StrongButKind
Posts: 136
Joined: 10/15/2004 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: sissifytoserve quote:
ORIGINAL: StrongButKind From the PM report: CLAIM:"It has been standard operating procedures for decades to immediately intercept off-course planes that do not respond to communications from air traffic controllers," says the Web site oilempire.us. "When the Air Force 'scrambles' a fighter plane to intercept, they usually reach the plane in question in minutes." FACT: In the decade before 9/11, NORAD intercepted only one civilian plane over North America: golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet, in October 1999. With passengers and crew unconscious from cabin decompression, the plane lost radio contact but remained in transponder contact until it crashed. Even so, it took an F-16 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the stricken jet. Rules in effect back then, and on 9/11, prohibited supersonic flight on intercepts. Prior to 9/11, all other NORAD interceptions were limited to offshore Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). "Until 9/11 there was no domestic ADIZ," FAA spokesman Bill Schumann tells PM. After 9/11, NORAD and the FAA increased cooperation, setting up hotlines between ATCs and NORAD command centers, according to officials from both agencies. NORAD has also increased its fighter coverage and has installed radar to monitor airspace over the continent. Actually the jets WERE scrambled 15 minutes after losing contact. How come not on 9-11? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/oct99/crash26.htm Not 15 but 24 minutes by your article (9:44-10:08). American Airlines 11 transponder went off at 8:21 AM, fighters were scrambled to find it (though they didn't know where to look -- Payne Stewart's plane flew straight on autopilot, while Flight 11 turned and was not successfully tracked by radar) at 8:46, 25 minutes later. So it took an extra minute. As the plane hit the south tower at 8:46:26, neither the extra minute nor knowing where the plane was would have helped. The timeline on United 175 was even shorter. All the timelines from when transponder was turned off or contact lost to crash were shorter than the time it took the F-16s to intercept Payne Stewart's plane. Not that all situations are created equal. Flight 77 was longest at 46 minutes. It took more than a half hour longer (1:22) for the intercepting planes to reach Stewart's plane, and that one was much easier to find.
< Message edited by StrongButKind -- 9/13/2006 9:36:25 PM >
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