(Shortly After 8:46 a.m.) September 11, 2001: New York Flight Control Notices Problems with Flight 175

Curt Applegate sitting next to his flight control terminal. [Source: NBC News]New York flight controller Dave Bottiglia is in charge of monitoring both Flights 11 and 175. He has just watched Flight 11’s radar blip disappear over New York City, but does not yet realize the plane has crashed. He says aloud, “Well, we know he’s not high altitude anymore.” Around this time, Flight 175’s transponder changes twice in the space of a minute (see 8:46 a.m.-8:47 a.m. September 11, 2001). According to MSNBC, “within seconds” of losing Flight 11’s blip, “Bottiglia has another unexpected problem.” While looking for Flight 11, he realizes that Flight 175 is also missing, and “instinctively… knows the two [planes] are somehow related.” He asks another controller to take over all of his other planes. According to the 9/11 Commission’s account, Bottiglia is still trying to locate Flight 11 after it crashes, and so it is not until 8:51 a.m. that he notices the problem with Flight 175 (see 8:51 a.m.-8:53 a.m. September 11, 2001). Around the time Flight 175 changes its transponder code, Curt Applegate, sitting at the radar screen next to Bottiglia, sees a blip that might be the missing Flight 11. He shouts out, “Look. There’s an intruder over Allentown.” According to the Washington Post, “In air traffic jargon, an ‘intruder’ is a plane with an operating transponder that has entered restricted airspace without permission.” In fact, it is the missing Flight 175. [Washington Post, 9/17/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 21 ] However, there is no mention in these accounts that NORAD is notified about the hijacking at this time. On the other hand, according to a NORAD timeline from shortly after 9/11, NORAD was alerted about Flight 175 by the FAA several minutes earlier, at 8:43 a.m. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/18/2001]