September 11, 2001

The event that will forever be known as “September 11,” a terrorist attack on the United

States, occurred on September 11, 2001. It was focused on New York and Washington, D. C., respectively the nation’s financial and govern­mental centers. The perpetrators were mem­bers of a fundamentalist Islamic group called A1 Qaeda, all followers of a militant Islam sect headed by a man called Osama bin Laden, a member of a wealthy Saudi Arabian family.2 Bin Laden maintained training camps for militants in Afghanistan, and kept on the move in mountain­ous areas on the border with Pakistan.

The selection of targets, the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, constituted a declaration of war on the institutions and ideals of the free world, and on the free enterprise system that had made possible the unprecedented strides in modern technology that it represented. It is ironic that the tools used by the terrorists to wreck such mas­sive destruction upon that civilization were some of the very tools used to build the system, and which were themselves products of that system, the modern airliner.

American Airlines flight 11 was a Boe­ing 757 (see Figure 35-1) that departed Bos­ton Logan for Los Angeles and was crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center; United Airlines flight 175 was a Boeing 767 that departed Boston Logan for Los Angeles and was crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. (See Figure 35-2.)

American Airlines flight 77 was a Boeing 757 that departed Washington Dulles for Los Angeles and was crashed into the Pentagon in Washing­ton, D. C.; United Airlines flight 93 was a Boeing 757 that departed Newark for San Francisco and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. United 93 was the only hijacked airplane that failed to reach its target. Enroute to the target, a small group of male passengers attempted to retake control of the airplane by overpowering the terrorists and storm­ing the cockpit. The airplane crashed during the ensuing fight for control. Although all on board died, there were no casualties on the ground or at the point of the terrorists’ target due to this brave action by passengers.

These aircraft were selected by the terror­ists because of their size and because each one was scheduled on a planned transcontinental flight heavily loaded with jet fuel which, when ignited upon impact, created an inferno larger than any that could have been accomplished by any transportable bomb available to the terrorists.

Immediately following the September 11 attack, all aircraft within the United States were grounded by federal order. The fact that the weap­ons used by the terrorists were airplanes caused the government to first ensure that no other air­craft could be used to the same effect. Implemen­tation of the ground stop order was unprecedented in the history of aviation. The mechanism for the

order was a relic of the Cold War and was origi­nally conceived to prevent Soviet bombers from surreptitiously entering the United States while in the radar shadow of inbound commercial airlin­ers. Within hours of the issuance of the ground stop order, all flights within the borders of the United States were on the ground, and all inbound international flights had been turned back from America’s borders. One of these, incidentally, was the Concorde, which was over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the time bound for New York. By the afternoon of September 11, FAA radars were eerily empty, reflecting only patrol­ling military fighter aircraft, notably above the skies of the Northeastern United States.

Resumption of flight operations occurred incrementally, beginning with the reposition­ing of commercial aircraft, then resumption of domestic U. S. flag operations, and finally resumption of international flight operations. The federal order grounding all aircraft cost the airline industry over $330 million a day for the duration of the days-long stoppage.

The attacks had a ripple effect on commer­cial losses, including insurance companies, travel
services, the stock market, most commercial transactions and, not least, on the confidence of the world citizen. But of all industry sectors affected, the airlines took the brunt of the blow. The airlines whose airliners were hijacked had to deal with not only the loss of the aircraft and crew, but also with liability issues involving both death and property damage to those passengers on the airplanes and those in harm’s way on the ground. The industry as a whole had to deal with the effect of the grounding, and the conse­quent disruption and loss of revenue while their expenses, including debt service on aircraft, con­tinued unabated.

Congress and the president were quickly convinced that federal intervention was neces­sary to meet the financial needs of the United States air transportation industry. It was also clear that the nation had to address its overall security posture in the face of a new kind of enemy. A series of legislative initiatives was immediately begun in a Congress united in pur­pose. Three significant and complex new laws were passed in an almost unprecedented space of time.

The first of these was the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act. Enacted 11 days later, on September 22, 2001, it (1) provided compensation to the airlines for direct losses caused by the ground stop order and (2) created a fund to provide loans to qualifying air carriers. The second statute, the Aviation and Transporta­tion Security Act, addressed security upgrades that were needed to strengthen airports and the air transportation system generally. The third, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, created a new Cabinet-level department, the Department of Homeland Security. This statute placed within one executive department responsibility for all planning and procedures deemed necessary to enhance the security of the nation against similar types of threats.