Ben Sliney

Okay.

They now taxi away, and they get on the taxiway, and the guy at the FAA, one of another great guy I spoke to at length, a guy named Ben Sliney, called for a ground stop.

He said after...

The North Tower went down.

But there were funny stories.

There were really lovely stories.

When Ben Sliney, as National Operations Manager of the FAA, cleared the skies, he ordered 4,500 planes to land right now anywhere.

We'll guide you down, but you're going to land.

Let me lighten up this whole thing and say there were funny things that happened.

When Ben Sliney, who was the national operations manager for the FAA, it was his first day on the job as the boss.

First instituted a ground stop, which meant no planes could take off if their flight plan was anywhere near New York.

Then a few minutes later, he ordered to sanitize the sky and get 4,500 planes out of the sky, at which time Rick Finley in Colorado Springs in Cheyenne Mountain ordered something called SCATANA, which was the military protocol that turned over all of the airspace to the military, took it away from the civilians.

Tillman takes it off and suddenly does a steep bank to head for the Gulf.

Now, Ben Sliney, who was the national operations manager of the FAA, whom I spoke to at length.

That was his first day on the job, right? First day on the job, this guy.

He was experienced, but this was his first day as national operations manager.

crazy it is.

So now the challenge is, how many planes are headed for federal buildings to crash into? And how do we identify them?

Nobody knew, and there was no way to identify them, which is why Ben Sliney said, let's get all the planes out of the air.

Now, he did that without asking permission of the head of the FAA, Jane Garvey, or her deputy.

Don't act.

And the, the fact that the real people like Ben Sliney who is-

Yeah

... should've got an Oscar.

Yeah

... face him if you were a, uh, Al-Qaeda terrorist.

In fact, but it'd, it'd be interesting to know how, um, the casting... 'Cause Ben Sliney, I, I believe initially was, was set as simply the advisor.

Yes, that's right, and then he got, uh, kinda upgraded to a smaller role.

So the first time in history, Canada also shut down its airspace.

This was ordered by the FAA National Operations Manager, a guy named Ben Sliney.

And it was literally his first day on the job.

Imagine

But simultaneously, I want to continue to, you know, honor and listen to the voices who were central, who experienced 9-11 in a much, much more profound way than I did just watching it on TV.

But here's a little bit of tape from Ben Sliney.

This is such an interesting story.

He was the national operations manager for the FAA.

Garrett, is Ben saying there that before 9-11, the FAA never even had any reason to consider that they would have to ground every single plane flying on any particular day in the United States?

Yeah.

As you said, Ben Sliney is on his first day on the job as the national operations manager.

And he gives two orders in what is basically his first hour in that first day on the job that no American has ever given.