Family Steering Committee Testimony

Family Steering Committee Testimony

http://911independentcommission.org/testimony.html

August 17, 2004
FSC members were invited to speak on Voicing a Need for Reform before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Kristen Breitweiser

Mary Fetchet

August 3, 2004
Family Steering Committee members testified during the House Committee on Government Reform Hearings to Review the 9/11 Commission Recommendations

Beverly Eckert

Sally Regenhard

Robin Wiener

January 27, 2004
At the seventh Public Hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, a Statement on Aviation Security by FSC member Carol Ashley was admitted into the record. (Note: Since the statement is 20 pages long, the PDF may take a while to load.)

Carol Ashley

November 19, 2003
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States held its fifth public hearing on November 19, in Madison, N J. Among those testifying were FSC members Sally Regenhard, Founder and Chairperson of the Skyscraper Campaign and Monica Gabrielle, her Co-chair.

Sally Regenhard

Monica Gabrielle

March 31, 2003
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States held its first public hearings on March 31 and April 1, 2003, in New York City. Among those testifying were Mary Fetchet and Mindy Kleinberg, members of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission.

Mary Fetchet

Mindy Kleinberg

September 18, 2002
Kristen Breitweiser testified before the Joint Intelligence Committee Hearings in Washington, DC in September , 2002.

Kristen Breitweiser

Partial transcript of Mindy Kleinberg's testimony...

Prior to 9/11, FAA and Department of Defense Manuals gave clear, comprehensive instructions on how to handle everything from minor emergencies to full blown hijackings.

These "protocols" were in place and were practiced regularly for a good reason -- with heavily trafficked air space; airliners withour radio and transponder contact are collisions and/or calamities waiting to happen.

Those protocols dictate that in the event of an emergency, the FAA is to notify NORAD. Once that notification takes place, it is then the responsibility of NORAD to scramble fighter-jets to intercept the errant plane(s). It is a matter of routine procedure for fighter-jets to "intercept" commercial airliners in order to regain contact with the pilot. In fact, between June 2000 and September 2001, figter jets were scrambled 67 times.

If that weren't protection enough, on September 11ths, NEADS (or the North East Air Defense System dept of NORAD) was several days into a semiannual exercise known as "Vigilant Guardian". This meant that our North East Air Defense system was fully staffed. In short, key officers were manning the operation battle center, "fighter jets were cocked, loaded, and carrying extra gas on board."

Lucky for the terrorists none of this mattered on the morning of September 11th.

Let me illustrate using just flight 11 as an example.

American Airlines Flight 11 departed from Boston Logan Airport at 7:45 a.m. The last routine communication between ground control and the plane occurred at 8:13 a.m. Between 8:13 and 8:20 a.m. Flight 11 because unresponsive to ground control. Additionally, radar indicated that the plane had deviated from its assigned path of flight. Soon thereafter, transponder contact was lost - (although planes can still be seen on radar - even without their transponders).

Two Flight 11 airline attendants had separately called American Airlines reporting a hijacking, the presence of weapons, and the infliction of injuries on passengers and crew. At this point, it would seem abundantly clear that Flight 11 was an emergency.

Yet, according to NORAD's official timeline, NORAD was not contacted until 20 minutes later at 8:40 a.m. Tragically the fighter jets were not deployed until 8:52 a.m. -- a full 32 minutes after the loss of contact with flight 11.

Why was there a delay in the FAA notifying NORAD? Why was there a delay in NORAD scrambling fighter jets? How is this possible when NEADS was fully staffed with planes at the ready and monitoring our Northeast airspace?

Flights 175, 77 and 93 all had this same repeat pattern of delays in notification and delays in scrambling fighter jets. Delays that are unimaginable considering a plane had, by this time, already hit the WTC.

Even more baffling for us is the fact that the fighter jets were not scrambled from the closest air force bases. For example, for the flight that hit the Pentagon, the jets were scrambled from Langley Air Force in Hampton, Virginia rather than Andrews Air Force Base right outside D.C. As a result, Washington skies remained wholly unprotected on the morning of September 11th. At 9:41 a.m. one hour and 21 minutes after the first plane was hijack confirmed by FAA, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The fighter jets were still miles away. Why?

So the hijackers luck had continued. On September 11th both the FAA and NORAD deviated from standard emergency operating procedures. Who were the people that delayed the notification? Have they been questioned?

In addition, the interceptor planes or fighter jets did not fly at their maximum speed. Had the belatedly scrambled fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon within moments of their deployment, intercepted the hijacked airlines before they could have hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives.