(9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Air Force One Gets Airborne Without Fighter Escort

Air Force One departs Sarasota. [Source: Associated Press]President Bush departs from the Sarasota, Florida, airport on Air Force One. [Associated Press, 9/12/2001; New York Times, 9/16/2001; Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002; Daily Mail, 9/8/2002; ABC News, 9/11/2002; CBS News, 9/11/2002; Wall Street Journal, 3/22/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] Amazingly, his plane takes off without any fighters protecting it. “The object seemed to be simply to get the president airborne and out of the way,” says an administration official. [Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001] There are still 3,520 planes in the air over the US. [USA Today, 8/13/2002] About half of the planes in the Florida region where Bush’s plane is are still airborne. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/7/2002] Apparently, fighters don’t meet up with Air Force One until about an hour later. Counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke claims to have heard around 9:50 a.m. from the bunker containing Vice President Cheney that fighter escort had been authorized. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8-9]