(9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) September 11, 2001: United Airlines Receives Many False Reports of Threats

Andrew Studdert. [Source: Rental Equipment Register]United Airlines receives numerous reports about threats and other emergencies, which turn out to be incorrect. This is according to Andrew Studdert, United Airlines’ chief operating officer, who spends much of the morning at the airline’s System Operations Control center, near Chicago. [9/11 Commission, 11/20/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004] Two of the flights hijacked in the terrorist attacks—Flight 175 and Flight 93—are United Airlines aircraft. [CNN, 9/12/2001] Studdert will tell the 9/11 Commission that, additionally, throughout the morning “there is a torrent of reported bomb threats” received by the airline. He will add that “explosions are reported at two airports, and there are reports of other threats and other hijackings.” Studdert will refer to “various rumors” the airline has to deal with. One of these is a “call from someone alleging to be the spouse of a flight attendant onboard an inbound flight from Europe, saying that it had been hijacked.” United Airlines “chased down and sweated these rumors until all the airplanes were grounded.” Studdert will say that these reports “turn out to be misunderstandings or hoaxes.” However, he will add, “the presumed threats cannot be dismissed in the high uncertainty of the moment.” [9/11 Commission, 11/20/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004] United Airlines also temporarily loses communication with several of its planes this morning (see (10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001); numerous other United Airlines aircraft are temporarily reported as missing (see 10:47 a.m.-11:40 a.m. September 11, 2001 and 10:55 a.m.-11:15 a.m. September 11, 2001); and one United Airlines plane reportedly transmits a distress signal while flying over the Atlantic Ocean (see 11:18 a.m.-12:27 p.m. September 11, 2001). [Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 9/11/2001; Federal Aviation Administration, 3/21/2002, pp. S-26 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/27/2004]