The skies over America

8:30 am.  As Boston Center supervisors notify the FAA and other air traffic centers about the hijacking of American Flight 11, the plane makes another dramatic turn—south towards New York City. Pete Zalewski anxiously listens on the frequency, thinking the hijackers might try to make contact. 

Pete Zalewski: Then comes a third transmission from the aircraft. And that one was pretty horrifying.

Zalewski, concerned he might be missing vital information, asks the supervisor to have someone pull the transmission tapes that are automatically recorded, right away.

Zalewski:  And thankfully, they did pull the tapes.  And a part that I didn’t hear which was, “We have more planes,” or something to that effect. And that really was a key statement. 

Don Jeffroy: I’ve heard a number of different tapes in the past of aircraft crashes—and this was in my mind the worst.  I’d never heard something like that.

Tom Brokaw, NBC News: Was it just cold blooded? 

Jeffroy:  It made you actually step up and think: What did he mean, what’s going on? What's next?

The voice they’re most likely hearing is that of Mohammed Atta, who would later come to be known as the mastermind of the terrorist attacks.  Controllers believe the hijackers mean to speak to the passengers, mistakenly, keying the mike to air traffic control, and Pete Zalewski instead.

By now American 11 had crossed into airspace John Hartling controls.

John Hartling: And Tom came over and told me that "this aircraft, we believe, is hijacked."

Brokaw: What’d you think when he said the word “hijack?”

Hartling: I didn’t believe him. Because I didn’t think that that stuff would happen anymore, especially in this country. 

The plane is now speeding south at almost 600 miles an hour, far faster than the 450 miles an hour it should have been flying.  With no transponder information, controllers were now asking the assistance of another plane heading to the west coast that morning. It is United Flight 175. 

Hartling:  I said, “I’d like you to look at your 12 or one o’clock.  Tell me if you see an American 767.”  And he said, “Yeah, he’s about 28, 29,000.”

The United flight that Hartling is speaking to had also taken off from Boston’s Logan airport, only 14 minutes after American 11.  In fact, it is also a Boeing-767, fully fueled, bound for Los Angeles. It is carrying 58 passengers and 6 crew.  Hartling has no way of knowing that five terrorists are also on board this plane, only moments away from making their move.

Hartling:  I said, “Well, turn 30 degrees to the right.  I wanna make sure I keep you away from this guy,” because I had no idea where he was going.

Brokaw: So you’re still in touch with the pilots in that cockpit.

Hartling: Yeah.

Now that the second United plane is safely back on course, or so he thought, John Hartling hands it off to the next link in the air traffic chain — the New York area en route center.

Brokaw:  And you’re keeping your eye on American 11? Now he’s going at a very high rate of speed?

Hartling: No, his speed started to drop drastically.

Brokaw: And what did that say to you?

Hartling: That he wasprobably descending.

Descending rapidly, headed in the direction of New York. 

At the New York en route center in Islip, Long Island, Dave Bottiglia, Curt Applegate, and Mark Dipalmo are working a routine shift, no idea what is about to come their way. 

8:41 a.m.
United Flight 175 enters Dave Bottiglia’s airspace and makes contact.

Dave Bottiglia: The first thing he said to me was, “We heard threatening transmissions being broadcast by the American.”

The pilots of the United flight have monitored a transmission from the hijacked plane, repeating to Bottiglia what they overhead in the American cockpit.

Bottiglia:  And his exact words were, “Everyone, stay in your seats.” 

The crew of 175 has no way of knowing they are only moments away from also being hijacked.     

By now, American 11 is crossing out of Boston’s airspace, and is bearing down on Bottiglia’s territory in  New York.  Within seconds the plane—or “target” as controllers call it— appears on his screen.

Bottiglia: The controller right next to me gets up and walks over to me and he says, “You see this target here?  He says, “This is American 11. Boston Center thinks it’s a hijack.”  

Brokaw:  So what’d you think at that point? What was going through your mind?

Bottiglia:  I really thought they were probably going to Cuba.

Brokaw:  So you kept track of the target?

Bottiglia:  Kept track of the target.  And now we of course we know he was descending at a rapid pace, but we had no altitude or anything on him. 

Within minutes, American 11 simply disappears from radar. 

8:46 a.m.

Bottiglia: The only thing I can remember is when the American target disappeared all I said was “Well, we know he’s not high altitude anymore.”

But within seconds, Bottiglia has another unexpected problem. As he and other controllers search the radar, looking for American 11, he suddenly notices that United Flight 175, which moments ago helped him locate the hijacked plane, also has disappeared.  Instinctively,  Bottiglia knows the two are somehow related. He asks another controller to take over all of his other planes.

Bottiglia:  I think my voice was shaking, “Please just take everything and don’t ask any questions.”

He calls the United plane several times unsuccessfully, sharing the same anxiety  his colleagues in Boston had felt only moments earlier.

Curt Applegate is working at the next radar bank in the New York center.

Applegate:  I could hear them talking behind me and and I realized he had two lost airplanes.  That made me very nervous.

Bottiglia: I know something bad’s happening. I really don’t know what.  We had no transmissions from United.

Applegate: When I turned back to look at the radar, there was a target right over Allentown.  So I turned and yelled at Dave. I thought that was his American that he was looking for. 

Brokaw: But you, in fact are looking at the United flight?

Applegate:  But I was in fact looking at United, that’s correct.

A transponder signal quickly reappears on radar, somewhere near the New Jersey Pennsylvania border.  A mistake , perhaps, on the part of the hijackers— the signal continues to transmit information to controllers.  There no longer is any question in Bottiglia’s mind that he’s looking at a second hijacked airliner.   

Applegate: When I saw it, it was at 33,000.  And as soon as I said that he started to turn to the left. And descending.

United 175 is no longer heading west as it should be. Instead, it has now also turned ominously toward the east, and New York City.

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