Why didnt NORAD scramble any fighter jets on 9/11,it certainly had enough time?

Question

Senate Hearings on the 9/11 Commission Report 7/31/04: "They [NORAD] lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 Commission. ... For almost three years now NORAD officials and FAA officials have been able to hide their critical failures that left this country defenseless during two of the worst hours in our history." http://www.911truth

Answer 1

What you have to consider Steve, is the American Military has never had to repel an attack like this. Using civilian jets, as bombs?! Its un-precedented. So I ask you, are you yourself not capable of making mistakes, when learning the hard way, things you don't know yet?

Answer 2

Five excellent answers thus far although someone will probably come along sporting a tin foil beanie who'll write something about this being further proof of the evil conspiracy and be given best answer points.

Fighters were scrambled but the defense was staged to react to a threat not already within US airspace. The conspiracy buffs who point to Pane Stewart's plane being intercepted after communication was lost with it several years before and the time that it took always manage to leave out the time zone change so that it appear that it took an hour less than it actually did to intercept the plane in flight. Leaving out relevant facts is the easiest way to create a mystery out of thin air.

This will go on until some new theory conspiracy arises to take it's place. Just as 9/11 replaced the JFK Assassination in the public consciousness something else will bump off 9/11. Then these 9/11 conspiracy theories will be dismissed as readily as the Roswell UFO and Abraham Lincoln faking his own death. Until that time we'll just have to hear these baseless 9/11 theories over and over again.

Answer 3

Their response time seemed slow, but there was two reasons for this. First the hijackers did not announce or broadcast their capture of the planes. Since they weren't planning to use them as hostages, they didn't feel it was necessary to do the usual "I have taken this plane, act against us and I'll blow it up" speech. So until these planes started crashing, it just seemed like they were flying off course and NORAD wouldn't even have been called until late.
Secondly, since NORAD is responsible for watching for incoming enemy aircraft they don't, or at least didn't, monitor domestic traffic. They watch for unscheduled planes coming in from out of the country. So by the time they realized they had an internal problem, they had very little time to find the errant aircraft in a very congested sky.

Answer 4

They did scramble jets. There were images of the jets flying over new york after the plances crashed into the twin towers. Alot of the jets had to come from bases over a couple of hundred miles away. They werent really sure if the plane was hijacked until the second plane hit the tower. There not lieing nor are they trying to cover up anything.

Answer 5

sometimes it's just human error.......would some form of the patriot act fly with the american public before 9/11?

Answer 6

They did. You have some bad information. The answers above are right.