Report: Controllers moved fast on 911

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Nearly a dozen airliners were either off course or out of communication with air traffic controllers during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, prompting transportation officials to clear the skies of all aircraft, a published report said Monday.

The Dec. 17 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology said two of the 11 wayward planes turned out to be hijacked while the intentions of the other nine could not be determined by increasingly anxious controllers on the ground.

"We just thought, 'OK, enough is enough, let's keep them on the ground and see what we've got,' " said Linda Schuessler, who was in charge of tactical operations at the Federal Aviation Administration's command center in Herndon, Va.

Schuessler was on duty at the command center outside Washington on the morning of Sept. 11 when air traffic controllers first reported a possible hijacking in progress aboard what turned out to be the first of the two airliners that plowed into the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 a.m. EDT, the second jet struck the World Trade Center, and the command center staff realized that the first crash was not an accident. A call was put out to FAA control centers across the nation to see if any other aircraft were behaving suspiciously.

When 11 aircraft were reported to be either not responding to radio calls or not flying on course, the decision was made at 9:26 a.m. to order all aircraft to land immediately. The "ground-stop" order did not prevent one of the 11 planes from crashing into the Pentagon at 9:41, and another from plunging to the ground in Pennsylvania shortly after 10 a.m.

Aviation Week, in what it said was the first detailed look at the FAA command center's activities on Sept. 11, noted that by chance, the U.S. military was represented at the center.

The Pentagon places personnel at the command center three days per month as part of training for the movement of aircraft around the country during time of war. Serendipitously, Sept. 11 happened to be one of those days, the magazine said.

Air Force fighter jets were scrambled quickly on Sept. 11 to protect Washington and other potential targets while air traffic controllers hurriedly brought hundreds of airliners in for safe landings.

Aviation Week said the airliners were landed at a pace roughly twice as fast as normal, and controllers said the operation was remarkably smooth.

"We found it to be challenging, extremely important, deserving of due caution and care," said John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "I don't think you could find a single controller who would tell you they did something extraordinary that day. They did their job."

Carr said the national control system ran seamlessly Sept. 11, however the integrity and security of the computerized system was a concern among government officials and controllers prior to Sept. 11.

The General Accounting Office warned last year that the computers that power the air traffic control system could be vulnerable to hackers who may be able to shut the entire system down and leave hundreds of airliners flying blind.

The GAO noted that the FAA had used a subcontractor to upgrade the ATC system for Y2K, however 36 of their technicians who had access to critical source codes happened to be Mainland Chinese who had not gone through required background checks.

In testimony before a Senate subcommittee on April 6, 2000, GAO Associate Director Gerald L. Dillingham said that the FAA was slow following up on recommendations to better protect the ATC network.

"Failure to adequately protect these systems, as well as the facilities that house them, could cause nationwide disruption of air traffic or even loss of life," Dillingham told the Senate Aviation subcommittee. "Moreover, malicious attacks on computer systems are becoming an increasing threat, and it is essential that FAA ensure the integrity and availability of the ATC computer systems and protect them from unauthorized access."