9/11

I listened to the whole thing.  Absolutely chilling.  I'm struck by the incredible professionalism of the Air Traffic Controllers -- they swear only once.  The military guys are cursing, the government workers curse, but the ATC guys including the ones who watch the airplanes hit the Towers just keep doing their job.  When New York Center is informed that the second tower is hit he utters the only ATC swear in the tape.

"No Shit."

When they know Flight 93 is hijacked and the fight in the cockpit breaks out onto the frequency they totally keep it together.  When they inform incoming international traffic, "Good Morning.  The FAA is advising all incoming traffic to increase cockpit awareness and security."

Most chilling moment on the tape is after the first airplane hits the tower, ATC in Boston is relistening to their tape and one of them says:

9:02AM
"Tony? I'm going to reconfirm with, ah, with downstairs, but ah, the ah, as far as the tape, But Bobby Jones seemed to think the guy said that 'we have planes.' Now I don't know if it was because of the accent, or if there's more than one.  But, ah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna reconfirm that for ya, ah, and I'll get back to you real quick, ok?"

"And what?"

"Planes. As in Plural."

9:03 AM 2nd Tower is hit

9:04
"Tony, Terry, it's confirmed on that tape that they said 'we have planes.'"