IIRC the East Coast armed alert on 9-11 consisted of 2 F-15Cs at Otis AFB Cape Cod and two F-16s at Langley (det from the Happy Hooligans) There was probably two armed birds in FL as well. About 20 minutes after my Dulles Corridor employer told us to go home (right after the first tower fell) I witnessed (heard) the booms of two aircraft passing overhead supersonically in the vicinity of Burke Lake Road on Fairfax County Parkway in VA, believed they were birds out of Langley going North.
The issue is that NORAD was looking outward while Flight 93 approached from the interior. The East Coast was defended appropriately for the anticipated threat. Unfortunately the threat that showed up wasn’t anticipated.
Good post.
I know that the F15s over NYC were from Otis. Don’t know anything about Langley that day. The birds from Holloman and I think DM were from Houston. I believe all alert flights in CONUS were Air Guard.
Hopefully things have been improved some.