S11: defences focused on outdated Cold War threat

COULD military jet fighters, the final line of defence, have stopped or lessened the destruction on September 11, 2001, by shooting down airliners aimed at some of the nation's best-known buildings?

Tomorrow, the September 11 commission will end its series of public hearings by taking up that question.

The panel will examine the performance on that day of the Federal Aviation Administration, which manages the nation's air traffic, and NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, which defends US airspace.

Kristen Breitweiser of Middletown Township, New Jersey, whose husband, Ronald, died in the World Trade Centre, said a lack of foresight on the part of those agencies was compounded by officials' mistakes on the morning of September 11.

“I think we were ill-prepared, and I think people showed poor judgment,” Breitweiser said. The plane that crashed into the Pentagon, in particular, could have been stopped, she contends.

When the 911 terrorists struck, the United States and Canada were defended by 20 fighter aircraft, arrayed in pairs in 10 locations, said Norad spokesman Lt. Col. Roberto Garza. They were kept armed and fuelled, with pilots nearby, ready to take off in less than 15 minutes.

The fighter defences were a remnant of the Cold War, when North America worried more about intercepting Soviet bombers attacking from across the Arctic Circle. Of those pairs, six were on the East Coast, a NORAD spokesman said: two in Massachusetts, two in Virginia and two in Florida. The others were in Canada, Alaska, the West Coast and Texas.

But their focus was directed outward, toward threats that might approach American coastlines, the pre-September 11 view being that terrorist hijackings were political acts and not necessarily destructive.