9/11 Review
Wiki

Clear the skies
Date : 08 September 2002
Genre :
Politics
September 11th 2001
05:45:00
Doug Mills, AP White House Photographer: 'We could see at a
distance the President with the Secret Service jogging. Everything
about it was ordinary - extremely ordinary. The President had a
good jog. The plan for the day was going to be education. He was
going to a classroom. And then we were heading back to Washington.
Obviously it didn't all end that way.'
08:30:00
Sarasota, Florida
The Presidential motorcade heads for a local school. The
morning
intelligence briefing over, the threat level considered low. Before
the day
ends George W. Bush will have embarked on a remarkable odyssey -
unlike any
previous President.
For hours the country will effectively be run from a blast proof
bunker. And
America will be reeling from the most devastating attack since
Pearl
Harbour.
08:40:00
Northeast Air Defence Sector, Rome, New York State
At this remote military outpost known as Huntress Control they are
- as
usual - scanning the skies, looking for signs of attack from the
air.
It so happens that on this morning they are conducting a major war
game
called Vigilant Guardian when they receive a call.
Sgt. Jeremy Powell: 'It was the first thing in the morning. We were
in the
middle of an exercise. Boston Centre gave us a call - said hey we
have a
hijack, a possible hijack, one of our airlines might be hijacked.
But since
we were in the middle of an exercise he didn't say 'real world'
or
'exercise'. So had to ask him, is this real world or is this
exercise, and
he said no, no it's real. We have a no shit hijack. This is real
world.'
Robert Marr: 'I'll call 1st Air Force and let them know we've got
a
potential incident.'
'Duff', F15 Pilot, Otis Air Force Base: 'I was just standing up by
the ops
desk and I was told I had a phone call. I asked who it was and they
said the
Tower calling and something about a hijacking. It was flight
American 11, a
767, out of Boston going to California. At the time we ran in and
got suited
up.'
The two pilots - known as 'Duff' and 'Nasty' - scramble. They are
two of
only four fighter pilots on alert, covering the North Eastern
United States.
For years the threat of attack from the air had been considered so
small
that on this day the United States mainland is being defended by
just 14
planes dispersed at 7 bases.
Duff: 'We went out, we hopped in the jets and we were ready to go -
standby
for a scramble order if we were going to get one.'
Neither pilot at this time has any reason to believe that this is
other than
a routine exercise.
Duff: 'It's just peacetime. We're not thinking anything real bad is
going to
happen out there.
Marr: 'Battle stations is attained.'
08:46:00
American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the
World Trade
Center.
Unidentified observer: 'Holy Shit!'
Marr: 'Looks like we've got a possible hijacking. Plan on
scrambling the
jets out of Otis, down to military air space south of New York.
Scramble
Otis! Scramble Otis!'
The two F15 pilots are 250 kilometres from New York. As they take
off they are
unaware that one plane has already hit the World Trade Center.
08:52:00
Duff: 'When we took off we started climbing a 280-heading,
basically towards
New York City. I was supersonic.'
09:00:00
The President's motorcade is nearing the school in Florida. One of
his aides
travelling with him takes a call reporting an accident in New York
and asks
to be kept informed. At this stage the President knows about the
first plane
but presumes it's an accident.
09:02:00
A second plane - United Flight 175 - hits the South Tower of the
World Trade
Center.
Duff: 'It was right about then when they said the second aircraft
had just
hit the World Trade Center, which was quite a shock to both Nasty
and I,
because we both thought there was only one aircraft out there. We
were
probably 70 miles or so out when the second one hit. So, we were
just a
matter of minutes away.'
Nasty, F15 pilot, Otis Air Force Base: 'For a long time I wondered
what
would have happened if we had been scrambled in time.'
Duff: 'We've been over the flight a thousand times in our minds and
I don't
know what we could have done to get there any quicker.'
Unidentified schoolteacher: 'Get ready ... give yourselves a pat on
the back
there.'
Pres. George W. Bush: 'Yeah!'
Ann Compton, White House Correspondent, ABC News: 'There were about
5 of us
standing at the back of this second grade classroom - little kids
there
running through their reading drills with their teacher - it seemed
like the
most innocent, most normal, most kind of ordinary place in the
world. But I
did a double take when the President's Chief of Staff came in,
leaned over
and whispered into the President's ear. Now that's remarkable,
nobody ever
interrupts the President, even when he's in front of a group of six
year
olds, it just isn't done.'
[Andy Card whispers in President's ear.]
9:07:00
Mills: 'His face just went blank as if 'Oh, my God'. When the Chief
of Staff
whispers in your ear, 'Mr President, a second aircraft has just hit
the
World Trade Center - America is under attack,' I mean I can't
imagine what
was going through his mind.
Duff: 'We were to proceed to Manhattan directly and set up a combat
air
patrol. It was like you're in the middle of a bad B-movie - flying
over
Central Park, chasing down aeroplanes and watching the Towers
burning and
flying by the Statue of Liberty. It was a very surreal kind of
experience.
It shouldn't have been happening.'
09:21:00
At the school, President Bush uses a secure phone to call the
Vice
President. He turns often to look at a TV screen and declares
'we're at
war' - unaware a third hijacked plane is airborne.
Major Dean Eckmann, F-16 pilot, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia:
'The
scramble horn goes off and we get the yellow light, which is our
battle
stations. So at that point I go running out to the aeroplanes - to
my
assigned alert aeroplane - get suited up and I get into the cockpit
ready to
start.'
Dean Eckmann and Craig Borgstrom are the remaining two pilots on
alert in
the North East. Controllers are aware of other hijacked planes.
These pilots
are told to fly to Washington to protect the capital. But their
base is
almost 300 kilometres away.
Eckmann: 'They go 'active air scramble, vector zero one zero one,
max
speed'. And then I push us over to the tower frequency and get our
departure
clearance and they launch us out right away.'
Even while last minute pre-launch checks are being made, the
controllers
learn that a third plane - American Airlines flight 77 out of
Washington -
may have been hijacked.
09:24:00
Marr: 'North East sectors back on. We ought to be getting the
weapons crews
back in. Get the scramble order rolling. Scramble.'
Eckmann: 'We can carry M9-Heat Seekers, Side Winders for the
M7-Sparrow,
plus we have an internal 20mm Vulcan Cannon, and we were pretty
much armed
with all that. We had a pretty quick response time. I believe it
was four to
five minutes we were airborne from that point.'
The pilots get a signal over the plane's transponder - a code that
indicates
an emergency wartime situation.
09:30:00
Emma E. Booker School, Sarasota, Florida
President Bush decides to make his first comments: 'Today we've had
a
national tragedy. Two aeroplanes have crashed into the World Trade
Center in
an apparent terrorist attack on our country. And I've ordered that
the full
resources of the Federal Government conduct a full-scale
investigation to
hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. Terrorism
against
our nation will not stand.'
Officer Kevin Dowd, Sarasota Police: 'The Secret Service agent ran
out from
the school and said we're under terrorist attack we have to go
now.'
09:33:00
Compton: 'It was a mad-dash motorcade out to the airport.'
Dowd: 'The Secret Service agents all had weapon barrels that were
visible
and they were pointing up at the ready position in case they needed
to be
used.'
On the radar screens an Air Traffic Controller spots an
unidentified blip.
It's a plane with its transponder turned off and its heading
straight for
Washington DC. It's flying low at 800 kilometres per hour. Air
Traffic Control
immediately warns the Secret Service.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC presenter: 'Here at the White House, Secret
Service agents
rushed into the Vice President's office. Sir, they said, we have to
leave
immediately. Before he could respond they grabbed him under the
arms,
practically lifting the Vice President off the ground. They took
him to the
White House basement, along a tunnel, to an underground
bunker.'
Vice President Dick Cheney, now secure, takes charge (at the
Presidential
Emergency Operations Centre). One of those who joined the Vice
President
there was his wife Lynne Cheney.
Lynne Cheney: 'My husband had talked to the President and they
decided that
the thing to do if the airline continued to approach was to shoot
it down.
That was one of the more horrific moments I can remember.'
Eckmann: 'They said - all aeroplanes, if you come within (I believe
it was)
30 miles of Washington DC, you will be shot down.'
Also in the bunker Norman Minetta. He was talking to the Federal
Aviation
Administration as a suspect plane approached the capital.
Norman Minetta, Secretary of Transportation: 'The young man said to
the Vice
President - 'The plane's ten miles out. Do the orders still stand?'
- and
the Vice President whipped his head around and said of course they
do.'
Some fears turned out to be unfounded but one threat quickly became
real.
Unidentified pilot: '... American Airlines plane headed east over
the Pike
towards the Pentagon.'
Mike Walter, CNN correspondent: 'I heard the roar of the engine. I
rolled
down the window. I looked up, I saw the jet banking and could
clearly you
could see the AA on the side, I knew it was an American Airlines
jet and it
went into a steep decline & accelerated.'
[Security camera footage of plane hitting the Pentagon]
Voice on police radio: 'We've just had an aeroplane crash, Eastern
area,
what appears to be the district area.'
09:37:00
American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon with 64 people on
board. The
fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base had been 160 kilometres
away at the
moment of impact - that's 12 minutes flying time. Now, though, the
pilots
can see the smoke rising from America's military headquarters.
Dennis Hastert, Speaker, House of Representatives: 'I went to my
staff I
said, 'That smoke is not supposed to be there. What happened?' And
just
moments later he came back and said, well, there was a third plane
that's
gone into the Pentagon.'
Porter Goss, Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence: 'I
tried to call the Speaker and all the phone lines were obviously
very jammed
by that time so I just ran down his office which is two floors
below and got
in to see him just as the plane hit the Pentagon.'
Hastert: 'So I'm thinking two planes in the World Trade Tower, a
plane into
the Pentagon, here we're sitting in this beautiful building on a
hill, which
is really the epitome of freedom and liberty and democracy - a
symbol around
the world - we've got to be a target if there are more planes out
there.'
Goss: 'I said Mr speaker I think we need to leave now.'
Minetta: 'I said bring down all the planes - have them get on the
ground as
soon as possible. Now at that point we had something like 4 836
planes in
the air.'
09:45:00
All flight controllers are told to go to condition Air Traffic
Control Zero.
It means clearing the skies of all private and commercial planes -
something
never attempted before.
Minetta: 'It's just an immediate reaction to bring the planes down
because
at that point also we probably had maybe about ten unaccounted for
aeroplanes.'
[Cockpit Voice Recording, Flight 93]
'This is the captain. We'd like you to remain seated. There is a
bomb on
board. We are going to turn back to the airport. We have our
demands, so
please remain quiet.'
Controllers intercept an alarming message from United Flight 93
bound for
California. It appears to be turning back east, possibly towards
the
Capital. And it is not responding.
[Recording of ATC trying to talk to hijackers]
'United 93, I understand you have a bomb on board, go ahead. United
93,
Cleveland, do you still hear the centre? United 93, do you still
hear,
Cleveland.'
Marr: 'I have determined of course that with only four aircraft, we
cannot
defend the whole north eastern United States. That was the
sensation of
frustration of - I don't have the forces available to do anything
about
this.'
09:48:00
People begin running from the Capital building.
Unidentified staff member: 'I can't take this. I'm going home!'
Word is spreading that there is a fourth hijacked plane, twenty
minutes out
and approaching fast.
Lt. Dan Nichols, Capitol Police: 'That day I thought we were going
to lose
the capital of the United States to a terrorist attack.'
Unidentified police officer: 'Let's get away from the
building.'
Two jets are diverted from a training mission in a desperate
attempt to head
off United Flight 93. These planes, like others called on that day,
have not
even been armed.
Marr: 'Sometimes the only way to stop an aircraft is with your own
aircraft
if you don't have any weapons.'
Police officer: 'Find out who is missing, who is missing from your
office,
or if everyone is accounted for. So if you can please co-operate
...'
Nichols: 'You'd spot people's shoes that people were so frantically
trying
to get out of the buildings they actually ran out of their shoes
and left
their shoes behind.'
Hastert: 'Two of my security people grabbed me - one on each side -
and said
we think a plane's coming for the Capital. And so I was exited out,
down
through the tunnels, into our car and shuttled off at high speed to
Andrews
Airforce base.'
Goss: I turned to look at the Speaker and he was gone. The security
people
had taken him away. As you know, he's third in line of succession,
so he was
whisked away literally.'
09:50:00
Collapse of South Tower
Nasty: 'The New York controller did come over the radio and say if
we have
another hijacked aircraft we're going to have to shoot it
down.'
Unidentified broadcaster in helicopter: 'It's down! The whole
Tower, it's
gone! Holy crap!'
Duffy: 'From where we were sitting you could see there were people
dying and
it had to stop. So if that's what its going to take, that was our
job. We would have done it.'
Compton: 'We raced to where Air Force One was prepped and ready to
go.
The President was hustled quickly on board Air Force One - no
waving
goodbye, no shaking hands - on board and the door sealed. And the
Secret
Service agents standing with the 13 of us from the press who get on
the rear
stairs were yelling 'move it, move it, move it!' We scrambled on
board the
aircraft and took off very, very quickly.'
09:54:00
Dowd: 'I've never seen a plane take off like that. From where we
were
standing, looking back on it, the angle was almost ... from where
we were
looking at it, it looked like it was going almost straight up.'
Compton: 'And for the first time that day, I felt a chill of
foreboding. We
were alone on an aircraft, the skies were empty. The terrorist
threat was
still undefined to us. We knew very little. The TV signal that we
could see
in the front of our cabin of our screen was very weak. It showed
smoke
coming from the Pentagon. It had more questions than answers.
Mills: 'No one is to use their cell phone or pagers - no two-way
paging, no
cell phones, period. And we're like 'why?'. Well, 'we could be
being
tracked'. It was unprecedented.'
Television commentary: 'It's worse than any disaster movie you
could
imagine.'
Compton: 'I've always known there's a Doomsday scenario of how to
evacuate
and keep a President safe to maintain the American government's
chain of
command in the worst nuclear disaster. I never thought I would be
sitting on
that military aircraft watching the plan go into effect.'
Brig. General Jim Hunter, Vice Commander, Cheyenne Operations
Centre: 'There
was a lot of discussion as to where the President should go, they
wanted to
keep him moving, a moving target's obviously harder to hit.'
North American Aerospace Defence Command, Colorado
Tracking Air Force One - with the President on board - is the
responsibility
of a command post inside Cheyenne Mountain. This is the nerve
centre of
North America's air defence.
Dug into the granite are fifteen two-storey buildings mounted on
springs;
designed to continue to operate in the event of a nuclear
attack.
That created a problem on September 11. In searching for
potentially hostile
planes, the military could see less than a fifth of the 4 000
planes in the
air. They were tracking 001 - the President's plane - yet they
found
themselves partially sighted just as the Federal Aviation
Administration was
reporting a growing number of hijacks.
Lt Col. Bill Glover, Commander, Air Warning Centre: 'We were
receiving calls
from the FAA now that were saying hey this may be a possible hijack
or this
aircraft may be a possible hijack. We did not know how many more
there were.
Were there 5,6,7, or 8?'
Hunter: 'Eventually during the morning we had the President, The
Vice
President and the Secretary of Defence of the United States on the
line.'
Glover: 'When the Vice President called, he said that our
primary
responsibility at this time - because at that time we didn't know
how many
more there were - was we had to protect the civilian government
infrastructure there in Washington DC.'
Marr: 'The words that I remember coming over the phone over our
secure lines
were basically we will take lives in the air to preserve lives on
the
ground.'
10:03:00
The fourth plane - United Flight 93 - crashes into the ground
in
Pennsylvania. For a time the President didn't know if fighter
planes have
shot it down. Only later does the story emerge that passengers had
fought
with the hijackers. Had it proceeded to Washington, Flight 93 would
have
been intercepted.
Lynne Cheney: 'It was a great relief, I can assure you to everyone,
when we
learned that the plane had not been shot down, that in fact it had
crashed
for other reasons - we weren't sure why. But I remember my husband
saying
that he suspected there were heroes on that plane.'
10:05:00
Alarms sound in the White House: 'Everybody out. Evacuate the White
House.'
Across the road from the White House in Lafayette Park, police and
secret
service agents run into the streets with automatic weapons. The
capital
becomes a city of panic and rumours. It is believed wrongly that a
bomb has
exploded at the State Department. All government buildings begin
to
evacuate.
Police officer: 'Everybody start heading that way, come let's
go!'
[Pentagon visuals]
10:09:00
Television reporter: 'Oh, it collapsed right now. As you can see -
I assume
you're taking my picture but I do not have a monitor - just now we
had a
middle section from the E-ring of the Pentagon collapse from the
amount of
fire and destruction from this. So obviously there was a great deal
of
damage ...'
10:15:00
Those inside Cheyenne Mountain now take an unprecedented step to
defend
their command centre.
Hunter: 'The blast doors were closed that morning for the first
time in
anger since this place was opened for operations in 1966. We'd
received
intelligence that there might be another airliner airborne from a
city in
the United States whose target was specifically Cheyenne Mountain.
So we did
what we call buttoning up the mountain we closed the blast doors
and
everybody that was in the mountain was going to stay for a
while.
'I've never been in combat and that morning was the first morning
that I had
ever really faced a real threat.'
Glover: 'We were receiving all kinds of input from everybody. We
received an
input that there was a yellow transport truck coming up the hill
with 7
Islamic folks in the front cab.'
Hunter: 'Once I realised we had those blast doors closed I think
they could
have launched airliners at this mountain all day and we never would
have
felt the effects of it because we have 26 hundred feet of granite
above us.
We have two 25-ton blast doors protecting us.'
10:29:00
Collapse of North Tower
Duff: 'I decided to go take a look at the North Tower see how it
was doing.
So I flew by. Nasty and I were both over by the north tower over
the top,
looking down at it. And right at that moment it just started
falling away
from me and I couldn't really comprehend what was happening.
'It wasn't until I saw some of the plume coming up from the bottom
of the
building that I realised that it was imploding upon itself. And at
that
point I had the sickest feeling I've ever had in an aeroplane.'
Nasty: 'My father worked on a skyscraper in Chicago when I was a
kid and I
think 18 000 people worked in the skyscraper. So when the Towers
came down I
thought at least 30 000 people were killed. Sorry, stop [starts
crying].'
Duffy: 'Watching that go on, it felt like we were at war and like
at that
point we were losing.'
Nasty: 'We were going to take whatever it took to keep that from
happening
again.'
US Strategic Command, Nebraska
Sign: 'Conference in session'.
Unidentified speaker: 'Good morning, sirs. This update-briefing is
classified.'
America's nuclear strike-force is controlled from US Strategic
Command. That
day military commanders - from their blast proof bunker 20 meteres
underground - are conducting a major exercise involving America's
nuclear forces. They decide to cancel the exercise immediately.
And, like American forces world-wide, are now put on Defcon-3. This
is the highest state of alert since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Brig. General Kelvin Coppock, Director of Intelligence, US
Strategic Command: 'This command has practised for fifty plus years
for the unthinkable. We did not know how big it was going to be.
With the aeroplanes we had to worry about other types of
activities, such as chemical or biological attacks. So we war-gamed
those to see where would they occur, how would they occur, what our
response would be.'
This is also the home of the National Emergency Airborne Command -
which operates the so-called Doomsday planes. Their purpose is to
control nuclear forces from the air in time of crisis. It is
decided to deploy the Doomsday planes.
Onlookers: 'What was that plane? It's the Doomsday plane.'
10:41:00
Secret Service agents take to the roof of the White House, looking
for more
planes. During the day, 21 aircraft are identified as possible
hijacks. That
morning, it's decided to execute a secret plan to ensure the
survival of the
American government and its leadership.
Nichols: 'In order to ensure continuity of government we evacuated
the leadership completely out of the City of Washington to a secure
location.'
Hastert: 'I then flew out to a non-disclosed location. And I
remember being in that helicopter and flying across the southern
tip of Washington, looking down and there's nobody on the streets,
no cars moving on the streets. I went across the Potomac River and
looked down. Never dreamed that when I was ... I would ever be
Speaker of the House, but if I would, we'd be doing something like
this.'
For the first time, the President activates a top-secret plan -
originally designed as an insurance policy against Armageddon. Its
purpose is to ensure the line of succession to the Presidency and
protect America's political leadership, come what may.
Top Congressional leaders and Cabinet Members are now removed to
secret
locations housed underground. For those in direct line to succeed
the President, the prospect that they could be running the country
by the end of the day no longer seems the stuff of dreams.
Hastert: 'I'm immediately behind the Vice President to succeed the
President and we knew the President was pushed onto Air Force One
and we thought he was safe. We knew that the Vice President was in
a secure location. But anything could happen on a day like
this.'
Described as small cities built into granite, the secure locations
are designed for long term occupation. They are intended to provide
every basic facility for the Senate and House leadership.
This bunker is located under a hotel. The entrance disguised as a
television repair shop. There are decontamination suites in the
event of a nuclear attack. This place has been decommissioned but
there are thought to be 50 active sites throughout the country.
That morning about 100 senior civil servants are also dispatched to
underground bunkers. They are to provide the basis for a shadow
government in case of further attacks.
The Congressional leadership remains protected until it is
considered safe for them to return to Washington later that
day.
Hastert: 'I was eventually joined by the other leaders of the
Senate and House and just like the rest of America watched over TV
the happenings of that day.
11:30:00
The President - aboard Air Force One - is advised by the Vice
President that it is unwise to return to Washington while any
civilian planes remain in the skies.
George W. Bush now summons two congressmen who are on the plane
with him.
His television is showing pictures of the collapsed Twin
Towers.
Compton: 'At 11:31, Ari Fleischer said, 'Off the record, President
Bush is being evacuated'. And I said, 'Evacuated - you can't say
that off the record - that is historic!'.'
Ellington Field Air Force Base, Texas
F16's are launched to provide a fighter escort for the President's
plane, which is now thought to be a target.
Unidentified officer: 'We have a whirl-wind event in progress. All
personnel report to their stations.'
Putnam: 'There was a substantial and credible threat to Air Force
One.'
Lynne Cheney: 'The report came in that a phone call had been
received that said that Angel was coming down, this has since been
reported. This is not a widely know reference to Air Force One and
so it was assumed that this person had some knowledge of what he
was talking about.
Some on board are told incorrectly 'we could be next' after a
caller had
rung in using the secret code words identifying the plane. Fighter
pilots
were instructed they could use deadly force to protect the
President.
Major Rolando Aguila, fighter escort pilot, Air Force One: 'We were
given -
for the first time ever in alert history we were given - carte
blanche to
shoot anybody down who wasn't responding.'
11:41:00
Compton: 'F16 jet fighters appeared off the wings.'
Mills: 'They were so close that we could see the pilot's head as he
flew
right off the left wing of the plane. I was scared to death.'
11:45:00
First stop for the President's plane - the home of the B52 bomber
-
Barksdale Air Force Base.
Mills: 'It was just eerie. Once we got to the bottom of the steps,
2 or 3 cars pulled up and these military officers in fatigues -
camouflage - have M16s, and they're jumping out and running around
Air Force One, 'you take the left wing, I got the right wing' and
yelling at each other.'
The President is put inside a humvee with a gun turret. A military
convoy takes him to a building where he calls the Vice President
and the Secretary of Defence. By now the country is on nuclear
alert. America's borders have been sealed. A State of Emergency has
been declared in the nation's capital.
With so much still uncertain, Air Force One is re-supplied on the
basis it may be the President's flying command centre for the
foreseeable future.
12:15:00
America's skies are cleared of over 4 000 commercial planes in less
than three hours.
The President is advised that there are still concerns about
possible hijackings of international flights. He is warned not to
return to Washington and heads for an airbase with an underground
command centre.
14:50:00
Airforce One lands at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
15:07:00
The President is taken to a cinder block bunker sixty feet below
the ground. Here he holds a videoconference with eight members of
the National Security Council. Osama Bin Laden has already been
identified as the likely source of the attacks.
There is still concern about six international flights but while at
the Offutt base the threat is reduced to just one plane.
15:30:00
Major General Larry Arnold, Commander, 1st Air Force: 'The last
aircraft that we were concerned about was a flight from Madrid to
JFK Airport in the United States. We had a conference call going
with everyone in the world. The White House was on this conference
call, we were on this conference call, all the military, the FBI,
the CIA, every agency that you could imagine was there. The
President and the Secretary of Defence were on this call and the
President desperately wanted to get back to Washington DC.
'We were able to determine that aircraft was not being hijacked by
calling the company. The company confirmed that the aircraft had
turned around, had indeed flown back to Madrid, had landed and they
had talked to the pilot. We found that out by calling the company
direct.
'And so I just picked up the conference call and said, 'Mr
President, we have confirmation - that aircraft has turned around,
is on the ground and we have no other aircraft in the system'. And
with that he got in his aircraft and flew back to Washington.'
18:54:00
The President finally returns to Washington. In a matter of hours
the country has been changed. America had been found unprepared for
a new type of war. Innocence had been lost.
An escort of six helicopters was waiting for him. Three hundred
fighters were defending the skies.
America would soon realise there was no immunity from the world's
conflicts.
Pres. George W. Bush: 'It was a traumatic day of course and I
remember being
glad to get back to Washington. And the chopper pilot flies by the
Pentagon.
And I saw one of the great symbols of our strength up in flames.
And it
reminded me that we are in a new war - a visual reminder about the
struggles
that laid ahead for our country. It was just an impressionable
moment for
me.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: While
every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is
accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any
claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or
electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription
recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the
possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of
identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled
out.
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