Why didn't they take action?

[Dysfunctional]

<< The Washington Post reports the Federal Aviation Administration alerted the national military air defense command that a hijacked jet was hurtling toward the Pentagon 12 minutes before the plane hit, but apparently no one relayed that message to Pentagon security so they didn't evacuate building. >>


Source: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/gen.america.under.attack/

I'm wondering why no one would have relayed the information.....if they would have, coudln't they have shot down the plane, or at least evacuated the building? I know that they didn't know what part of the building was gonna be hit, but at least they could have been on alert and had some fighter jets in the area, right? (i don't know the distance of the base from the pentagon, so i'm just guessing)

What do you guys think?

 

[Looney]

I'm wondering why no one would have relayed the information.....

It was such a major event, that everybody probably expected somebody else to do it... and in the end nobody did.

Only reason i can really think of.

 

[Geforcekj]

1. who's gonna believe you if you go running into the pentagon screaming there is aplane gonna crash in to the building..they will think you are crazy.

2. They didn't know what builing the plane was gonna hit, last I checked there were a few builinding of inportance in Washington, DC

ooopss. I jsut realized that the NYC incident had already happened so they probably whould have believed you....my bad

 

[Dysfunctional]

just that i'm thinking if we were on that terrorist alert (i forgot the name....something like defcon3?) then someone should have payed attention to this. i mean, they were authorized to shoot any unauthorized planes heading for the WhiteHouse or the capitol.....why why not the pentagon....isn't that important also?

 

[Geforcekj]

I think by "White house or Capital" they must mean Washington , DC b/c by the time you could tell it was gonna hit the white house it would be very too late...

 

[Dysfunctional]

<< I think by "White house or Capital" they must mean Washington , DC b/c by the time you could tell it was gonna hit the white house it would be very too late... >>



http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/cheney.terror/index.html

that's the link to the story...

 

[Looney]

Just the shock and everything probably made things more confusing. It was early in the morning, and then all of a sudden the WTC gets hit, and you're getting msg the Pentagon may be hit too.

Not saying nobody is at fault, but it's understandable how things may have slipped through... not like the US or the people have been involved in situations like this before.

 

[Dysfunctional]

<< An American Airlines flight with 64 people on board slammed into the Pentagon before military jets had a chance to intercept it. >>



ok. NM

 

[Geforcekj]

<< The president made the decision. ... I concurred ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away FROM THE CITY, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," Cheney said. >>

 

[tcsenter]

<< The Washington Post reports the Federal Aviation Administration alerted the national military air defense command that a hijacked jet was hurtling toward the Pentagon 12 minutes before the plane hit, but apparently no one relayed that message to Pentagon security so they didn't evacuate building. >>

They couldn't have known where the plane was headed at the time. All they knew at the time was that it was headed towards Washington, DC. and the Pentagon is only one of several potential targets along that flight path. The only plane they had time to actually intercept was the flight that crashed in Penn. There just wasn't enough time to intercept others.

Someone probably just dropped the ball in all the confusion and excitement. Ok, White House evacuated, check; Capitol building evacuated, check; are we missing anything? OH SH-T, the Pentagon!

 

[b0mbrman]

Who was responsible for it?

 

[ToBeMe]

New Information...............


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Immediately after last Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington, U.S. military pilots were given orders to intercept and shoot down incoming commercial airliners over Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday.

"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

"People say that's a horrendous decision to make, and it is," Cheney said. But he said the United States "absolutely" would have acted on those orders if it could have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center or Pentagon, which have left thousands of people feared dead.

"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that decision," Cheney said.

He said the U.S. military in effect implemented a "flying combat air patrol" over Washington. It would be up to President Bush to decide if that policy would be made permanent, Cheney said.

He noted he and all presidential advisors had strongly urged Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the attacks, to delay his return to Washington indefinately because the situation was so uncertain.

 

[mastertech01]

Even if they knew it was going to hit the Pentagon where the hell are all those people going to decide to run in a few minutes time.. Have you seen the design of the Pentagon and the devastation the plane made? They could have all piled up in one spot and that might have been the spot the plane struck.. leading to much greater loss of life. Thier only hope would have been to splash the plane, but we all know that there would have been doubts raised for eternety as to whether that would have been the right choice since we would not have had valid proof of the intent of the pilot.... What ifs are terribly difficult questions to answer.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

The other two planes had already hit - it must have been pretty hectic already.