Supposedly, on 9/11, there are only four fighters on ready status in the Northeastern US, and only 14 fighters on ready status in the entire US. [Back]

8:13 A.M. American Airlines Flight 11 is hijacked around this time. [Back]

8:25 A.M. Boston flight control decides that Flight 11 has probably been hijacked, but they don't notify other air traffic control centers for another five minutes, and don't notify NORAD for about another 20 minutes. ABC News will later say, "There doesn't seem to have been alarm bells going off, traffic controllers getting on with law enforcement or the military. There's a gap there that will have to be investigated." [ABC News, 9/14/01]" [Back]

8:40 A.M. Otis Air National Guard Base is in Massachusetts, 188 miles from New York City: Maj. Daniel Nash (codenamed Nasty) and Lt. Col. Timothy Duffy (codenamed Duff) are the two F-15 pilots who would scramble after Flight 11 and then Flight 175. Nash says that at this time, a colleague at the Otis ANG Base tells him that a flight out of Boston has been hijacked, and to be on alert. They put on their flight gear and get ready. [Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02] Duffy also says that they were told in advance about the hijacking by the FAA in Boston. They are already halfway to their jets when "battle stations" are sounded. Duffy briefs Nash on what he knows, and "About 4-5 minutes later, we got the scramble order and took off." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] [Back]

8:42 A.M. Flight 175 veers from its official course. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01] [Back]

8:43 A.M. NORAD is notified that Flight 175 has been hijacked. [8:43, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:43, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:43, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:43, AP, 8/19/02, 8:43] [Back]

(8:46 A.M.) Two F-15 fighters are ordered to scramble from Otis ANG Base in Massachusetts to find Flight 11, approximately 190 miles from the known location of the plane and 188 miles from New York City. [8:46, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:44, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:44, Washington Post, 9/15/01] Fighters in nearer bases are not scrambled - presumably because they are not on "ready status." [Back]

8:46 A.M. Flight 11 hits the north tower, 1 World Trade Center. [Back]

8:50 A.M. The last radio contact with Flight 77 is made when the pilots ask for clearance to fly higher. But then they fail to respond to a routine instruction. [8:50, Guardian, 10/17/01, Boston Globe, 11/23/01, 8:50:51, New York Times, 10/16/01] Five minutes later, Flight 77 turns around over northeastern Kentucky and heads back towards Washington. [Washington Post, 9/12/01, Newsday, 9/23/01] [Back]

(8:52 A.M.) Two F-15's take off from Otis ANG Base, six minutes after being ordered to go after Flight 11, which has already crashed. [8:52, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:52, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:53, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:52, Washington Post, 9/15/01] This is 38 minutes after flight controllers lost contact with the plane. They go after Flight 175 instead. [Back]

9:03 A.M. Flight 175 hits the south tower, 2 World Trade Center. F-15 fighter jets from Otis ANG Base are still 71 miles away. They have covered 117 miles in 11 minutes - at a speed of 638 mph. F-15's can travel over 1875 mph. [Air Force News, 7/30/97] Why are they flying so slow given that the first hijacked airliner has already crashed into WTC 1?

The minute Flight 175 hits the south tower, F-15 pilot Maj. Daniel Nash says that clear visibility allows him to see smoke pour out of Manhattan. However, instead of being ordered to New York City, the two F-15's are ordered to hover in a 150-mile chunk of air space off the coast of Long Island. "Neither the civilian controller or the military controller knew what they wanted us to do."

(9:11 A.M.) A few minutes later, the F-15's receive orders to head to Manhattan for combat air patrol, and they do that for the next four hours. At no point are these pilots given permission to shoot down any airliners. Nash points out that even if he had reached New York City before Flight 175, he couldn't shoot it down because only the President could make that decision. [Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02] During this time, President Bush is reading a book about a goat to 18 second-graders. [Back]

(After 9:03 A.M.) Shortly after the second WTC crash, calls from fighter units start "pouring into NORAD and sector operations centers, asking, 'What can we do to help?' At Syracuse, New York, an ANG commander [tells Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) commander Robert] Marr, 'Give me 10 min. and I can give you hot guns. Give me 30 min. 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. These are supposedly the first fighters scrambled from the ground aside from two from Otis, three from Langley, bewteen two & five from Andrews, and two from Toledo at 10:17. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/01] What happened to all these volunteer fighters? Why the delay when "hot guns" were all that were required and they supposedly would be ready by 9:15? [Back]

(After 9:03 A.M.) A few minutes after 9:03, the Secret Service calls Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from Washington. They are notified to get F-16's armed and ready to fly. Missiles are still being loaded onto the F-16's when the Pentagon is hit over half an hour later. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/02] Prior to 9/11, The District of Columbia Air National Guard (located at Andrews) had a publicly stated mission "to provide combat units in the highest possible state of readiness." Shortly after 9/11 this mission statement on its website is changed, so it merely has a "vision" to "provide peacetime command and control and administrative mission oversight to support customers, DCANG units, and NGB in achieving the highest levels of readiness." [DCANG Home Page (before and after the change)] [Back]

9:09 A.M. Supposedly, NORAD orders F-16's at Langley Air Force Base in southeastern Virginia, 129 miles from Washington, on battle stations alert. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] Yet the order to scramble won't come till 9:27 or so, and they won't take off until 9:30.

9:16 A.M. The FAA informs NORAD that United Airlines Flight 93 may have been hijacked. Officially, no fighters are scrambled in specific response, now or later. [CNN, 9/17/01, NORAD, 9/18/01]

9:24 A.M. A fighter pilot codenamed Honey who flew one of the F-16's from Langley offers a different story than the official one. He claims that at 9:24 a battle stations alert sounds, and two other pilots are given the order to climb into their F-16's and await further instructions. Then, Honey, who is the supervisor, goes and talks to the two other pilots. Then, "five or ten minutes later," a person from NORAD calls, and Honey speaks to him at the nearby administrative office. He is told that all three of them are ordered to scramble. Then, Honey goes to his living quarters, grabs his flight gear, puts it on, runs to his plane and takes off. Its hard to know exactly how long all of this took, but clearly his recollection doesn't jibe with the official timeline, that NORAD ordered the fighters scrambled at 9:27 and they took off at 9:30. [The book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 64-65]

(9:27 A.M.) NORAD orders three F-16 fighters scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Langley is 129 miles from Washington. Aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base, 15 miles away, are not scrambled. [Newsday, 9/23/01] [9:24, NORAD, 9/18/01, 9:27, CNN, 9/17/01, 9:25, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 9:35, CNN, 9/17/01, 9:35, Washington Post, 9/15/01] Officially, they take off at 9:30 A.M. [Back]

9:41 A.M. Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. NORAD states the fighters took off from Langley at 9:30, 129 miles away, yet when Flight 77 crashes they are still 105 miles away. [NORAD, 9/18/01] However, an F-16 pilot codenamed Honey later offers a different explanation of where the F-16's are when Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. He says they are flying towards New York, when they see a black column of smoke coming from Washington, about 30 or 40 miles to the west. He is then asked over the radio by the North East Air Defense Sector of NORAD if he can confirm the Pentagon is burning. He confirms it. The F-16's are then ordered to set up a defensive perimeter above Washington. [The book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 76] This contradicts the official NORAD claim that the F-16's were still 105 miles away when the Pentagon was hit. [NORAD, 9/18/01]

(After 9:41 A.M.) A few minutes after Flight 77 crashes, the Secret Service commands fighters from Andrews Air Force Base, 10 miles from Washington, to "Get in the air now!" Almost simultaneously, a call from someone else in the White House declares the Washington area "a free-fire zone. That meant we were given authority to use force, if the situation required it, in defense of the nation's capital, its property and people," says one of the pilots. Lt. Col. Marc H. (Sass) Sasseville and a pilot only known by the codename Lucky sprint to their waiting F-16's armed only with "hot" guns and 511 rounds of "TP" -- nonexplosive training rounds. The pilots later say that, had all else failed, they would have rammed into Flight 93. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/02]

9:55 A.M. After take off in Air Force One from Sarasota, Florida, Bush talks to Cheney on the phone. Cheney recommends that Bush authorize the military to shoot down any plane under control of the hijackers. "I said, 'You bet,'" Bush later recalls. "We had a little discussion, but not much." ["after Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon", Newsday, 9/23/01, time unknown, USA Today, 9/16/01, "Once airborne, Bush spoke again to Cheney", Washington Post, 1/27/02, after Bush is airborne, CBS, 9/11/02]

(After 9:55 A.M.) Inside his White House bunker, a military aide asks Cheney, "There is a plane 80 miles out. There is a fighter in the area. Should we engage?" Cheney immediately answers "Yes." As the fighter gets nearer to Flight 93, he is asked the same thing twice more, and responds yes both times. [Washington Post, 1/27/02] Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver, director of the Air National Guard, had previously claimed that no military planes were sent after Flight 93. [Seattle Times, 9/16/01] However, two of the three pilots flying over Washington specifically deny ever being ordered to shoot down a plane (the third hasn't spoken). They say that all of them didn't even learn about Flight 93 or any plane crashing in Pennsylvania until they returned to base in the afternoon. [The book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 222]

(After 9:55 A.M.) At some point after the F-16's are in the air, someone from the Secret Service gets on the radio and tells the pilots, "I want you to protect the White House at all costs." [New York Times, 10/16/01]

(Before 10:00 A.M.) Three F-16 fighter jets near Washington head in pursuit towards Flight 93. ["Sometime shortly before 10," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/28/01] Yet the pilots themselves deny this. They say they maintained a defensive position over Washington for four hours. [The book Among the Heroes, 8/02, p. 222].

10:01 A.M. The FAA orders F-16 fighters to scramble from the 180th Fighter Wing - an Ohio Air National Guard unit based at Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/01] [Back]

(Before 10:06 A.M.) CBS television reports at some point before the crash that two F-16 fighters are tailing Flight 93. [Independent, 8/13/02] Shortly after 9/11, an flight controller in New Hampshire ignores a ban on controllers speaking to the media, and it is reported he claims "that an F-16 fighter closely pursued Flight 93... the F-16 made 360-degree turns to remain close to the commercial jet, the employee said. 'He must've seen the whole thing,' the employee said of the F-16 pilot's view of Flight 93's crash." [AP, 9/13/01, Nashua Telegraph, 9/13/01]

10:06 A.M. Flight 93 crashes just north of the Somerset County Airport, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, 124 miles or 15 minutes from Washington DC. Little information has been made public. It is now believed its target was the White House. The plane was generally obliterated upon landing, except for one half ton piece of engine found over a mile away. [Independent, 8/13/02] One story calls what happened to this engine "intriguing," because "the heat-seeking, air-to-air Sidewinder missiles aboard an F-16 would likely target one of the Boeing 757's two large engines." [Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/01] Smaller debris fields were also found two, three and eight miles away from the main crash site. [CBS, 5/23/02] [10:06:05, US Army authorized seismic study] For an in depth look at the crash of Flight 93, visit the excellent How Did United Flight 93 Crash? web site.

10:17 A.M. Although the 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo has no fighters on standby alert status, it manages to put fighters in the air 16 minutes later, a "phenomenal" response time - but still 10 minutes after the last hijacked plane has crashed. [Toledo Blade, 12/9/01] If the 180th Fighter Wing could get F-16's in the air in 16 minutes, why did it take so much longer for the DC ANG at Andrews Airforce Base? [Back]

(2:00 P.M.) F-15 fighter pilot Maj. Daniel Nash returns to base around this time, after chasing Flight 175 and patrolling the skies over New York City. He says that when he got out of the plane, "he was told that a military F-16 had shot down a fourth airliner in Pennsylvania, a report that turned out to be incorrect." [about 1:30, Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02, about 2:30, Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02] Was it incorrect? [Back]