Day of 9/11 - Additions to the 9/11 Timeline as of April 26, 2009

Most of the recently published entries at the 9/11 Timeline focus on the day of the attacks. The Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), which had been briefed on the possibility of a plane hitting the WTC at some time before 9/11, asked Langley Air Force Base to get a third plane ready to launch at 9:10 or shortly after, meaning that the unit there would have no supervisor of flying. It also took control of Washington airspace and directed the Langley fighters to the White House at 9:36, around the same time tankers refuelled jets launched from Otis Air Force Base near New York.

The pilots at Langley Air Force Base, one of whom had asked to be taken off alert later on, learned of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center at around 9:00 a.m. Boston ATC Center military liaison Colin Scoggins learned of the second hijacking over an FAA teleconference just before the plane crashed into the WTC, and American Airlines increased security and activated crash teams about 10 minutes later.

Indianapolis ATC Center, which handled Flight 77 on the day of the attacks, learned of Flight 11's hijacking and the WTC crashes at 9:09 a.m. and received confirmation of Flight 11's hijacking at 9:14 a.m., but still did not suspect that Flight 77--which was lost to Indianapolis before nine--could have been hijacked.

Miscellaneous entries cover a comment by former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke that President George Bush tried to impress White House staffers at the start of his administration, the replacement of a FEMA counterterrorism official by a political appointee in September 2001, and recent comments by former Reagan official David Rivkin saying that Bush's actions during the "war on terror" were "exemplary."