On September 11, 2001, “Ben Sliney arrived for his first day at work as national operations manager for the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]. …Finally at 9:25, with Flight 77 growing more worrisome, Sliney made a bold decision. He ordered a full groundstop–all commercial and private flight activity across the country was grounded; no flights were to take off for any reason. At that moment, there were 4,452 planes over America.”
– James Bamford, A Pretext for War, Page 42