Stand-Down

From 911Encyclopedia:

Scrambling of fighter aircraft at the first sign of trouble is a routine phenomenon. Between September 11th, 2001 and June 2002, jets were scrambled after aircraft 462 times. The same time period the year before, fighters were still scrambled 67 times. Source: AP, 8/13/02 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2002/ap081302.html

As Rosenbaum/Craiglist (->) questioned,

"I know from my own experience as a former Air Force officer assigned to the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD ->) working within the Cheyenne-Mt-Complex in Colorado Springs, Co. that the Air Defense Operations Center (ADOC) the centralized command and control center for all air-defense units protecting the continental U.S. has the authority to employ the use of air national guard interceptor aircraft of all 50 states to augment the capabilities of the regular air force coastal air defense assets (e.g. Otis AFB, Maguire AFB etc.). I know for a fact that this operational infrastructure has been in place since the mid 1960s. The question that I have in my mind regarding Mr. Vidal's (->) assumption is why there was such a huge delay regarding the Air Force's response; why were there no air guard interceptors from PA, NY, MD, or VA not scrambled at least to investigate the abrupt course changes of the 9/11 hijacked aircraft. These guard units were set up to protect the air-space over each respective state. I know for a fact that the ADOC uses FAA tracking facilities and other resources to help monitor the overall airspace over North America and would have had direct communications with the Air Traffic control centers involved and could have immediately coordinated an intercept over the area in question using the pertinent air guard asset. What Happened?"

Many sources already revealed after Sep11th, that they have learned about a stand down order, but their friends, working as F15 fighters had been worried to talk in public. TopView (->) investigated immediately after Sep11th and reported, that Air Force spokesmen confirmed that AFTER the alerts and requests for INTERCEPTS of the aircraft were received from FAA/ATC, orders from the HIGHEST LEVEL of the executive branch of the federal government were received, demanding that the Air Force stand down and NOT follow through with ESTABLISHED scramble/intercept procedures that morning until further notice!

On September 14th 2001, TIME magazine reported on the early events of Sep11th: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,174912,00.html At 9:25, Garvey, in an historic and admirable step, and almost certainly after getting an okay from the White House, initiated a national ground stop, which forbids takeoffs and requires planes in the air to get down as soon as reasonable. The order, which has never been implemented since flying was invented in 1903, applied to virtually every single kind of machine that can takeoff - civilian, military, or law enforcement. The Herndon command center coordinated the phone call to all major FAA sites, the airline reps in the room contacted all airlines, and so-called NOTAMS --notices to airmen -- were also sent out. The FAA had stopped the world. Five minutes later, FAA's few staffers who had stayed to set up the emergency operations center accomplished their mission and the center was up and running by 9:30.

FAA chief spokesman Scott Brenner gave immediate orders to his press corps: hit the vending machines on the floors below and bring back all the candy you could carry. Throughout the day, a hardcore group of public affairs staffers grabbed slices of pizza, scarfed chocolate donuts and swigged water and coffee. But cellphones were virtually unusable because of the overloads, and FAA staffers in the emergency op center couldn't reach their in-house experts only a few floors below on the sidewalk. Minutes later, the Pentagon was hit. <...>

Ten minutes later, at 10.31, the FAA allowed all military and law enforcement flights to resume. (and some flights that the FAA can't reveal that were already airborne)." The guy who was responsible for the stand down order, was Ben Sliney (->) Note: As Paul Thompson (->) already pointed out in his 9/11 timeline, it is known that after the second WTC crash at 9:03, many base commanders called NORAD and volunteered to put fighters into the air ASAP. So NORAD only has to fob them off for about 20 minutes with excuses, and then at 9:25 they're in the clear to make sure that none of the hijacked planes will be tracked or stopped.

This site shows where we had fighters "on alert" - that is fueled, armed and pilots ready to go: http://www.af.mil/news/airman/1299/home2.htm For all the U.S., there were only 7 locations with 2 planes each. But note that there were 2 planes at Otis and two at Langley which NORAD data indicates as being scrambled within minutes of notification. The problem is that the notification is way too late per standard operating procedures. Fighters should be scrambled whenever a plane is off course and not responding. SOP doesn't say to wait until they are declared or even suspected to be hijacked. Check the total timelines in this link http://www.medienanalyse-international.de/timetable.html

For Flight 11 and Flight 77, look at how much time passes between the indications that each of these planes is suspected to be hijacked and NORAD is notified. It's about 20 to 25 minutes in both cases. It should be zero minutes. What Langley was saying before they "cleaned up" http://stand77.com/1stFighterWingFactSheet--LangleyAFB.htm During a normal day's flying operation at Langley, the wing will launch about 90 fighter training missions in air-to-air combat, aerial gunnery and air defense intercepts. Most flying operations are conducted in dedicated air space over the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.

http://stand77.com/71stFighterSquadronFactSheet--LangleyAFB.htm In a normal flying day, the 71st Fighter Squadron will launch approximately 25 sorties to fly training missions in air-to-air combat, aerial gunnery, and air defense intercepts. Compare: Use of military jets jumps since 9/11. Associated Press Aug 13 2002. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2002/ap081302.html CBS News. Scrambling to prevent another 9/11 Aug 14 2002 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/14/attack/main518632.shtml Preventing another 9/11 Military.com http://www.military.com/NewsContent/1,13319,FL_jet_081502,00.html ABC News Jets on high Alert. Aug 13 2002. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/homefront020813.html Military now notified immediately of unusual air traffic events. Fox news Aug 12 2002 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,60245,00.html#top