Phantom flight 11
At 8:46 on 9/11, a passenger jet crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. By 9:16 AM American Airlines had contacted the FAA to inform them that they believed this was Flight 11 (source). However, moments later the Boston military liaison, Colin Scoggins, would hear what he believed was a report saying that Flight 11 was still in the air. He called NEADS at 9:21, and the audio is available on the NORAD Tapes:
<mp3>NoradScogginsFlight11a.mp3|download</mp3>- NORAD - Flight 11 still in the air, 9:21
BOS MIL = Boston military liaison Colin Scoggins
(Timecode begins 13:20:57UTC or 09:20:57EDT)
09:20:57 NEADS ID2: Huntress ID, Rountree, can I help you.
09:20:58 BOS MIL: Scoggins, military, Boston Center. I just had a report that American 11 is still in the air, and it's on its way towards-heading towards Washington.
09:21:06 NEADS ID2: Okay. American 11 is still in the air?
09:21:08 BOS MIL: Yes.
09:21:08 NEADS ID2: On its way towards Washington?
09:21:10 BOS MIL: That was another-it was evidently another aircraft that hit the tower. That's the latest report we have.
09:21:12 NEADS ID2: Okay.
09:21:12 BOS MIL: I'm going to try to confirm an ID for you, but I would assume he's somewhere over, uh, either New Jersey or somewhere further south.
09:21:19 NEADS ID2: Okay. So American 11 isn't the hijack at all then, right?
09:21:21 BOS MIL: No, he is a hijack.
09:21:23 NEADS ID2: He-American 11 is a hijack?
09:21:26 BOS MIL: Yes.
09:21:26 NEADS ID2: And he's going into Washington?
09:21:27 BOS MIL: Yes. This could be a third aircraft.
09:21:28 NEADS ID2: It could be a third aircraft going on to Washington. Do you have a MODE 3 [transponder code] on him, sir?
09:21:32 BOS MIL: No MODE3, we're trying to get an, a radial DME if I can. This is a report out from Washington Centre, you might want to get someone on another phone talking to Washington Centre, see if they have him tracked up.
09:21:39 NEADS ID2: Copy that. They-
09:21:40 BOS MIL: Then get maybe DC Guard or somebody up there on that, on the aircraft.
09:21:43 NEADS ID2: Okay, do you have a lat/long [latitude/longitude - position] right now on it?
09:21:45 BOS MIL: Uh, I'll try to get one.
Full DRM1_DAT2_Channel_7_ID2_OP.zip (84 MB)
Why did Scoggins believe this? The Vanity Fair article, "The NORAD Tapes", explained here:
NASYPANY: O.K. American Airlines is still airborne—11, the first guy. He's heading towards Washington. O.K., I think we need to scramble Langley right now. And I'm—I'm gonna take the fighters from Otis and try to chase this guy down if I can find him.
Arnold and Marr approve scrambling the two planes at Langley, along with a third unarmed trainer, and Nasypany sets the launch in motion.
It's a mistake, of course. American 11 was, indeed, the plane that hit the first tower. The confusion will persist for hours, however. In Boston, it is Colin Scoggins who has made the mistaken call.
"When we phoned United [after the second tower was hit], they confirmed that United 175 was down, and I think they confirmed that within two or three minutes," Scoggins, the go-to guy at Boston Center for all things military, later told me. "With American Airlines, we could never confirm if it was down or not, so that left doubt in our minds."
An unwieldy conference call between F.A.A. centers had been established, and Scoggins was monitoring it when the word came across—from whom or where isn't clear—that American 11 was thought to be headed for Washington. Scoggins told me he thinks that the problem started with someone overheard trying to confirm from American whether American 11 was down—that somewhere in the flurry of information zipping back and forth during the conference call this transmogrified into the idea that a different plane had hit the tower, and that American 11 was still hijacked and still in the air. The plane's course, had it continued south past New York in the direction it was flying before it dipped below radar coverage, would have had it headed on a straight course toward D.C. This was all controllers were going on; they were never tracking an actual plane on the radar after losing American 11 near Manhattan, but if it had been flying low enough, the plane could have gone undetected. "After talking to a supervisor, I made the call and said [American 11] is still in the air, and it's probably somewhere over New Jersey or Delaware heading for Washington, D.C.," Scoggins told me.http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/08/norad200608?currentPage=6
The "phantom Flight 11" story has been used to support the idea of "false blips" on FAA radar, that somehow controllers were looking at a radar signal that wasn't reflecting anything real. The Vanity Fair piece seems to be saying this was wrong, Flight 11 was never picked up on radar after it was lost near Manhattan, however we wanted to clarify this and so asked Scoggins about the incident ourselves:
Colin Scoggins: I was listening on a Telcon with some people at Washington HQ, and other facilities as well, but don't know who they were. Didn't know the people at FAA HQ either. It was some kind of security telcon. I was in contact with many people at that time, UAL175 had crashed. NEADS was interested in Tail Numbers of AAL11 and UAL175. I believe it was either Dan Bueno the Supervisor in charge, or Bo Dean who made some initial calls to the airlines requesting if their aircraft were down, and tail number information. UAL Airlines replied within minutes that they could confirm UAL 175 was down, and they had the tail number. AAL Airlines was totally different. They do what I think they are supposed to do, by locking down their computer after an aircraft crashes, but when they did that, they couldn't access passenger lists, route of flight, it locks everyone out. So we never got confirmation that the plane was down. Somehow this either got misconstrued, and ended up in FAA channels, indicating the plane never crashed, or what I think happened is that someone in HQ knew that AAL77 was missing, and when they were talking about AAL77 they may have dropped the numbers and were reporting that AAL was still missing or still flying but no one knew where. I think this ended up on the telcon as AAL 11 is still airborne. From my point of view the aircraft was heading south at low altitude and we had lost radar, my only guess was he was heading for Washington DC. I found out years later and I am 99% certain the person who made that call on the telcon was Dave Canoles, he has since retired. I took the information I received and called NEADS almost instantly, can't tell you who I told that to, I talked with so many people there the whole day.
911myths: Several 9/11 researchers authors have reported that the “phantom flight 11” was spotted on radar. Is that true?
Colin Scoggins: I have no idea where that came from. Once we lost the aircraft we never even had a hint of another target. I even called FACSFAC VACAPES which has radar up and down the coast, to look for targets, they didn't come up with any.
911myths: If it was never on radar, why say it was going to Washington?
Colin Scoggins: Again it was just my hunch, as where they were heading. The aircraft would have enough gas to get there even at low altitude, but if the aircraft was heading to Cuba, it would never make it at low altitude. Couldn't think of any other important targets on the east coast, so that was where my mind was. I also tried to guess where the aircraft would be at the speed it was traveling.
The "phantom Flight 11" report did not arise from a radar track anyone had spotted, then - it was a mixup in communications. But as the 9/11 Commission reported, it was taken seriously, and NORAD launched fighters as a result:
FAA: Military, Boston Center. I just had a report that American 11 is still in the air, and it’s on its way towards—heading towards Washington.
NEADS: Okay. American 11 is still in the air?
FAA: Yes.
NEADS: On its way towards Washington?
FAA: That was another—it was evidently another aircraft that hit the tower.That’s the latest report we have.
NEADS: Okay.
FAA: I’m going to try to confirm an ID for you, but I would assume he’s somewhere over, uh, either New Jersey or somewhere further south.
NEADS: Okay. So American 11 isn’t the hijack at all then, right?
FAA: No, he is a hijack.
NEADS: He—American 11 is a hijack?
FAA: Yes.
NEADS: And he’s heading into Washington?
FAA: Yes.This could be a third aircraft.
The mention of a “third aircraft”was not a reference to American 77. There was confusion at that moment in the FAA. Two planes had struck the World Trade Center, and Boston Center had heard from FAA headquarters in Washington that American 11 was still airborne. We have been unable to identify the source of this mistaken FAA information.
The NEADS technician who took this call from the FAA immediately passed the word to the mission crew commander, who reported to the NEADS battle commander:
Mission Crew Commander, NEADS: Okay, uh, American Airlines is still airborne. Eleven, the first guy, he’s heading towards Washington. Okay? I think we need to scramble Langley right now. And I’m gonna take the fighters from Otis, try to chase this guy down if I can find him.
After consulting with NEADS command, the crew commander issued the order at 9:23:“Okay . . . scramble Langley.Head them towards the Washington area. . . . [I]f they’re there then we’ll run on them. . . .These guys are smart.” That order was processed and transmitted to Langley Air Force Base at 9:24. Radar data show the Langley fighters airborne at 9:30. NEADS decided to keep the Otis fighters over New York. The heading of the Langley fighters was adjusted to send them to the Baltimore area. The mission crew commander explained to us that the purpose was to position the Langley fighters between the reported southbound American 11 and the nation’s capital.
At the suggestion of the Boston Center’s military liaison, NEADS contacted the FAA’s Washington Center to ask about American 11. In the course of the conversation, a Washington Center manager informed NEADS:“We’re looking— we also lost American 77.” The time was 9:34. This was the first notice to the military that American 77 was missing, and it had come by chance. If NEADS had not placed that call, the NEADS air defenders would have received no information whatsoever that the flight was even missing, although the FAA had been searching for it. No one at FAA headquarters ever asked for military assistance with American 77.Page 26/27, The 9/11 Commission Report