I was just thinking about how ridiculous it is that four planes were able to fly around for so long, without transponders, without being questioned or intercepted … and that, even AFTER two planes had hit the WTC, another unidentified plane was allowed to circle Washington, DC, and crash into the Pentagon.
Granted, we weren’t on the same level of alert as we are now, but if this had been the Reagan era and a Soviet bomber had been allowed to fly unchallenged around the capitol, heads would have rolled.
Why has no one (other than the CIA/FBI for not catching on to the planning of the attacks in time) been held accountable for this? Why haven’t we heard that the head of NORAD–or, on the civil side, the FAA–has been asked to step down for such a preventable failure, or been court-martialed or charged with gross negligence?
Of course, had a Societ bomber flown over the Capitol, that would have meant that a plane that is recognizably a weapon of war had flown thousand of miles with great big red stars on it, without anybody in the military noticing. That would have been a rather significant screwup.
Reacting slowly to a completely unique domestic terrorism situation is not quite the same thing.
I guess hindsight is 20/20. Seems to me that a large, unidentified plane of any sort would have been cause for concern.
Wait. Are you saying that if you were the commander of NORAD, and you got a report of a plane deviating from its flight path and not responding to radio calls that you would have ordered the plane shot down? Over what might be a faulty radio, or a mechanical problem? And killed how many people?
Here’s a couple thought blurblets:
-It’s generally acknowledged to be a systemic failure, rather than the failure of certain individuals. Blame can be assigned to many agencies on many levels, it seems unfair and unjust to scapegoat certain people.
-Lawsuits. I’m sure the airlines would NEVER want individual employees of theirs to get prosecuted. This would offer even more fodder for the lawyers - so the airlines have a vested interest in making sure the blame does not trickle down to the individual level.