Selection of Interviews Talking About Training Exercises Involving Hijacked Planes Pre-9/11

By Mark Conlon

Here's a selection of interviews talking about training exercises drills involving hijacked planes pre-9/11. These videos were uploaded on Shoestring's YouTube Channel.  https://www.youtube.com/@Shoestring911 

Exercise Was Held Shortly Before 9/11 Based on the Scenario of 'a Jetliner Striking the Pentagon'

Source: https://youtu.be/vDG3hDKDxb0?si=saowihlOM6wMTVPo

Two clinics at the Pentagon held a training exercise in the summer of 2001 that, presciently, was based around the scenario of an airliner crashing into the Pentagon. This is revealed by John Baxter, who was commander of the Air Force Flight Medicine Clinic at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Baxter recalls that in the summer of 2001, he and James Geiling, then commander of the DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic, discussed having a joint exercise between their two clinics. They "decided on a scenario of a jetliner striking the Pentagon at the heliport," Baxter says. They didn't envision the crash being the result of terrorism, though. Instead, they were thinking about the fact that planes coming in to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport turned right over the Pentagon as they made their final approach to the airport. The two men therefore "thought it would be a somewhat realistic scenario that one of these airliners could get off course, get their altitude wrong, have a mechanical problem, and strike the Pentagon." The resulting exercise helped them identify a few "issues that were deficient" and correct these problems before the Pentagon was attacked on September 11 that year. This is an excerpt from episode 162 of the podcast series, "Borne the Battle," which was released on September 11, 2019.

C-130 Cargo Planes Sometimes Played Hijacked Aircraft in Military Exercises, NORAD Employee Reveals

Source: https://youtu.be/E0bvmbemX4E?si=vPeK4D2Sq6GyvaBQ

A woman who was working as an ID technician at NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) on September 11, 2001, reveals that a C-130--a type of military cargo aircraft--would sometimes be used to play a hijacked plane in NORAD training exercises. The ID tech--either Shelley Watson or Stacie Rountree--explains that when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was involved in NORAD exercises, "the majority of the time we had a military aircraft, real-world, out there flying over land, coming into our area where we were gonna hold the exercise." The ID tech goes on to specify that the military aircraft playing a hijacked plane in the exercise could be a C-130, saying that the FAA would be instructed, "This guy's a C-130, he's gonna fake these guys out, he's gonna pretend he's hijacked, don't tell [NEADS] who it is." This clip is taken from "Team 8 Interview with Maureen Dooley, Shelley Watson, and Stacie Roundtree of the Northeast Air Defense Sector." 9/11 Commission, October 27, 2003, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/20701... . The clip begins just over 55 minutes into the full audio file. Image credit: Stacia Rountree / Eastern Air Defense Sector.

United Airlines Held a Realistic Drill 12 Days Before 9/11 That Simulated One of Its Planes Crashing

Source: https://youtu.be/m7XMMoWjffE?si=Pl829eNLUlHrR6LM

Andy Studdert, chief operating officer of United Airlines on September 11, 2001, describes a shockingly realistic "no-notice drill" he arranged that was held on August 30, 2001. In it, airline employees were led to believe one of their Boeing 747s had crashed while flying over the Pacific Ocean, on its way to Australia. Studdert initially allowed personnel in the airline's operations center to think the crash was real. Many of them were devastated. There were "people throwing up in the hall" and "people crying," Studdert recalls. Only after half an hour did he reveal the truth, announcing, "This has been a no-notice drill, there is no event, everything's fine." Twelve days later, two United Airlines planes were hijacked as part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Studdert claims that many people subsequently came up to him and thanked him because, as a result of his drill, "we were ready" on September 11. This is an excerpt from "Preparing Your Organization for a Crisis: Lessons From United Airlines Emergency Preparation, Pre-9/11," an interview with Andy Studdert by the Center for Values-Driven Leadership at Benedictine University on February 27, 2012.

Pre-9/11 Hijack Exercise Involved an American Airlines Plane with Real People Playing Its Passengers

Source: https://youtu.be/Z1gfx-1TQpA?si=JRa8R7Ta05xJs3T9

Colin Scoggins, a military operations specialist at the FAA's Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center, describes a joint FAA/military training exercise held in 1995 or 1996 in which a real American Airlines aircraft apparently played the part of a hijacked plane and this aircraft "actually had passengers on board." Notably, two of the aircraft that were hijacked on 9/11--Flight 11 and Flight 77--were also American Airlines planes. This audio is a taken from Scoggins's interview with the 9/11 Commission on September 24, 2003.