Suicide Hijacking Idea Was Ignored

Federal aviation authorities had considered suicide hijackings a potential threat as early as 1998, but discounted that likelihood and focused security efforts instead on detecting explosives and other concerns, according to an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.

Even in the months leading up to the strikes on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, with the U.S. intelligence community in a state of near panic that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent, aviation officials did little to step up security or tighten screening procedures, the panel said in a preliminary report Tuesday.

The sharply critical findings were presented during a hearing that offered significant new glimpses into how the hijackers executed the plot and how the airlines reacted.

The commission also played publicly, for the first time, a tape of a call from an American Airlines flight attendant to company security officials, telling them the aircraft had been hijacked and that two of her colleagues had been stabbed.

The chilling call was made by attendant Betty Ong, aboard Flight 11, which departed Boston for Los Angeles but was rerouted by the hijackers and crashed into the World Trade Center.

“There’s somebody stabbed in business class,” said Ong.

“I think we’re getting hijacked,” she said, and also told the center that the “cockpit is not answering their phone.... We can’t even get into the cockpit. We don’t know who’s up there.”

Nervous but composed, Ong also told operators at the airline’s reservations center in North Carolina that another flight attendant and the purser had been stabbed. She said that the attackers had sprayed Mace and “nobody can breathe” near the front of the plane.

After about 4 1/2 minutes, the operator in North Carolina kept Ong on the line as she dialed the airline’s System Operations Control center in Texas. Ong said the passengers who had been in seats 2A and 2B were “in the cockpit with the pilot.” She may not have known that the passenger seated in 8D, Al Qaeda operative Mohamed Atta, also had gone into the cockpit and apparently was piloting the plane.

After 20 minutes of the three-way call, the operator in North Carolina lost contact with the flight attendant. “Betty, talk to me.... Betty are you there?” she said, telling the airline official in Texas, “I think we might have lost her.”

The North Carolina operator, Nydia Gonzalez, testified before the commission Tuesday, breaking down several times and saying the call “will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life.” Two members of Ong’s family, a brother and sister, also attended the hearing.

In detailing how the plot was carried out, investigators said most of the hijackers likely were carrying not box cutters but folding utility knives -- which were permitted under Federal Aviation Administration regulations -- and had smuggled Mace or pepper spray aboard, using it to force passengers from the front of the airplanes. The hijackers paid great attention to detail, the panel said, even choosing seat assignments to maximize their odds of success.

Nine of the 19 hijackers were selected by airport screeners for additional scrutiny, the panel reported, but that only meant that their checked luggage was examined more carefully. None was barred from boarding.

In all, commission officials said, the hijackers “gamed” the airline security system so thoroughly and carefully that there was little chance of failure.

“The hijackers analyzed our system and developed a plan they felt sure would beat it in every case,” said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the bipartisan Sept. 11 panel. “And 19 out of 19 succeeded.”

The commission noted that it had found no evidence that anyone in the FAA had specific information pointing to a plot like the one that unfolded on Sept. 11.

Government officials and industry executives defended their pre-Sept. 11 practices in testimony before the panel. Some said the FBI and other intelligence agencies downplayed the few reports that had surfaced in the 1990s suggesting terrorists might hijack planes and use aircraft as missiles against targets on the ground. Others said they were unaware of those intelligence reports, and said they never even considered the possibility of such an attack.

“The notion of a fully fledged member of Al Qaeda being a pilot

But the commission pointed to a series of breakdowns, missed opportunities and questionable policies. Even after at least two of the hijackers were placed on terrorist watch lists weeks before the attacks, their names were not provided to the FAA -- and therefore did not show up on “no-fly” lists that would have prevented them from boarding.

The panel on Tuesday formally asked Congress for a two-month extension, which would move the May 27 deadline for its report to the end of July. Commission members have said they need extra time to continue their investigation and schedule additional hearings. The commission was formed to produce a comprehensive report on government failures leading up to Sept. 11.

The White House and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) have signaled their objections to such an extension, which would move the release of the commission’s report -- and any embarrassing disclosures -- closer to the Nov. 2 presidential election.

“We recognize there are opponents” of the idea of an extension, Kean said. “But we are telling Congress and the president what we need to do the best possible report.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Flight tape

This is a transcript of flight attendant Betty Ong’s call to an American Airlines operations desk on an emergency line on Sept. 11, 2001:

Operations: What’s the number of your seat?

Ong: OK. I’m in the jump seat right now. That’s 3R.

Q: What is your name?

A: My name is Betty Ong. I’m No. 3 on Flight 11.

Q: OK.

A: And the cockpit is not answering their phone. There’s somebody stabbed in business class, and we can’t breathe in business. Um, I think there is some Mace or something. We can’t breathe. I don’t know, but I think we’re getting hijacked.

Q: Can you describe the person, that you said someone is shot in business?

A: I’m sitting in the back. Somebody’s coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second here, they’re coming back.

Our No. 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who. We can’t even get up to business class right now because nobody can breathe. Uhhh, our No. 1 is stabbed right now.

(garbled) Our No. 5, our first-class passenger, er, our first-class galley flight attendant and our purser have been stabbed. And we can’t get into the cockpit. The door won’t open.

Q: This is operations. What flight number are we talking about?

Q: At this point we are talking about Flight 12.

Q: Flight 12. OK.

A: No, we’re on Flight 11 right now. This is Flight 11.

Q: This is Flight 11. I’m sorry, Nadine.

A: Boston to Los Angeles.

Q: Yes.

A: Our No. 1 has been stabbed, and our 5 has been stabbed.

Q: Can anybody get up to the cockpit? Can anyone get up to the cockpit?

A: We can’t even get into the cockpit. We don’t know who’s up there.

Dial tone

*Source: Associated Press