NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, June 17, 2004

At the commission's final public hearing, a report recounting the details of what happened with each of the planes was read aloud before an audience that included victims' relatives, some clutching photos of their loved ones.

The reading of the report was interspersed with tape recordings from the planes and control towers that had not been heard in public before. Accompanying graphics traced the flight paths of the four planes.

A particularly haunting transmission came from the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 11, which took off from Boston and was the first plane to strike the World Trade Center. A person believed to be Mohamed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the 19 hijackers, who piloted the plane, is heard saying to passengers: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you'll be OK. We are returning to the airport."

Later, Atta tells the passengers, "If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane."

Later, another tape was played of a transmission from United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back against the hijackers. On the transmission, a hijacker is heard telling passengers "there is a bomb on board."

The report detailed a series of missteps by aviation and military officials that squandered precious minutes between the time air traffic controllers became aware of the first hijacking and the crash of Flight 93 more than an hour later.

And it recounted confusion at the Federal Aviation Administration and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) that led to delays in scrambling fighter jets to intercept the planes.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in an underground shelter in Washington, eventually issued an order to shoot down hijacked planes, but military pilots did not receive it until the last of the four planes, Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania. Cheney said he received the authorization in an earlier phone call with President Bush, who was being flown to a safe location after an appearance in Florida.

The report largely blamed inadequate emergency procedures that contemplated more time to react to a traditional hijacking rather than a suicide hijacking.

'Never Trained'

"NORAD and the FAA were unprepared for the type of attacks launched against the United States on September 11, 2001," the report said. "They struggled, under difficult circumstances, to improvise a homeland defense against an unprecedented challenge they had never encountered and had never trained to meet."

In many cases, the panel praised the actions of government personnel forced to make split-second decisions. In the hours just after the attacks occurred, nearly 4,500 planes in the air had to be landed as quickly as possible. To do that, air traffic controllers first had to reroute about a quarter of them juggling 50 times the usual number of planes rerouted each hour.

"We do not believe that an accurate understanding of the events of that morning reflects discredit on the operational personnel," the report said.

The commission is winding down its 1 1/2-year investigation after interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses, including Bush, and reviewing more than 2 million documents. It will issue a final report by July 26 that will include recommendations on how the government can improve its homeland defense.

Scheduled to testify Thursday were Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as officials from NORAD and the FAA.

'Lessons of What Went Right'

"The real issue is first establishing the facts minute by minute," said Republican commissioner John Lehman, a former Navy secretary. "Who knew what when? What orders were given? From there we can learn the lessons of what went right."

The report issued said air traffic controllers realized at 8:24 a.m. on Sept. 11 that Flight 11 was being hijacked, but lost several minutes notifying layers of command, according to protocol, before contacting NORAD. The plane crashed at 8:46 a.m.

Controllers, meanwhile, didn't realize American Airlines Flight 77, which took off from Dulles Airport outside Washington, might be hijacked when it mysteriously started veering off course at 8:54 a.m. The plane then traveled undetected for 36 minutes toward Washington, due in part to a radar glitch.

The confusion meant only an unarmed military cargo plane could be diverted to track the plane. The plane located Flight 77 but could do nothing as the commercial jetliner crashed into the Pentagon.

Bush: 'Somebody's Going to Pay'

Other findings by the commission: