[Middle Man]

"Was the ATC to blame for allowing (by not sounding the alarm fast enough) the two WTC planes so close to NY? I don't know. But I don't think this has anything to do with any shoot-down."

For comparison, we now know that the charter jet golfer Payne Stewart and his entourage died on was intercepted within 15 minutes of the controllers losing radio contact with the cockpit.

Supposedly NORAD has protocols for immediately scrambling when a commercial plane departs from its flight plan or loses radio contact with the tower. Yet these loaded airliners were off-course and unaccounted for for 45 minutes over the most densely populated airspace in the country.

It doesn't sound like "shoot-down" but "stand-down".

[eno_]

That is mighty odd.

[diogenes ghost]

The 'protocols' you refer to were not in place prior to 9/11.

[Poohbah]

For comparison, we now know that the charter jet golfer Payne Stewart and his entourage died on was intercepted within 15 minutes of the controllers losing radio contact with the cockpit.

Intercepted by an UNARMED aircraft that was already airborne in the area.

Supposedly NORAD has protocols for immediately scrambling when a commercial plane departs from its flight plan or loses radio contact with the tower.

Today, yes.

That was not the case prior to 9/11.

Incidentally, prior to 9/11, the US had, on routine alert, on any given day...about a dozen armed interceptors, divided between Florida and Alaska.

That's because the US air defense posture was, for many years, tied to the level of activity at the air bases of the Russian 37th Air Army (the Russian heavy bomber force).

In other words, it took the Defense Department ten years to figure out that the Cold War was over.

Yet these loaded airliners were off-course and unaccounted for for 45 minutes over the most densely populated airspace in the country.

Generating armed fighters in 45 minutes is close to a record for the Air Force and Air National Guard.