September 11, Bush’s hours on Air Force One after the attack

After being briefed on the ongoing attacks against America on September 11 twenty years ago, during a visit to an elementary school in Florida, then President George Bush was urgently loaded by the security men aboard the ship. Air Force One. Where he waited in the following hours for authorization to return to Washington. Read also The take-off procedures started at 9.55 local time, “the services informed us that someone seemed to be positioned at the end of the runway with a long-range weapon”: to recall those dramatic moments was – speaking with ‘History’ – the pilot of the Air Force One, Colonel Mark Tillman. The commander then made the decision to turn the plane and make it take off in the opposite direction, up a steep climb. “Muzzle up, tail down, like we’re on a roller coaster,” reported Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove. Not long after takeoff, an airliner struck the Pentagon. Another attack seemed to be coming. Not knowing how many more hijacked planes could have made their way to the capital, the services decided it would not be safe to take the president back to Washington, despite his insistence on returning. As Air Force One flew over the Gulf of Mexico, the crew learned that the White House had received an anonymous threat that said, “Angel (code name for Air Force One) is next.” internal threat to the flight, Tillman and Sergeant Major Will Chandler, chief of security, ordered the guards to take up positions outside the aircraft cabin. The agents had been placed in the center of the aircraft to prevent anyone from approaching the front, where the president’s quarters were. Chandler then ordered the officers to re-scan the plane for the presence of potential bombs or dangerous substances. Once internal security was strengthened, Tillman took the aircraft to an unusually high altitude, 45,000 feet. “We were at such a height that it was like we were on a freeway all to ourselves,” intelligence agent Wilkinson later explained to History. “So if someone showed up on that freeway, we would know they were doing no good.” At one point, Tillman was informed by radio operators in Houston that an unidentified plane was behind them. Panic reigned on board until they were informed that it was two F-16s in charge of escorting the presidential plane. President Bush repeatedly insisted on returning to Washington and speaking to the nation. But the situation was still too uncertain for those involved in security and fragmented and confused on-board communications. By now the World Trade Center towers had collapsed, the Pentagon had been hit, and Flight 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania. commander’s office, he was able to communicate with the vice president and deliver a short speech to the nation not broadcast live. The president’s plane made another stop before finally returning to Washington, at the United States Strategic Command located at Offutt Air Force Base (Stratcom) in Omaha, Nebraska. Here, the president was taken to a command center where he was finally able to conduct a videoconference meeting with his cabinet. It was then that he finally received a CIA report identifying the al Qaeda agents who had boarded the four hijacked planes. Bush again insisted on returning to the White House. “I knew I was going to deliver a speech to the nation that night and I was absolutely sure I wasn’t going to do it from a bunker in Omaha, Nebraska. I said, “Come home”. They replied: We advise against it. ‘ And I replied, “Well, I’m on my way.” When the president’s plane finally took off for Washington at 4:33 pm, he received another CIA report suggesting that the day’s attacks were only the first of two waves and that a another was about to strike. Fortunately, the news turned out to be false. Air Force One landed in Washington, Dc at 6:44 pm. And at 8:30 pm, Bush was finally able to address the nation from the White House.