Benedict Sliney, a veteran air traffic controller with decades of experience, found himself in charge of America's skies on September 11, 2001, his very first day as the FAA's national operations manager. His new role placed him at the command center in Herndon, Virginia, responsible for regulating air traffic nationwide.
Sliney's day began with a routine briefing, but this was quickly interrupted by reports of a hijacking originating from Boston. Initially treated as an unusual but potentially manageable incident, the situation escalated rapidly when a flight attendant was reportedly stabbed. This report prompted Sliney to rush to the command center to take direct control.
As Sliney attempted to track the hijacked aircraft, identified as American Airlines Flight 11, the plane disappeared from radar coverage, its transponder having been shut off. The last known radar blip placed the aircraft in northwestern Massachusetts. Amidst this unfolding crisis, the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Sliney immediately requested television coverage, and upon seeing the impact, recognized it was not caused by a small aircraft. He suspected the hijacked airliner was responsible.
Shortly after, Sliney and his team witnessed the second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, impact the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Eleven minutes before American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Sliney made the critical decision to order a nationwide ground stop for all flights bound for New York and those transiting New York airspace. Eight minutes after the Pentagon attack, at 9:45 a.m., he issued a sweeping order for all aircraft within U.S. airspace to land immediately. This directive grounded approximately 4,500 planes, including commercial airliners, cargo planes, private jets, and military aircraft, costing billions and impacting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Sliney's decisive action, though controversial at the time and questioned by superiors at FAA headquarters, effectively implemented SCATANA (Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids), a Cold War-era protocol designed to transfer control of the skies to the military in a national emergency. While Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was later credited with the move and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Sliney asserted that he made the decision because it was necessary. He instructed air traffic controllers to report any deviation from flight plans, a crucial measure as the status of United Airlines Flight 93, which had deviated from its planned course over Ohio and was heading towards Washington D.C., remained uncertain until its crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The FAA's decision to clear the skies marked the first and only time U.S. airspace had been completely shut down.