions (and non-actions) on September 11, 2001
Images and Graphics from September 11, 2001
About this web site
Revised 11 Mar 2004