Originally published Sept. 13, 2001
By Mike McPhee
The North American Air Defense Command, which monitors the nation’s airspace from inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, learned of a plane hijacking 10 minutes before the plane slammed into the World Trade Center.
Capt. Adrian Craig, spokeswoman for NORAD, confirmed the 10-minute warning but declined to say what action NORAD or the Air Force took once it knew a plane had been commandeered Tuesday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that the transponder, a device that alerts air traffic controllers of a plane’s identification and location, had been turned off on American Airlines Flight 11, the first of two planes to slam into the World Trade Center.
But Craig said it was not the disconnected transponder that alerted NORAD. She declined to elaborate.
Meanwhile, the Air Force said it is flying fully loaded F-15 and F-16 fighter jets to patrol the skies over the nation’s major metropolitan areas, including Denver and Colorado Springs. The flights will continue indefinitely.
“Rest assured, they’re equipped and ready to do business,” Craig said.
Numerous Denver residents reported hearing the warplanes overhead late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
The nearly 29,000 military personnel based in Colorado remained on heightened alert Wednesday, said officials at Fort Carson Army Base and Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs.
No troop movements or orders for movements were released to the public.
But a C-5 military cargo jet from Travis Air Force Base in California arrived at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora on Wednesday evening to ferry an urban search-and-rescue team to New York, an Air Force spokesman said.
An Army spokesman, Sgt. 1st Class James Yocum, said troop movements typically aren’t disclosed until a few hours before the troops leave.
An Air Force spokesman, Staff Sgt. Gino Mattorano, said personnel at Peterson Air Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora and the 21st Space Wing remain on “Force Protection and Information Condition.”
Only mission-essential personnel are reporting for duty until further notice, he said.
The Air Force Air Mobility Command center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois began dispatching military aircraft with supplies and rescue teams to New York and Washington, D.C., Lt. Col. Brad Peck said.
“We’re moving predominantly medical supplies, humanitarian supplies and urban search-and-rescue teams,” he said. “We have set up a port mortuary in Dover, Del., for the victims in the Pentagon. We also are providing aeromedical evacuation planes to evacuate the wounded out of New York. They are basically airborne ambulances.”
