FAA recordings from morning of Sept. 11 reveal moments air traffic controllers realized hijacking...

SOUND UP: Hear the following recordings released by the Federal Aviation Administration from the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when air traffic controllers attempted to respond the hijackings.

[nojithan]

It's crazy listening to people who have been training for something but haven't encountered it yet. The disbelief that it's not fake is surreal to hear

[crocodile]

I was on another plane (obviously) that morning flying across the Midwest. All of a sudden we started to descend way too early (and too rapidly as well). The pilot got on the intercom and said that there was a terrorist attack in New York, and we had to land at the nearest airport immediately. At the time, we (passengers) had no idea what New York had to do with us flying over the middle of the country. Of course as soon as we stepped off the plane and saw the TV monitors in the airport, the horror hit us right in the face.

[dcheat]

That last gentleman, "Just get me somebody who has the authority.... " He understood the weight of the situation and that something had to happen fast and now.

[barakbacharach]

Can you imagine going to work as an air traffic controller just a normal day, and suddenlt youre having to request to scramble F16s?

[nw]

Guy I went to college with was a co-pilot on United 175 (Boston to LA). Hurts to listen to this. Michael Horrocks was a good guy. RIP to all who lost their lives that day. Never forget.

[ryanprosper]

It's important to note that pilots and ATC are trained not to overreact in even the most alarming situations. I listened to over an hour and a half of these transmissions from that day, just this afternoon, and there were only a handful of times where I could hear voices raised in alarm or shock

[Freshbrood]

I was living in Tokyo Japan at the time watching this live on the air. The entire country was. I will never forget how many random Japanese citizens in the streets had tears falling down their faces later that night. The grief and silence was so thick everywhere. They definitely felt our pain that day.

[zoravibes]

1:07 The woman that said "cool" had no idea of the horror that would unfold in the next couple of hours. She went from "cool, the monotony of the daily grid has been placed on pause for the morning" to realizing the events that unfolded.

[SoloPilot]

It should be mentioned that the controller who said "Cool!" did so in a time when airliners were hijacked and flown to an airport somewhere, becoming a hostage crisis that nearly always resulted in a couple of days (at most) on the news while negotiations took place. Knowing that a plane had been hijacked meant that it was still in the air, with everyone still alive, thus relatively safe. That didn't change until LATER THAT VERY MORNING. This is what the hijackers were counting on.

[kenleigh]

Did anyone else find it surreal to not hear airplanes in the skies for a week after? To this day the silent skies still stick with me.

[chaddawson]

Lost my best friend that day Kevin Micheal Williams, he worked for Sandler O’Neil on floor 101 right below Cantor Fitzgerald, he was getting married December 1st 2001 and
I was in his wedding party. Kevin was only 23 at the time and the nicest person you could ever meet! His last phone call was at like 9:12am he told my buddy their was a fire in tower 1 and the alarms went off! He had no idea it was plane! After the 2nd plane hit his cell phone went voicemail forever! They found tiny pieces of Kevin’s DNA in March of 2022 in the Rubble. He will never be forgotten, the real hero’s where the fireman that lost their lives running into a burning building. Kevin’s boss survived as he was late to work that day dropping his son off at the dentist.

[Onyyyxx]

RIP to everyone who lost their lives in these attacks. 🕊️

[daphnejoslyn]

My dad has since retired from the airlines and I'm so lucky he was home with us that day. 20+ years later and this still makes me so emotional. I can't imagine what these people went through.

[stevet.]

I just retired after 32 years as a Federal Agent. I spent two weeks down in Ground Zero after the 9/11 incident. It was awful. God bless all who died and continue to pass based on exposure. My fingers are crossed.

[tomgluth]

Haunting, absolutely haunting. Still, in 2022. R.I.P. all who lost their lives.

[rixrailfan]

This was the most difficult audio recording to listen to. I was a US Navy Air traffic controller reservist that fateful day in September already on the clock in my civilian job. I happened to be on my first break of my shift just catching the live news on TV that an airplane had crashed into the WTC. CBS had a live camera on the WTC towers. As I was focused on the TV, a second plane came in to view and deliberately flew into the other tower. I stood up and told my co workers we were under attack.
The world and my life would be changed forever at this attack. By October I was on my way overseas for an unknown period of time having been mobilized to active duty in the Navy.


I am glad I stumbled on this Y-Tube audio recording and Air controllers working that day. They did their very best with sketch information at best with the limited technology available in 2001. The airspace over the US just didn’t didn’t have any real time data available or radars good enough to catch up with what i was going on the skies on 9/11/01.

I can only hope they’ve made improvements to the system since then.

[SilentKnight]

My wife woke me up just after the first plane hit the tower and I came downstairs and watched the second one hit the other tower as it happened on TV. We literally stood in stunned disbelief. I had the day off work and sat transfixed in front of the TV the entire day watching in horror as events played out. Two weeks later we were in Queens, NY attending a convention at Crowne Plaza Hotel across from LaGuardia Airport while they hosted a firefighter memorial on the other side of the hotel. There was still smoke coming from the ruins at this point. It was absolutely surreal.

[margob]

Watch the documentary “Come from Away, ” the story of a little town in Gander, Newfoundland, that took in hundreds of stranded airline passengers after their flights were ordered to land at the nearest available airport that day. From the Gander air traffic controllers who safely guided in more planes than the airport was built to handle, to the townspeople who took in all those passengers as if they were family and fed, clothed, comforted, and wiped away their tears, it will move you to your core and restore your faith in humanity. 🙏 ❤

[xplayman]

I saw the plane before it hit outside of my classroom window. Close friend’s father died as a first responder. Now that I’m starting my aviation career, it’s crazy to think about all of the people involved in this operation of air traffic. A lot of lives were affected but I cannot even imagine to know what it’s like to see a threat and feel helpless or in the dark.

[_lime.]

3:44, for anyone curious about this interaction here. "Huntress" is the callsign for the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) controller. Here he is scrambling F-15s, PANTA 45 and 46, from Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod Massachusetts. These aircraft were ordered to intercept American Airlines flight 11, unfortunately they didn't make it in time.

Three F-16s of the Dakota ANG were later scrambled from Langley, callsigns QUIT 25 and 26, armed with missiles, and a reserve plane with guns only. These aircraft are ordered to get above DC. Due to series of errors they end up 150 miles east of DC when American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. Interestingly a ANG C-130 "Gofer 86" was following flight 77 after they instructions to ID the aircraft from Reagan Nation Airport. They witnessed the plane strike the Pentagon and radioed “OK, We are down to two thousand. And, uh, this is Gofer 86, it looks like that aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, sir”. It's unclear what the F-16s could have done had they been over Washington, shooting the aircraft down over a major city wouldn't have minimized damage.