mand. In addition to notifications within the FAA, Boston Center took the ini-
tiative, at 8:34, to contact the military through the FAA's Cape Cod facility.
The center also tried to contact a former alert site in Atlantic City, unaware it
had been phased out. At 8:37:52, Boston Center reached NEADS. This was
the first notification received by the military--at any level--that American 11
had been hijacked:
and we need you guys to, we need someone to scramble some F-16s
or something up there, help us out.
The air defense of America began with this call.
stations, Colonel Marr phoned Major General Larry Arnold, commanding
general of the First Air Force and NORAD's Continental Region. Marr sought
authorization to scramble the Otis fighters. General Arnold later recalled
instructing Marr to "go ahead and scramble them, and we'll get authorities
later." General Arnold then called NORAD headquarters to report.
the fighters pressed for more information:"I don't know where I'm scrambling
these guys to. I need a direction, a destination." Because the hijackers had
turned off the plane's transponder, NEADS personnel spent the next minutes
searching their radar scopes for the primary radar return. American 11 struck
the North Tower at 8:46. Shortly after 8:50, while NEADS personnel were still
trying to locate the flight, word reached them that a plane had hit the World
Trade Center.
coast.To avoid New York area air traffic and uncertain about what to do, the
fighters were brought down to military airspace to "hold as needed." From 9:09
to 9:13, the Otis fighters stayed in this holding pattern.