Five minutes too many

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2004 by Charles Peters

You have probably read about how the 9/11 Commission was a bit disturbed by the confusion caused by the plane headed toward the Capitol building just before the Reagan service. An even more disturbing indication that we have not learned enough from 9/11 also occurred in early June, but was less widely reported.

According to the testimony of the Federal Aviation Administration's New York operations manager, Benedict Sliney, as an unidentified aircraft was nearing New York, controllers reported the hazard to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. But, according to UPI's Shaun Waterman, "Sliney and his NORAD counterpart were unsure who had the power to order a military intervention. It took Sliney more than five minutes to ascertain where the authority lay." In five minutes, a jet under full throttle can cover 50 miles.