The skies over America

There are now two hijacked airliners in the skies over the East coast—the first, American 11, has already disappeared from radar. Controllers don’t know where it is.  The second is United 175, now over northern New Jersey suburbs.

And in Newark, New Jersey, a third plane, and group of controllers will be pulled into the unfolding drama.  Dan D’Agastino is a controller at the Newark tower.

The morning shift is running smoothly, other than the usual ground delays at Newark. 

Greg Callahan: We had about 25 to 30 planes at the runway at any given moment...

Greg Callahan is clearing planes to take off and land.  Only five minutes earlier, at 8:41 a.m.,  he had cleared a United plane to take off for San Francisco. It had been waiting on the runway, and by the time it took off, it was almost 40 minutes late. 

At the time, Callahan had no reason to give it a second thought, but the story of what would happen on that airliner, the bravery and heroism of 33 passengers and 7 crew, would become legend.  It was United Flight 93.

But minutes after Flight 93 takes off, uneventfully, something does grab the attention of Newark controllers, whose view from the top of the tower is a panorama of New York’s skyline.  Working alongside Callahan is Rick Tepper.

Rick Tepper:  I just happened to glance up and I saw a mushroom cloud coming off the first tower.  We knew it was an explosion type of fire.  I said, "Greg, look at that."

Callahan: He was off my left shoulder, and he points out the window and said, “Look at the World Trade Center”.

Tepper:  And he’s going “Oh, my god, look at that.” And so we were just standing there staring and just in disbelief.  Watching it.  Watching it burn.

The initial reports: a small private plane appears to have crashed into the tower. 

Bob Varcadapane was the supervisor in Newark tower that morning, in charge of eight controllers.

Bob Varcadapane:  You could see the smoke billowing from the side of the building, and we didn’t know what it was. I got on the phone to the en route air traffic control facility out in New York on Long Island and I asked them if they’d lost any airplanes, and they said, “No, but Boston Center lost an airplane.  They lost an American 767...”

Brokaw: Did it occur to you at that point that it could have been that plane that went into the World Trade Center?

Varcadapane: Well, that’s exactly what I said to myself then. I said to the controller that I have a burning building.  And you have a missing airplane.  This is very coincidental. 

As Bob Varcadapane trades calls with the New York and Boston centers,  a horrific realization dawns on controllers.   American Flight 11, still missing from radar, finally has been found.

Word of the fate of Flight 11 quickly travels throughout the air traffic control world.  Back at the New York center, all eyes are now trained on United 175, as it races over central New Jersey, clearly headed toward New York. 

Dave Bottiglia: I know that an airplane has hit the Trade Center.  But we’re still hoping the United was not going to do that.

Until now, controllers thought — or hoped — the plane was headed toward Kennedy airport to land.  But with each second it is becoming more clear that whoever is in control of the cockpit of the United plane has a different plan.  New York center alerts another nearby air traffic facility, the one responsible for lower altitude planes.

Don Krivolavy: I got a call from New York center saying we have an aircraft at 24,000 feet. “He’s not talking to anybody, we don’t know where he’s going.”

Don Krivolavy is on duty that morning.  His colleagues:  John Smith, John Riccardi, and Dean Yacepelli. 

Krivolavy: And probably ten miles into my air space he started descending.  I pointed him out to John  --- 

John: And said watch this aircraft, it’s coming through, we don’t know what’s gonna happen ---

Krivolavy: And we just watched him go down. 

8:53 a.m.
It has been just over six minutes since American 11 hit the north tower. By now, NORAD—responsible for the defense of north American airspace—has scrambled two F-15 fighter jets from Otis air force base in Massachusetts.  They streak towards New York—but already they are too late.

The rest of the country, watching on television, still believes the crash in New York is an accident.  But these controllers, now watching in horror as the second plane bears down on lower Manhattan, are the first to know the awful truth. 

Curt Applegate:  We know he’s gonna crash. That’s pretty much a given.  We don’t know where he’s gonna crash.

Mark Dipalmo: I think we all knew something was going to happen, be it the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building. 

John Smith:   It was highlighted to me so that I could watch it as it came in from the southwest and then made a direct turn towards the south tower. 

Brokaw: When it made that direct turn did you think, “Oh, my God?”

Smith: I thought it was a fighter jet coming in to cover the city. And it turned out he continued to descend down through 5000 feet and lower...

Jeffroy: And that’s when my supervisor came up and said, “You know, you could probably consider him a terrorist at this point.”  And you kind of just turn around and got this kinda empty feeling.

Brokaw: It was helpless.  You couldn’t do anything.

Jeffroy: Yeah.  You know, you sit there for ten years controlling planes.  For the first time in your life you don’t have any control of this at all.

At Newark tower, Bob Varcadapane is still on the phone with a controller at the New York center, and learns that a second plane has been hijacked and is almost on top of Manhattan. 

Varcadapane: He says to me, “As a matter of fact, you see that target coming over the Verrazano Bridge.”  I went over to the radar and looked at the radar. The Verrazano Bridge is depicted on the radar. And I looked over there and I saw the aircraft descending out of 4700 feet, 3600 feet, 2700 feet.

Greg Callahan:  And I could hear him calling on altitudes.  “I have a target in sight, he’s descending rapidly.”  And he said—“Look out to the southeast,” and the gentleman working ground control said, “Hey, who’s that by the Verrazano Bridge?”  And here comes a very large target descending rapidly, very fast. 

Tepper:  He was in a hard right bank, diving very steeply and very fast. And as was in he was coming up the Hudson River, he made another hard left turn and just heading for downtown Manhattan.

Varcadapane: It was fast. 

Callahan: Very fast.  He was moving fast.

Brokaw: Anybody in the room say anything at that point, or are you just transfixed by what you were seeing?

Callahan: Well, that pretty much confirmed all our worst fears if there’s anything in the back of your mind saying, “Maybe this just was something minor,” basically everyone—there was a moment of silence, and then things really started to move. 

Tepper: You could see that he was trying to line himself up on the tower.  And just before he hit the tower he almost leveled it out and just hit the building.

And I’m still talking to the center at that time. And I just said “Oh, my God he just hit the World Trade Center.”  And you could see him go in the side of the building  and then you just saw the flames and explosion erupting out the other side of the building.

Brokaw:  What was going on in this room at that time?

Varcadapane:  There was disbelief. They couldn’t believe what we just saw.

They knew it was coming, but until they saw it happen with their own eyes, it was too hard to believe.  As the second strike plays out on live television, the rest of the country is also in shock, finally understanding what these controllers already knew: America is under attack.

Controllers in the tower immediately wonder could there be a third attack on the way?    Supervisor Bob Varcadipane takes immediate action.

Varcadapane: I immediately went to the phone and called Washington, D.C. to tell them that Newark was ceasing operations.  We were not moving any airplanes.

Brokaw: Who did you call in Washington?

Varcadapane:  I called the Air Traffic Control System Command Center.

Brokaw: Do you have a hotline right to—

Varcadapane: Yes.  I have a phone directly to that center.  I told them that Newark was ceasing operations.  We would not accept any aircraft landing at Newark Airport.  My main concern was keeping airplanes out of this air space.  New York City was just attacked twice.  So then we shut down.  I believe that was the beginning of the shutting down of the national airspace system.

As Newark controllers shut down their airport, they have no way of knowing that one of their own planes, United Flight 93, cleared for takeoff only moments before the first tower was hit, is about to face its own crisis.

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