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Regional OfficeAir Traffic Division, immediately upon receipt of notification that the WTC had been hit,worked with others in the regional office to establish an emergency command post on the5th floor. Personnel from all branches were quickly assigned fo r duty in the commandpost; a system of runners was also set up to ensure messages were relayed to and from the4th floor. Resource Management Branch, AEA-540, started release of nonessentialpersonnel at 9:05 am , and notified the regional points of contact for the National AirTraffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and the National Association of Air TrafficSpecialists (NAATS). The Division received timely updates via phone calls or pagesfrom field facility managers and/or union representatives. Critical information, such asthe report from Washington Tower that a B757 had hit the Pentagon, was immediatelyrelayed to the command post. Air Traffic personnel and senior management have beenavailable in the regional office 24 hours per day since the WTC events of last week.

Washington National TowerWhen the personnel at DCA heard about the World Trade Center attacks, we clearedDCA airspace of all VFR traffic. Later, When IA D called about the unknown primarytarget, (AAL 77) our Supervisor (OS Vic Padgett) got on the secret service ho t line topass information and also stopped all of our departures. One of our controllers (DanCreedon) tagged the primary target to make it easier to track. When we saw the fireballfrom the crash of AAL77 into the pentagon, we (CPC Dave Walsh) activated the airportcrash and rescue phone to alert the airport crash and rescue personnel of the crash. CPCSteve Collison turned Gofer 06 , C130, to follow unknown aircraft to see where it wasgoing.

New York ARTCCOn September 11, 2001, between 1239 UTC and 1305 UTC the following actions weretaken by New York ARTCC to try and mitigate the many incidents occurring at this time.New York ARTCC sector 42 (CPC Dave Bodtiglia) initiated a track on primary targetbelieved to be AAL11 heading southbound. ZNY STMC (Marty Rosenburg) asks ZNYM LS (Bob Felser) to get military assistance. ZNY ATM (Michael J. McCormick) calledN90 OMIC to warn them to look fo r primary target in vicinity of Hudson Riversouthbound toward Manhattan. ZNY ATM asks Area B OSIC (OS Paul Thumser) & CIC(Evana Dowis) to coordinate for fighter intercept on hijack aircraft. ZNY MLS contactsHuntress. Several discussions over a period of 12 minutes occurred, including muchinformation about type aircraft, aircraft call sign, beacon code and location. UAL 175asked to recycle transponder by ZNY Sector R42. Sector R42 CPC monitoring bothprimary targets fo r AAL11 and U AL 175 informs CIC continuously of aircraft, positions,and altitudes when available. ZNY ATM observes target on R42 and R55 displayheading toward NYC. ZNY ATM attempts several phone calls to AEA ATD to warn ofanother hijack and probable second attack on WTC. N90 OMIC (Bob Birch) informs

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ZNY ATM that EW R ATCT reports an aircraft crashed in the World Trade Center. ZN YATM warns N90 that more is going on and that there is more than one hijack. Additionalhijack may be headed toward NYC. ZNY OMIC (Bruce Barrett) directs STM Cs (PeteM ulligan and Marty R osenburg) to stop all traffic into NYARTCC. ZNY MLS notifiesZNY ATM that military aircraft are scrambled and requests current location and beaconcode of aircraft. ZNY ATM notifies him that the aircraft appears to have crashed in thesame location. ZNY AAT M (Dave Lecates) notified ATM that second aircraft crashedinto WT C with live pictures on CNN . ZNY ATM directs OM IC to declare ATC 0. Allinternational oceanic traffic within ZNY was told to divert to alternate destinations. Alock down of New York ARTCC w as accom plished.

New York TRACONSTMC Ron Regan and OMIC Bob Birch cleared all Air Traffic out of the New York areaas soon as he became aware of a hijacking with serious implications.

Washington ARTCCWashington ARTCC ATM (Luis Ramirez) ordered a stop of all departures in theWashington Area approximately nine minutes before an y direction. CPC RichardWallace overhead the Telcon discussion about AAL 77 while w alking buy the watchdesk regarding AAL 77 and indicated he worked the aircraft and went back to find al ldata related to AA L 77. The facility went into a total lockdown and FMA, NATCA,ZNY-1, an d ZNY-2 brought all meals for the personnel rem aining on duty. Each areawas directed to set up and look for primary targets within there airspace, and NA TCAand FAA worked as a team throughout this event in accom plishing all necessary tasks inproviding the best possible service to the military and civilian aircraft.

Dulles TowerDuring this time of crisis, the Dulles ATCT Team had many instances of exemplaryperformance. Within the Du lles Team there were also several star performers, whosededication, instincts and professionalism gave our Team the winning edge.Danielle O'Brien - The certified professiona l controller at Dulles ATCT who noticed theprimary target later identified as hijacked aircraft AAL 77. She immediately brought thisunknow n target to the attention of the supervisor and the entire work force in the DullesTRACON.John Hendershot - The supervisor at Dulles ATCT who im mediately realized theimportance of the unknow n target and contacted the White House Joint OperationsCenter and Washington National ATCT to inform them of the danger.

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Mark Masaitis - The traffic management coordinator at Dulles ATCT, whosedetermination an d com manding presence spearheaded the Hub wide evacuation ofairspace. Dulles ATC T was able to vacate its assigned airspace, inc luding ReaganNational traffic, within forty-five minutes of the nationwide ground stop.Operations Supervisor TerryLee Brown, an d Controllers Carl Graves, Robert Utley,Terrence Walsh, Joseph M antello, Steven Martin and Thomas remained behind toevacuate D ulles airspace and continued to provide services to the military and defenseforces, even with the threat of another hijac ked aircraft inbound to the Washington D Carea.

The Dulles Team evacuated D ulles' airspace including Reagan National traffic, withinforty-five minutes of the nationwide ground stop and has since returned to 90% of thetraffic volum e (prior to 9/11/01), while being impac ted by two Temporary FlightRestrictions in the Washington DC area.Manassas Tower worked law enforc ement operations out of their airport and handedthem off to the Dulles Team throughout the crisis, an d Charleston Tower controllers suchas , Sherry Ma rshall, James C ox, Greg Bailey, Paul Johns, Ben Trainer, Grant Rhodes,Richard Gehringer an d Barbara Bailey (secretary) w orked lifeguard operations C-130squadron stationed at the airport. These are some of the same controllers that worked theevacuation of the airspace.