9/11/01: The Airborne Law Enforcement Response

[Mark Gobell]

9/11/01: The Airborne Law Enforcement Response

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=24&id=32516&id= 32516

9/11/01: The Airborne Law Enforcement Response

One of the longest days in American history

Posted: September 8th, 2006 05:08 PM EDT
KENNETH J. SOLOSKY

Aviation Operations Contributor - Officer.com

Certainly, the events of September 11, 2001 have had a profound impact on all Americans. Whether you were a responder to the scenes, or, like millions of Americans, sat riveted to the television watching in horror and disgust as the events unfolded across America, this could easily be categorized as a milestone historical event in our lives.

The Airborne Law Enforcement Response

September 11, 2001 was a picture-clear and beautiful day in New York City. In aviation terms, it was CAVU: clear and visibility unlimited, the perfect fall day. The morning rush carried on, with millions of New Yorkers going to work and starting their day. The NYPD Aviation Unit had no significant activities planned for the day, and the early part of the day tour was spent on mundane and routine activities such as pre-flighting aircraft and the usual banter of cops. No one could have dared imagine that events were unfolding on board commercial airliners in the skies of America that would change the course of history.

Things changed dramatically at 8:46 AM, when the first jetliner was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The NYPD Aviation Unit responded with a patrol aircraft, a Bell Jet Ranger 206B3 and a Bell 412 Air-Sea Rescue aircraft. In addition to the numerous radio reports of a plane crash and fire, the flight crews needed no additional confirmation of the event. A large plume of black smoke was visible upon departure form Floyd Bennett Field, almost 15 miles away. Their worst fears were becoming a stark nightmare.

Arriving airborne units were dismayed and horrified by what they saw. The North Tower was seemingly cut in half and consumed by a ring of fire. The crews watched helplessly as several persons desperately jumped from the tower. Another Bell 412 was launched in anticipation of possible rescue.

Suddenly, one member of a Bell 412 flight crew saw a second airliner, moving fast from the south. The airliner was headed straight for their aircraft, and they had to take evasive action to avoid a midair collision.

Within seconds, the second airliner plunged into the south tower. The airborne flight crews were absolutely speechless. One crew landed in order to regain their composure, and immediately re-launched in order to help in any way they could.

There was complete and utter pandemonium. The radio waves were jammed with radio transmissions as responders desperately attempted to communicate with Central and with each other. With both towers burning, the Aviation Unit was faced with several challenges, including the relay of intelligence about the structure to ground units, and the feasibility of rooftop rescue and medevac of the injured. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all aircraft except law enforcement and military.

The airborne helicopters did relay events as they were taking place. In one transmission, chronicled in the 09/11 Commission Report, an aviation unit aircraft reported that the structure did look tenuous and a collapse was indeed possible. They reported on the condition of the structure. The south tower roof could not be accessed in any way. It was completely shrouded in a thick cloud of black smoke from the burning north tower.

The north tower rooftop was also shrouded in a veil of smoke, as well as airborne debris.

Any attempted rescue on the north tower roof would have been virtually impossible and exceedingly dangerous. Keeping in mind that turbine engines are extremely temperature-sensitive, the heat and smoke being generated by the fire would have been a major problem, along with the blowing airborne debris. Should this debris be ingested into the turbine engines, it would quite possibly have flamed them out and caused the third aircraft accident of the day. Finally, there was no sign of any persons on the rooftop. By 10:30 AM, both towers had fallen, taking the lives of over 3,000 Americans.

Mutual Aid

Aviation units from the Nassau County Police Department, the Suffolk County Police Department, and the New York State Police arrived at Floyd Bennett Field. This was another great example of the police fraternity that is always hard to define. These agencies simply sent their assets without being asked, because they knew the gravity of the situation. In the coming months, these same agencies also helped the NYPD Aviation Unit with ceremonial flybys at many responders' funeral services. On certain days, there were simply too many funerals that could be handled by the NYPD Aviation Unit. On one day alone, there were ten line-of-duty funerals for responders. The surrounding airborne units always provided a helicopter and covered many of the funerals. The agencies that responded were not alone in offering help.

Airborne units from around the United States called and offered their help.

The Los Angeles Police Department even offered numerous aircraft. The LAPD was ready to fly cross-country at a moment's notice. In addition, numerous military aircraft responded to the Downtown Wall St. Heliport in Manhattan and Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The airborne units that did fly into Floyd Bennett Field were anticipating medevac assignments, moving the sick and injured to outlying hospitals.

Sadly, this never came to pass, as it became painfully evident that persons were killed or escaped with relatively minor injuries.

The Aftermath

Several hours after the fall of the towers, lower Manhattan was covered in what looked like white ash. The scene was surreal, with both towers gone and absolutely no aircraft flying except law enforcement and the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) fighters overhead. For the next several weeks, airborne assets were sent from the Nassau, Suffolk and New York State Police Departments to supplement NYPD's aircraft. Airborne law enforcement was tasked with numerous assignments and missions that were related to the terror attacks.

These assignments ranged from taking aerial photos to transportation of personnel and equipment to the newly defined counterterrorism mission.

This was a whole new era of domestic law enforcement, changing forever, along with a dramatically stepped up role for airborne law enforcement.

May the dedication and sacrifice of so many never be forgotten.

Web Links:

* Airborne Law Enforcement <http://www.alea.org/> Association
* NYPD Aviation http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/aviation.html Unit

Lt. Kenneth J. Solosky mailto:kenav8tor@officer.com is a twenty (20) year veteran of the New York City Police Department and has been assigned as a patrol officer, patrol sergeant, lieutenant-patrol platoon commander, to the warrant division, and as a police academy instructor. He is currently the Chief Pilot and Director of Training in the NYPD Aviation Unit. Lt. Solosky has a BA degree in Public Administration from St. John's University and is pursuing his MA degree in criminal justice from the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Lt. Solosky has FAA Airline Transport Pilot ratings in both airplanes and helicopters, is a certified flight instructor and a member of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association (ALEA).

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