DECOYING, STAND DOWNSept 9 - NORAD conducts operation 'Northern Vigilance,' planned months in advance, which deploys fighter jets to Alaskan region. (NORAD, Toronto Star)
9/11 - Three F-16 jetfighters from Andrews AFB, 15 miles from Pentagon, are flown 180 miles away for training mission in the morning. (Aviation Week)
9/11 - Andrews AFB, home to DC Air National Guard and Air Force 1 & 2, had no jetfighters on alert. (Newsday, USA Today)
9/11 - US intel agency planned exercise in the morning to simulate plane crash into government building. (Boston Globe, USA Today)
9/11 - NORAD was running war game called 'Vigilant Guardian' in which the commander in charge thought first hijacking was "part of the exercise." (Aviation Week, NY Observer)
9/11 - FAA bans takeoffs at 9:26 am for all civilian, military, or law enforcement aircraft (FAA, Time)
9/11 - Shoot-down authorization not communicated to NORAD until 28 minutes after Flight 93 crashed. (9/11 Panel, Seattle Post)
Feb '05 - Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Myers confirm there were total of four wargames on 9/11 from Rep. McKinney questioning. (C-SPAN)
WTC ATTACK
Jan '01 - Frank De Martini, deceased Mgr of WTC Construction & Project Mgmt, says in documentary before 9/11 that he believes WTC towers could sustain multiple hits from large jetliners, comparing it to poking a pencil through mosquito netting. (WTC-A Modern Marvel, DVD Talk)
July '01 - WTC landlord leased the entire WTC complex 6 six weeks before attacks. (CBS, Washington Times)
Twin Towers were hated, poorly designed money-losers subsides by the State and weren't torn down before because of expensive asbestos removal in which 9/11 benefited the owners by efficiently destroying the complex in a way that they didn't have to pay for any of it. (Baltimore Sun, Salon, Front Page)
Sept 6 - WTC officials recently took steps to secure towers against aerial attacks by installing bulletproof windows and fireproof doors in the 22nd-floor computer command center (Newsday)
Two week heightened security alert at WTC is lifted and bomb-sniffing dogs are abruptly removed days before 9/11. (Newsday)
Occupant in WTC says weeks before attacks they had "unusual" amount of evacuations from WTC and says he thinks "they had an inkling something was going on." (People)
9/11 - A Fiduciary Trust CEO from the South WTC is invited to early morning charity event at Offutt AFB hosted by billionaire Warren Buffett and is escorted to TV by military officers and sees 2nd plane crash into her offices. (Forbes, SF Business Times)
9/11 - A missile was reportedly launched from the Woolworth Building near the WTC. (NIST, WNBC, NY Daily)
9/11 - Rudy Giuliani says he was told South WTC was going to collapse. (ABC video)
Company hired to help clean up Ground Zero is control demolition experts, Controlled Demolition Inc. (Waste Age)
Preliminary tests show steel quality did not contribute to twin towers' collapse. (Boston Globe, Pittsburg Live)
Oct '04 - Fire in 56-story Venezuelan skyscraper spreads over 26 floors and burns for over 17 hours, but does not collapse. (CBS)
WTC Ground Zero workers claim they helped FBI find 3 of the 4 black boxes from planes that struck WTC, contradicting official accounts that none were found. (Philadelphia Daily News)
Bombs, flashes, other explosions
EMT Jeff Birnbaum near the South Tower says he heard an eerie high-pitched noise and a 'popping sound' then an explosion before the top of the tower leaned toward him and started coming down. (CEE News)
Firefighter Louie Cacchioli in elevator going to 24th floor hears a bomb go off and thinks bombs were set in the building. (People)
Firefighter Edward Cachia says the South Tower gave at a lower floor then where the plane hit because they thought there was internal explosions going off from hearing successions of 'boom, boom, boom, boom' before the tower came down. (NY Times)
Fire Captain Karin Deshore says there was orange and red flashes followed by explosions that were getting bigger going both up and down and then all around the WTC 2. (SF Gate)
Tom Elliott on 67th floor floor in WTC 2 felt explosion below him as plane hit, firemen going up told him of an explosion near 60th floor. (CS Monitor)
Commissioner Stephen Gregory along with a Lieutenant Evangelista from Ladder 146 say they both saw multiple flashes coming from the lower level of the WTC 2 right before it collapsed and mentions the flashes they saw are like what you'd see when they 'blow up a building.' (NY Times)
Nadine Keller from her balcony in Soho, NY says she 'heard the bomb' before she saw the buildings collapse. (BBC)
EMT Joseph Lovero reports hearing 'additional explosions' to dispatcher. (WNBC)
Edmund McNally phoned his wife from 97th floor of WTC 2 following the plane crash, says he heard explosions below him. (NY Times)
Mike Pecoraro and co-worker hear a loud explosion in WTC 1 basement and believes a bomb went off after seeing major damage to the basement floors. (Chief Engineer)
Janitor William Rodriguez in WTC 1 basement hears explosion below him, then the plane crash above him seconds later, then saw severely burnt man come out of basement elevator. (CNN)
Teresa Veliz on the 47th floor of the WTC 1 feels the building shake again more violently then the shaking from the 1st crash and hears explosions going off everywhere inside the building and also hears explosions when she was outside that she was convinced bombs were 'planted all over the place' and that someone was 'sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons.' (September 11: An Oral History)
Kim White from 80th floor of WTC 1 hears an explosion near the 74th floor. (People|2)
Witnesses reported hearing another explosion just before WTC 1 collapse, police said collapse looked almost like a 'planned implosion' designed to 'catch bystanders watching from the street.' (Guardian)
Third explosion reported at WTC 2 and part of the tower collapses afterward. (TCM News, TCM News)
Group of firemen discussing the collapse of WTC 2 said how each floor was pooping out as by being 'detonated' as if 'they had planned to take down a building'. (9/11 - The Filmmakers' Edit)
A member of the FDNY says when trying to get some people out that there was 'secondary explosions' and then subsequent collapses. (11 News)
A FDNY Firefighter says as he was getting his gear on and making his way to the stairway, there was a 'heavy duty explosion'. (CBS)
MSNBC Reporter Ann Thompson says at 10:30 when she got outside the building she heard a 'second explosion' and 'another rumble' then ran inside for cover when a fire marshal said they had to leave because if there was a third explosion the building might not last. (MSNBC)
NBC's Pat Dawson reports that the chief of safety of the FDNY told him that he received word of another bomb going off and when he tried to get his men out he said that there was another explosion which took place and thinks there were devices that were planted in the building. (NBC)
Eyewitness speaking in a studio interview says he was about five blocks away when he heard three explosions and turned around to see the building he just got out of collapse. (Studio interview)
An injured witness to one of the towers collapsing said it sounded like 'gunfire' and then all of a sudden he heard 'three big explosions'. (News interview)
NBC's Rick Sanchez reports that police have evacuated an area around the WTC because of a 'suspicious device' thought to be a bomb and say they think a van with explosives in it went off inside the WTC and fear that bombs have been planted in, or nearby the buildings. (MSNBC)
BBC's Stephen Evans reports there was a big explosion from 'much, much lower' in the WTC from where the plane crashed. (BBC)