On the morning of September 11, 2001, “Confusion reached such a high level that the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] admitted to the White House officials who wanted to bring the President [Bush] back to Washington that the agency could not account for seven planes. In fact, four of those planes turned out to be the downed ones–but that would take a while to sort out. Even more worrying was that it took the FAA another hour and a half to account for three other aircraft.”
– Sally Donnelly, “The Day the FAA Stopped the World,” Time, Sep. 14, 2001