Flight Between Tucson and LAX Intercepted by Fighter Jets But None on 9/11?
On June 23rd, 2016, local network news outlets reported that a passenger flight bound from Tucson, Arizona to Los Angeles, California was intercepted by F-16 fighter jets dispatched by NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (see links to the news stories below). The reason for the intercept was a “verbal disturbance” on board the flight. According to witness accounts, a male passenger was wandering aimlessly on the 80 person flight and refused repeated requests from the flight crew to return to his seat.
Reading the news of this event, I couldn’t help but think about the absence of military aircraft during and after the events of September 11, 2001. According to Google Maps, a flight from Tucson to LAX is only about 1 hour 25 minutes. Yet before this short flight could reach its destination, fighter jets were scrambled to escort it over a non-violent disturbance by one of the passengers on board. Compare this to the military response to 9/11.
On that fateful day in September 2001, one of the crew members on American Airlines Flight 11 bound to LAX from Boston called in a stabbing and a possible high-jacking of the airliner. It goes without saying that this call alone should have resulted in the immediate launching of military aircraft to intercept the airliner. But not only did this flight eventually crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, United Airlines Flight 175, also flying from Boston to LAX, managed to fly into the South Tower of the World Trade center complex a full forty-five minutes after that first call from Flight 11. Then, a full thirty minutes after the second crash, American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington, D.C. to LAX was able to crash into the Pentagon. Yet at no time were any military or police aircraft seen over the skies over Manhattan.
Yes, but…
You might be inclined to point out that fighter jets were scrambled on 9/11 to intercept American Airlines Flight 11. But unlike the recent Tucson flight, the transponders on all of the 9/11 high-jacked airliners had been turned off. However, this ignores a very important fact. The fighter jets that were scrambled on 9/11 were diverted away from Manhattan after Flight 11 struck the North Tower.
Common sense dictates that military, police and rescue aircraft should have swarmed the skies of Manhattan at this point, but instead they were diverted to guard a military location. And no additional fighter jets were ever deployed to Manhattan. The United States has the largest, most advanced military and air defense system on the planet. Is such a massive failure to respond on the part of U.S. air defenses really fathomable under these circumstances?
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F-16 Fighter Jet image from Bigstock Photo
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