When the 2nd plane crashed into the towers, why weren't all planes immediately grounded - and why...?

Question

did the military have to wait for FAA clearance? Shouldn't the FAA have immediately grounded all flights - at least the ones that were in the air around NY?

In case you haven't figured out, I'm watching United 93 and I don't understand some technical points. Thanks.

Dear Jerry,
I didn't "put stock" in the sensationalism of a movie. The timeline was completely based in fact, and oddly enough many people here were able to understand the gist of my question - not being an airline person I couldn't grasp why planes were not just immediately diverted to their nearest airstrips. Others answered that question without the glib self-righteous and snobby response of, "oh, dear, peasant, have some class and get past the entertainment world." I *do* watch many of the available history/discovery channels and in fact this was the first "commercial" venture I've watched about 9/11. This was actually a question that has been bugging me for a while, but I just happened to be thinking about it while watching a dramatization of the ATCs. So p!ss off.

Answer 1

I was at work when this happened. I am a line AMT for UAL so it hit us especially hard. First the first crash happened, everyone thought it was a small aircraft that smashed into the WTC. While watching the news the second plane went in, now we knew it was not a small aircraft accident.

Now to answer your question, they were immediately grounded after the second strike. This is not something anyone expected. Even the flight crews when told could not believe it. All passengers were deboarded, all cargo stayed on but the jetways were all retracted. NOBODY was allowed on the ramp area at this time.

Now as far as the planes in the air, you have to realize there were at least ( trying to remember here) 4000+ aircraft in the air at the time. You simply can't say LAND NOW! and they land. THey had to contact alternate fields, get approval to land then get into landing patterns. It's not like a car where you simply pull over, there are far more logistics involved. Also they were not sure which planes might still have had highjackers on board so many of the big city airports denied flights to land. Also major hubs completely shut down and didn't allow anyone to land there such as JFK. Dulles etc etc for obvious reasons and this created even more problems.

Answer 2

When plane 2 hit the towers, everyone knew it was intentional. The FAA acted swiftly and gave the first ever order ATC-ZERO.

Everything gets grounded.

But you just can't land 5000 planes anywhere. Every make and model of plane was in the air that day, from commercial to business to private. Each aircraft had different landing requirements and fuel states. And each plane another potential bomb.

Each aircraft had to be directed to an appropriate airport for its size. Planes were coming down all over the US and Canada at airports that had never seen such traffic. Some small commercial airports would see only 1 or 2 commercial planes a day, now had 9 parked on their runways. The airports simply grew too crowded to handle anymore.

Then there were the international flights coming in to both coasts.

And the military was in the air looking for more suspicious planes.

The air traffic controllers in this country cannot be praised highly enough. Many worked on their own initiative and got planes down before the ATC ZERO order was given.

In less than 3 hours without any plans or guidelines or procedures, air traffic controllers landed 5000 aircraft without a single incident.

When the FAA did a post-911 review of the air traffic controllers actions that day, the feds wanted a policy in the event it happed again.

The reports for the feds--do nothing. No federal policy or guidelines. Let the controllers handle it themselves. The air traffic controllers worked miracles that day and they always will.

Answer 3

At that point, we didn't know if there were more attacking planes or not.

As for the FAA clearance, the military cannot ground aircraft that are in the air, that takes a lot of time, and the result would have been mass chaos, crashes, and loss of life on a far greater scale than the actual attacks.

Air traffic controllers must vector en-route aircraft from their filed route into the approach pattern for an airport, with all the associated clearances as I'm sure you're hearing in the movie. The military simply doesn't have the means to ground the entire United States aviation network... with two F-16's on each intercept from identification to touch down, it would take way too much man power. It's a task better left to the professional air traffic controllers in the various ARTCCs, TRACONs, and Locals.

Answer 4

All aircraft were grounded immediately afterwards, however it takes a significant amount of time to tell each and every airplane in the sky to divert. Each one had to be sequenced into a suitable airport and only so many airplanes can land at a time, so some time elapsed between the second plane hitting the tower and every other airplane being grounded.

an immediate ground hold was initiated meaning no aircraft were allowed to depart, but for those already in the sky, the question remained as to what to do with them.

As a hypothetical question I'll ask...Lets say 50 planes departed JFK right before the attacks began and 50 planes were inbound to JFK. All of the aircraft inbound have enough fuel to get there and then to fly for about 45 minutes afterward, so long diversions would not be an option. However, all those that were inbound would have nearly full fuel tanks. should they be allowed to continue to their destination or ordered to return to JFK? If ordered to return, they must be considered into the sequence to land aircraft along with those that are arriving from all the other cities. At that time I believe there were over 1000 commercial aircraft in the air. To land them all "immediately" would have been unsafe and would have caused many other problems (where do you park them all?). Some were allowed to continue to their destination as that was the safest or fastes way of getting them on the ground, and some were diverted to the closest airport because that was the safest and fastest way to do it.

Answer 5

Don't put too much stock in the sensationalism of movies. They are only going to show you what they want you to see in order to get the most emotional response. Spend more time watching the History Channel and a little less on sensationalist movies so you can get the whole story.

All aircraft were grounded, but you can't just do that in an instant. Many aircraft were hundreds of miles from airports that could possibly allow them to land, and the airports quickly filled up to the point where there was no more room to park another plane, so they had to go elsewhere.

Answer 6

First of all, - airplanes can't go vertically to ground and land instantly! Air traffic controllers have to get them into airports without colliding, - military aircraft are kept separated from "civilian" aircraft, because the Military aircraft are grenerally going much faster (at least in a "Scramble"!) The "bigger airplanes can't just land in any "peapatch", they require long runways. And there aren't a lot of landing fields in that area, (remember people are stacked up 10 to 40 stories high already!) And there is only so much ground for airfields!

So the "scramble" (which came a little late to begin with) required a monumental project of getting all aircraft down and out of their way. And then how much can a fighter do flying next to a airliner to stop hijacking action? Other than shooting it down ,and rational thinking dosen't consider people that "WANT TO DIE" in an airplane crash! However islamic terrorists are not rational in the first place, - (now proven fact)!

Answer 7

It's not that simple......
First, thats a lot of planes. Not just airlines. Cargo, General avation. Alot of stuff in the air. Grounding them took time. Change course, figure fuel loads, find a airport to handle them.

Next, time factor. Boston to NYC is only about 100miles. By air they can cover that in minutes.

The clearance? I think that is obvious!! 1) they don't shoot planes down and kill people with out a order. Preferably with a generals star. 2) All airliners look alike from a mile away. Are you shooting the RIGHT ONE?

The basic answer is that while most of us were still eating our egg Mc muffins, all helll broke loose. Things happen fast, & having 4 planes added to the confusion. Nobody knew just how manny there were.


Stuff happpens.......

Answer 8

As I recall, all planes were immediately grounded. I think it took the FAA a few minutes to appreciate the magnitude of the situation, but then they brought everything to the ground. My daughter was en route from NYC to AZ and was grounded in Chicago for several days.

Answer 9

I think it would have been a worse disaster to ground all planes, or shoot down the second plane. This could not been stop it was already too late that is why they chose to do this act in airplanes you know these were well planned acts of these God forsaken people. There is no way to work around suicidal crack pots.Only thing that will get them is eternal death.

Answer 10

You can't just say to and airplane Northwest flight 17 get down here right now. You have to remember that there are thousands and thousands of flights in the air. That is just commercial there are also small private jets and props. It takes time. There are strict guidlines on how they have to land.