(8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001: American Airlines Learns of Plane Hitting WTC

Don Carty. [Source: Publicity photo]By 8:50 a.m., the American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas has been called by an American employee at La Guardia Airport in New York City, and informed that an aircraft has hit the World Trade Center. However, it does not yet know that this was Flight 11. [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 15 ] Around the same time, a ramp supervisor at JFK International Airport in New York phones the American Airlines System Operations Control (SOC), located near to its headquarters, to also report the plane hitting the WTC, and workers at the SOC then switch on the television to see it on the news reports. Don Carty, the American Airlines president, who has not yet arrived at his office this morning, calls Gerard Arpey, American’s executive vice president for operations, who is at the SOC. Carty has seen the reports of the WTC and asks, “Is that our plane?” Arpey replies, “I don’t know, Don. We confirmed it was hijacked, and was headed south from Boston.” Carty later recalls that he had a bad feeling that it was indeed his plane that had hit the North Tower. According to Arpey, “We furiously attempted to learn if that aircraft was Flight 11.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/15/2001; 9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004] Yet, apparently, it is not until 9:30 a.m. that American Airlines confirms that Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center (see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001).