aircraft. i couldn t allow any more aircraft to be in and around new york because i didn t know what else could happen. i made the decision to clear the skies. we brought all the supervisors from all the areas up here, and provided a briefing to them. this is what s happened. this is what we re doing. this is how one can do it. eventually the unprecedented no fly order would spread from new york to nationwide. all aircraft on the ground for a national emergency. every airplane in the sky literally thousands would be told to land. any airplane that refused the order would be considered hostile. a united airlines employee was on the ground. desperately trying to save his flights from disaster. i said lock the door.
aircraft that we actually asked to help identify american. united 175 also had left boston bound for l.a. the crew had no idea it, too, was about to be hijacked. terry biggio and mike mccormick were focussing on the american airlines flight 11 full of fuel and headed south. you can t assume that the aircraft was going to do anything in new york. possibly it was going to continue south and go south to washington. otis air force base, cape cod, national guard fighter pilot tim duffy is about to become 9/11 s footnote 117. he said american 767 from boston to california. it looks like the real thing. were you prepared to take a plane down? an active air defense scramble.
for years ed has been sailing away from his memory. his refuge? this boat named the great old broad where he has been afloat with his wife trying to escape the memory of a few brief words. beware cockpit intrusion. lock the so and so door. i said hijacking alert. hijacking. should i said a possible hijacking? ballinger is footnote 69. on september 11 he was a dispatcher for united airlines in chicago handling 16 flights leaving the east coast and heading west. including united flight 175 out of boston and 93 from newark. first indication i had 175 was a stewardess on board had called into her contact that
star 349, spelling fix on the key pad. flaepts asking about coffee makers that didn t work or entertainment systems that needed fixing. at 9:36 a.m. the call belme answered was chilling. it was from flight 93. then a female voice comes on the line and goes, a flight attendant has been killed. there s two guys. one guy in the cockpit. one guy is at first class behind the curtain, and extremely calm. i was trying to act calm. as a controller we always want to be calm in & in control. she had me beat. she was, like, talking to a friend. united flight attendant sandy bradshaw was calmly telling her airline the plane was no longer being controlled by the crew. back in hi thad ballinger was trying to send out warnings, messages, anything he could to try and save his planes.
going to head that way or you may want to talk to your operation wrshz. then 17 minutes after american airlines flight 11 slams into the world trade center s north tower at 9:03 a.m. united 175 hits the south tower. we were about 60 miles from kennedy. probably about, you know, 80 miles or so from manhattan. that s when they told me the second aircraft just hit the world trade center. obviously some confusion in my cockpit. i thought i was still chasing american flight 11, and then there was a second aircraft, which i didn t even know about. i looked up right away, and i could see the smoke coming out of both towers. as i saw the towers burning, two airliners. we re obviously under attack. in the new york air traffic control center, mike mccormick, too realizes the united states is under assault from the air. we have to do something to remove the weapons. the weapons, of course, are the