Why were no fighter planes scrambled on 9/11............?

Question

"The first hijacking was suspected at not later than 8.20am, and the last hijacked aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania at 10.06am. Not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from the US Andrews airforce base, just 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit the Pentagon at 9.38 am. Why not? There were standard FAA intercept procedures for hijacked aircraft before 9/11. Between September 2000 and June 2001 the US military launched fighter aircraft on 67 occasions to chase suspicious aircraft (AP, August 13 2002). It is a US legal requirement that once an aircraft has moved significantly off its flight plan, fighter planes are sent up to investigate."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0%2C3604%2C1036571%2C00.html

The former US federal crimes prosecutor, John Loftus, has said: "The information provided by European intelligence services prior to 9/11 was so extensive that it is no longer possible for either the CIA or FBI to assert a defence of incompetence."

Answer 1

Because hindsight is a wonderful thing and there's no way to undo the events of that dreadful day so people should stop speculating and get on with their lives because the best thing we can do is learn from the mistakes that were made and just hope that the security services can improve their procedures.

Answer 2

Good question. Cheney had set up training for that day for most if not all military jets. There was plenty of time to respond. Didn't we all watch the 2nd plane hit the tower and become aware we were under attack? Its hard to believe not one person in the federal government noticed that every single tv channel had minute by minute coverage.

Even more odd, Bush had unprecedented protection on a trip he took a few weeks earlier to a summit. He stayed on a boat instead of at a hotel because of the many reports of intentions to fly planes into American interests. When he stayed in Florida the night before 9/11 he also had unprecedented protection-surface to air missile protection. A BIT beyond the normal protection, and somehow involving aircraft...

Yet he sat and didn't respond when told the planes hit the towers.

Later we were told that the biggest failure was the failure of imagination. No one imagined terrorists would use planes against American interests. Funny, the President knew weeks ahead of time and managed to protect himself.

Does it bother anyone else that Bush DID stay with the children at the school? He was on television, and everyone knew where he was....wouldn't this be an invitation for terrorists to get him? Weren't the children in jeopardy?

I think that the excuse of 'running out of the room' and frightening the children (like there is no other option-like excusing himself properly) is a far better option than exposing the children to incineration by jet fuel. Just my opinion.

Answer 3

There are so many conspiracy theories on this tragic event. Its really sad that people want to add grief to those who have lost someone in that day, we miss those people and from my reading of not only the commission report but everything else I could devour on it, it was a terrorist action undertaken by Al quedda to try to knock us off course and it has since it seems like we now have some who want to negotiate with terrorists or deny what happened. The problem, as I had found out years before in local government is that we have a mulitplicity of communication channels - the reason police could not speak to fire personnel in the WTC that prevent cross talk in a real emergency. Due to our early fear of the military control we isolate defense from intellegence agencies and other civilian agencies and this was the breakdown in scrambling the planes. Plus to be the first to order the shoot down of an american airline by friendly fire would make many step back for a moment. Its something no civilian or military leader or fighter pilot wants to do. All the US citizens who dies that day in PA, NYC, and Suburban Virginia are national hereos in a war that will take generations to finish. This is one we have never had to undertake as a country before and we already are becoming cowards in the fight. We are too "fast food" oriented in that we want everything done in a minute. This is a fight to the finish like what happened in the Dark ages of Europe and we need to stand up no matter what the costs no matter who is on our side. As one of our greatest leaders said we shall pay any price, bear any burden, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. JFK knew the fight to come for the survival of our ancient heritage. His party has betrayed the courage of this man from Massachusets I might be a conservative but I learned that you analyze all data from each side so I looked at the background data from the report. I don't buy into anyone until I back it up even if they are from my party. So I do ask questions unlike the fringe left who buy into people like Michael Moore who has no creidibility on govt or foreign policy. I want a president who waits to find out the facts before launching off. That was always the fear in the cold war that we would be lauching an attack on Russia and find out later it was some rogue military officer in Siberia or some other country. Its like those who thought JFK's death was a coup by Russia. Bush was right to wait till he had the facts before running to Air Force 1.

Answer 4

throughout our time as a so called civilised species on this planet there has always been government sponsored terrorism and it is quite clear this occured on 9/11 not really a surprise , many wnt have it and we will pay the price for the majorities lack of intelligence , i wonder why alot of these people comment when they have never even taken the time to look into it .

Answer 5

Many fighter plants on 9/11 were sent on a practice mission if we were to be attacked by another country, flying somewhere over nevada or something, others were in flight also, but most on some sort of "training mission" type stuff.

If you've looked into other junk with 9/11, you'll notice A LOT of fishy stuff going on, people who owned it sold their shares, so on and so forth, yeah. pretty darn exciting knowing our countries leaders care more about money then safety, sweet.

There's a movie on youtube about all this, just look it up, it'll get your mind goin'.

Answer 6

Its plain they werent sent or was it ever looked into. If it was because something was broke--they certianly havent fixed it.

nothing was broke--it was Americans killing Americans that day!

and the plane that hit the pentagon wes perfect excellent flying... learned on a Computer game?? LOL
tHIS cOUNTRY--So nieve--thats why we lost it. Its not America anymore. :(

Answer 7

Because the FAA had to get on the phone to the AF to tell them something was going on. That wasn't done for several minutes. We stopped keeping fighters on alert status in the 90s, you know one of those Democratic cost cutting measures. Oh and the AF doesn't have radar coverage inside the US, Air defense radars are pointed to the Approaches. Outside the Country.

Answer 8

Cheney gave a stand-down order and because there were big diversionary exercises held to coincide with the attacks.

Answer 9

Who from wherever is telling the US military of possible concerns with off-flight plan airplanes

Answer 10

Al Gore was behind it all, behind Soro's behind. He is an enemy of America, how else could a douche like him get the ignoble prize. He is a dunce!