NORAD Trained for Hijacking Event Before Terrorist Attacks

The Associated Press
October 7, 2001

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the NORAD military command conducted a drill in which a hijacked plane slammed into a highly visible U.S. target.

Details of the drill were not disclosed. However, Gen. Ed Eberhart, the four-star commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Gazette newspaper that the drill involved a plane hijacked from a foreign airport.

The scenario gave fighter jets under NORAD's command more time to respond to the rogue aircraft than the time they had Sept. 11.

The terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon hijacked planes from three East Coast airports. NORAD fighters were sent up but did not reach any of the planes in time.

"We did not anticipate this threat would take off from inside the United States and it would be a matter of double-digit minutes" to respond, Eberhart said Friday.

'"Frustrating' doesn't cover it," Eberhart said of his feelings that day.

The command didn't practice responding to a domestic hijacking because such an incident is so rare.

"We believed domestically that we would have the security at our airports that would preclude this from happening," Eberhart said.

NORAD monitors the skies over the United States and Canada for threats. Its operational center is inside Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and its headquarters are at Peterson Air Force Base, both near Colorado Springs.

Since Sept. 11, NORAD has dramatically expanded its watch over domestic flights.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

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