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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
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Cockpit voices, calls set off alarm
By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff, 9/13/2001
As air traffic controllers watched one aircraft speed in the direction of the White House Tuesday morning, a frantic evacuation of the Executive Mansion began.
Another plane was also headed for Washington before it crashed outside Pittsburgh, and the president's spokesman indicated yesterday that the White House or Air Force One may have been potential targets.
The revelations came as the FBI swept through the aviation community, seizing air traffic control tapes and interviewing anyone involved with the flights. The crashes at New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pa., killed 266 passengers and crew members and untold numbers of people in the buildings.
On Tuesday morning, the hijacked flights took off within 10 minutes of one another. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 both headed from Boston to Los Angeles. Another United plane, Flight 93, departed from Newark for San Francisco, while a second American Airlines plane, Flight 77, took off from Washington's Dulles Airport for Los Angeles.
Air traffic controllers quickly noticed that the planes had deviated from their flight plans, but that did not trigger aggressive steps by authorities. A source familiar with events said hijacked planes are not shot down or intercepted as a matter of policy, and there was no indication that these planes intended to smash into buildings.
Authorities got their first hint of trouble when American Flight 11 did not respond to permission to climb from 29,000 to 31,000 feet. Sources familiar with the investigation said the pilot apparently keyed a microphone switch on his control yoke, allowing them to listen to his conversation with a heavily accented hijacker.
As the pilot pleaded with the hijacker, the plane made an abrupt turn past Albany, N.Y., due south toward Manhattan. En route, controllers said the hijacker told the pilot, ''We have more planes. We have other planes,'' the Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday. The American aircraft was the first to crash, plowing into the northern World Trade tower at 8:45 a.m.
The source familiar with events said a flight attendant aboard the plane also made a call to American's flight operations office in Fort Worth, Texas, saying the plane had been hijacked and people aboard had been stabbed.
Investigators have learned little about what went on aboard United Flight 175, except that radar plots show the aircraft flying almost directly from Boston to Philadelphia - far off course - before it turned back and flew directly into the southern World Trade tower just after 9 a.m.
For American Flight 77, the radar plots show the plane heading west into Kentucky before it made a U-turn and flew back toward Washington. Barbara Olson, a TV legal commentator, twice called her husband, Bush administration Solicitor General Ted Olson, to report the plane had been hijacked and the passengers and crew herded to the back of the aircraft.
Quoting flight controllers, the Washington Post reported the plane speeded in the direction of restricted airspace around the White House. Security guards cleared the building, telling one tourist outside, ''Your life could depend on it.''
At the last moment, the Post reported, the Boeing 757 pulled skyward and made a sharp righthand turn into the Pentagon. It is unclear if the aircraft would have reached the Executive Mansion, because it is protected with a hidden battery of surface-to-air missiles.
The fourth aircraft, United Flight 93, flew to Cleveland before it turned back and flew over Pittsburgh in the direction of Washington. A passenger aboard called his mother to say the plane had been hijacked, and several press reports said another passenger told his family that he and several men aboard were going to try to overpower the hijackers.
The plane ended up crashing about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh shortly after 10 a.m.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president did not immediately return to the White House from Florida because there was ''credible evidence'' that the building and Air Force One were targets.
A US official involved in the investigation cast doubt on the claims. ''Who's to say the White House was the target?'' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''I've heard officials saying at the White House that it was a target along with Air Force One, but for that matter the CIA, the Capitol building, the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) could have been targets. Until these investigations are complete, we don't know.''
This story ran on page A9 of the Boston Globe on 9/13/2001.
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