‘Possible hijack in progress’: Air traffic controller remembers 9/11

Published

3 years ago

September 11, 2021

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It was a “beautiful late summer morning in New York”, remembers Mike McCormick, an air traffic manager at the New York air traffic control centre.

“I’d spent a long weekend with my young son,” he recalled, including his son’s first visit to the World Trade Center, and had celebrated his birthday with his wife in Manhattan.

“I was getting caught up on all my office work,” he told Sky News, when at 8.45am the call came in that “there was a possible hijack in progress 39,000 feet over Albany, New York, and heading southbound”.

“I immediately went out to the air traffic control room floor, and we were able to confirm with American Airlines that it was an actual hijacking,” as the airline had spoken to a staff member onboard the plane.

“One flight attendant had already died from stab wounds, and several passengers had been injured and hijackers had knives and bombs,” according to the information the flight attendant had shared with American Airlines, and the airline shared with Mike.

He then went to the air traffic control position and with his team tracked American Airlines Flight 11 southbound along the Hudson River which runs from the Adirondack Mountains upstate through Albany and almost directly south into the Atlantic Ocean on the border of New York and New Jersey.

“I quickly got on the phone with the New York approach control and the Newark air traffic control tower which overlooks the Hudson River in New York City.

“I asked the controller to look up the Hudson River to look for American [Airlines’] Boeing 767 that may attempt to land at Newark Airport, thinking that there was perhaps an emergency on board, and the aircraft may be partially disabled.

“Unfortunately [the controller] reported that the aircraft had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex,” Mr McCormick said.

“Immediately after reporting that, a controller behind me hollered out: ‘I have another one’,” he remembered.

The second plane was United Airlines Flight 175 and the air traffic control team watched as it made a sharp turn and again flew towards the World Trade Center.

“During those 11 minutes when I was watching [Flight] 175 on the radar display, I attempted several times to notify authorities that another hijack was in fact in progress, the first aircraft was in fact an actual hijack, and our country was now under attack,” Mr McCormick said.

His attempts to notify the authorities were unsuccessful.

Just after 9am, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center complex.

Fighter jets had been scrambled, but weren’t able to intercept the hijacked planes, Mr McCormick told Sky News.

“Myself and the manager at Boston centre had our military specialists contact Northeast Air Defence. Unfortunately, when the military specialists came out to tell me that the fighter jets were airborne – they requested the location, identification and transponder codes for the hijacked aircraft – the second aircraft had already hit the World Trade Center.”

A minute after the second plane had hit the second tower, Mr McCormick made the decision to shut down all New York airspace.

The impact was enormous. Many planes were force to turn around and go back to Europe while others were forced to land at alternate destinations in Canada due to the complete shutdown on aircraft entering New York airspace.

Closing down the skies over New York effectively meant closing down air travel over the “northeastern United States, and the North Atlantic, western Atlantic, and Caribbean portions of Atlantic Ocean, where we butt right up against the air traffic control services provided by NATS UK [formerly National Air Traffic Services],” Mr McCormick told Sky News.

As the reality of what was happening became clear to Mr McCormick, he became angry: “I was very angry that someone would choose an industry that I love, and that’s aviation, to attack our country. I had never thought that aircraft would be used as weapons.”

But by the end of the day, he thought back to “how the men and women, the air traffic controllers across the entire United States rose to the occasion and cleared the skies of all the other aircraft, because that was in fact the only way that we could disarm the terrorists, was to remove their access to their weapons of choice”.

Shortly after closing down the airspace, the team was made aware of another potentially in-progress hijacking, this time of United Airlines Flight 93, which had departed from Newark Airport in New Jersey and was heading eastbound over western Pennsylvania.

“I got on a national teleconference with FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) headquarters in Washington DC, and a controller joined our teleconference from Washington Dulles Airport and was counting down miles from the White House for a fast moving jet aircraft.

“Ten miles from White House, nine miles from White House, all the way down to one mile from White House when the aircraft made a sweeping right turn. I thought perhaps the target was changed to the Capitol, but the aircraft was too high and too fast. It continued its right turn around and came back and hit the Pentagon.”

“Fighter jets were also scrambled to perform an intercept at Washington DC. Unfortunately, they got over Washington DC, just as the aircraft hit the Pentagon,” he said.

“Shortly thereafter is when United 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, due to the heroic efforts of the passengers and crew onboard that aircraft.

“We were not aware of the struggles that actually occurring onboard,” Mr McCormick told Sky News, adding: “However, we were closely tracking the aircraft, so we could see that the aircraft was descending.

“And we knew there were not any likely targets in that area, so I made the assumption that there was a struggle in a cockpit and somehow they were able to force the aircraft into the ground, and it was at a high rate of speed too. The crater form by their heroic activities was over 30 feet deep.”

Nobody knows what the actual target selected by the terrorists onboard that flight was.

“The assumption, and the working assumption that we had that day, was that it was headed toward Washington. So more than likely, it would have been a visible target, a high-profile target similar to World Trade Center,” Mr McCormick told Sky News.

That most likely would have been the Capitol Building, according to Mr McCormick, as a very large and prominent building on top of a hill with “easy access to it from the air if you were to a plan attack vectors.

“The White House is very difficult to hit, because it is a much smaller building, and has high rise buildings around it [which makes] it difficult to actually fly an aircraft into the White House.”

US

New Orleans attacker acted alone and ‘no definitive link’ to Las Vegas Tesla explosion, FBI says

Published

4 hours ago

January 3, 2025

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New Orleans attacker acted alone and 'no definitive link' to Las Vegas Tesla explosion, FBI says

The man who drove a pick-up truck into people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans is believed to have acted alone, according to the FBI – as new information was revealed about the two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) recovered near the scene.

There is also “no definitive link” between the attack and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas, said FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rented truck rammed into people in New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring dozens, in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

New Orleans attack – follow latest

Mr Raia called the attack “premeditated” and an “evil” act of terrorism, and said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS”, also known as Islamic State.

He also said the FBI was reviewing two laptops and three phones linked to Jabbar, as well as two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) recovered near the scene of the attack.

The two “functional” devices contained nails and were made of galvanized pipe with end caps, and taped inside two coolers, according to Sky News’ US partner NBC News, citing the FBI and two senior US law enforcement officials. Both devices had receivers for remote firing, they said.

It was not immediately clear if Jabbar tried to detonate the devices, or if they malfunctioned, the officials said.

And during a search of Jabbar’s home in Houston, investigators found remnants of bomb making.

Five videos posted in hours before attack

The 42-year-old army veteran, who was born in the US and lived in Texas, was shot dead after he crashed and opened fire on police.

The FBI said he posted five videos on his Facebook account between 1.29am and 3.02am – with the attack taking place around 3.15am.

In one, he said he planned to harm family and friends but was concerned headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and disbelievers”.

He also joined Islamic State “before this summer” and provided a will, Mr Raia told reporters.

A black ISIS flag was attached to the back of the white Ford truck used in the attack and was pictured lying next to the vehicle.

Authorities said Jabbar drove around police barricades on to the footpath, with witnesses describing carnage as the truck sped down the street, knocking people over.

“You just heard this squeal and the rev of the engine and this huge loud impact and then the people screaming,” said one witness, Kimberly Strickland from Alabama.

Barriers protecting pedestrians had been removed for repairs before the attack, city officials said, and were due to be replaced with a new bollard design.

While the works were taking place, they had been replaced with white gate barriers which were managed by the New Orleans Police Department, according to the City Of New Orleans.

Among the victims named so far are an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a single mother with a four-year-old son, and a graduate of Princeton University.

What we know about Shamsud-Din Jabbar

The FBI also said CCTV showed Jabbar placing the IEDs near the scene. However, none of them went off.

The investigation is expected to look at any support or inspiration he may have drawn from IS or any of its affiliate groups.

The bureau has received more than 400 tips from members of the public and more than 1,000 agents and officers have been working on the case.

Jabbar held human resources and IT roles in the army from 2007 until 2015, and was stationed in Afghanistan for a year. He was then in the reserves until 2020.

A friend described him as “very quiet, very reserved, smart, articulate” and said he had been raised a Christian before converting to Islam a long time ago.

Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl college American football game went ahead on Thursday afternoon, with a moment of silence beforehand, after being postponed on Wednesday following the attack. The city will also host the Super Bowl next month.

US

Half-brother of New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar says ‘this wasn’t the man I knew’

Published

4 hours ago

January 3, 2025

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Half-brother of New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar says 'this wasn't the man I knew'

The half-brother of the New Orleans attack suspect has said his actions were not “the man I knew”.

“This wasn’t the man I knew, this wasn’t the father, the son that I knew,” said Abdur-Rahim Jabbar whose half-brother Shamsud-Din Jabbar is suspected of committing the terrorist attack on the Bourbon Street area.

A pick-up truck struck people celebrating the New Year and Shamsud-Din was killed in a shootout with police. At least 14 people were killed and more than two dozen were injured.

The suspect’s younger half-brother Abdur-Rahim told a Texas-based TV station, owned by Sky News’s partner network NBC News: “It is a tragedy.”

“We’re all grieving about this,” he said.

Abdur-Rahim said he was thinking about those impacted by the attack.

“Our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out to those families, the victims of those families and those who were there to witness it,” he said.

The suspect was a Muslim, but his half-brother said: “This isn’t any representation of Islam or Muslims or the Muslim community.”

The FBI said Shamsud-Din was a 42-year-old US citizen and army veteran from Texas. Talking about himself in a work video in 2020, Shamsud-Din said he was born and raised in the state.

An Islamic State (IS) flag, weapons, and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device (IED) were found in the vehicle, the FBI said.

The suspect posted five videos on social media before the rampage in support of IS, the agency added.

In his first clip, Shamsud-Din said he was planning to harm his own family and friends, but was concerned headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and disbelievers”, said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division.

Shamsud-Din also joined IS “before this summer”, and provided a will, the FBI chief said.

He was twice divorced and had children. He worked as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist, Shamsud-Din said in one of his previous videos.

US

Did New Orleans authorities fail the victims of the New Year terror attack?

Published

13 hours ago

January 3, 2025

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Did New Orleans authorities fail the victims of the New Year terror attack?

Did the authorities fail the victims of the New Orleans terror attack? It’s barely in question, surely.

And yet, consider the response of Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick of New Orleans police when I asked if she’d let them down by not having an appropriate security plan.

“That’s not correct, we would disagree with that.”

“It has to be a security failure?” I suggested.

“We do know that people have lost their lives,” she responded. “But if you were experienced with terrorism, you would not be asking that question.”

With that, she was escorted away from gathered journalists by her media handlers.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick had been holding a short news conference at the end of Bourbon Street to herald its re-opening. It was just yards from the spot where a terrorist was able to drive through a gap in a makeshift line of obstructions and accelerate towards New Year crowds.

Invoking “experience with terrorism” is something to ponder. What experience told authorities they had adequate protection against a vehicle attack?

What experience told them it was appropriate to have a car’s width gap in makeshift street barricades?

What experience told them to contradict the security protocols of major cities around the world when it comes to large public gatherings?

To many, the answer shouldn’t be talk of experience – it should be, simply: “Sorry.” Notably, it has seemed to be the hardest word in a series of briefings by authorities who have bristled at the notion of security failings.

I asked Jack Bech for his view. He lost his brother Martin, or ‘Tiger’ in the Bourbon Street attack. He told Sky News he watched the final moments of his brother’s life on a FaceTime call to an emergency room as doctors tried, but failed, to save him.

It’s one heartbreaking story among dozens in this city.

On security, he said: “You can’t blame them. That dude easily could have been walking through the crowd with a jacket on and a bomb strapped to his chest.”

True. But the least that might be expected is an acknowledgement of failure to stop the man who drove his weapon into the crowd because he was able to. They certainly can’t claim success.

A measure of contrition would, perhaps, help the healing in this city. Experience should tell them that, if nothing else.