US air defenses completely unprepared for September 11: report

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US air defenses were completely unprepared for the September 11, 2001 attacks and plagued by poor coordination and communications as they cobbled together a hurried response, a national inquiry commission said.

It said procedures drafted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had been based on a traditional hijacking and not a suicide attack using the aircraft as a guided missile.

"On the morning of 9/11, the existing protocol was unsuited in every respect for what was about to happen," said a staff report issued on the final day of the panel's hearings here.

"What ensued was the hurried attempt to create an improvised defense by officials who had never encountered or trained...