P-56 Prohibited Airspace

“Andrews Air Force base, within 10 miles of the city have provided consistent scramble-ready defenses for the P-56 sector, which protects the most important government buildings.  Having grown up and lived in the area for most of my life, I saw such defensive responses many times, guiding planes away from the restricted area.” [i]

                                          — John Judge

The Pentagon sits inside the P-56 — a Prohibited air space.

The P-56 is a section of prohibited air space that extends 17 miles in all directions from the Washington Monument.  Advancing toward this air space activates air defenses from a joint FAA/Secret Service radar and air traffic control at Langley, VA.  This prohibited air space is separate from, and more closely monitored than standard restricted FAA commercial air space, as well as much better defended.  Interceptor fighter jets guarding that area were regularly scrambled when commercial planes went off course.  The scrambling range is known as the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) this extends out to 50 miles.⁸⁶ [ii]

 On 9/11, no fighter defense of any kind was made inside this most restricted air space in the US, the P-56 area around DC and the Pentagon, despite the presence of combat ready aircraft at local bases.  Nor were other defense measures, including surface-to-air missiles at the White House or Pentagon deployed.

Map of P-56 prohibited airspace (Map: FAA).

The plane was never “lost to radar”.

Officials claim that the aircraft was “lost to radar” for 30 minutes.  Turning off the transponder only turns off an identifying tag –– it does not cause any inability to see the plane on radar.  Beyond all the FAA and NORAD radar tracking, there is separate and special 24/7 radar system in the P-56 area, and even radar on the roof of the Pentagon.

Mike Brooks, CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent, observed:  

Well, those jets [interceptors] are up 24 hours, seven days a week.  As are the Custom’s Black Hawk helicopters.  They have incursions all the time, in and around Washington.  Right now there are two.  There have been for years, what they call P-56, and P-57, which are two restricted airspaces in downtown Washington, one around the White House and one around the Capitol.[iii]

On a newsgroup a former Pentagon Air Force Traffic controller wrote:

All those years ago when I was in the Pentagon, this wouldn’t have happened.  ATC Radar images were (and are) available in the understructures of the Pentagon, and any commercial flight within 300 miles of DC that made an abrupt course change toward Washington, turned off their transponder, and refused to communicate with ATC, would have been intercepted at supersonic speeds within a max of 9 minutes by a Fighter out of Andrews.  Period.  Why these planes weren’t, baffles me.  If we could get fighters off the ground in 2 minutes then, we could now.[iv]

        And Mike Ruppert, author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil wrote:

I also dispel many false beliefs such as the one that NORAD Radar only looks outward.  Actually NORAD radar INCLUDES all FAA civil radar in the country and has added passive tracking abilities and the ability to determine altitude.  The two systems are and were plugged in together on 9/11.  The two systems are and were plugged in together on 9/11.  Fighter aircraft were successfully scrambled on 56 occasions in the calendar year prior to 9/11 –– within minutes... ^{NOTEREF _Ref132578688 \h  \* MERGEFORMAT 77}

Precision NORAD satellites are capable of monitoring even moving cars.

The Pentagon is one of the most heavily guarded and watched sites in the U.S., along with Area 51, P-56, and NORAD.  With Radar systems capable of tracking objects right down to sea level, “Friend or Foe” System and Satellite systems.  The Pentagon is equipped with the latest State of the Art technology in their War Room.  Cheyenne Mountain NORAD facility has demonstrated how geosynchronous satellites, over the entirety of the U.S., could monitor all airborne objects in real time.[v]

Geosynchronous satellites following cars and aircraft.

The Pentagon has it’s own defense network.

Here are some reports regarding the Pentagon defenses:

Col. Robinson then pointed to the roof of the Pentagon, just above us, and said, “And we have cameras and radar up there to make sure they don’t try to run a plane into the building.” …certainly they did not expect “cameras and radar” to stop the attacking plane, there was some method of defense coordinated with them (SAMs, interceptors, etc.).⁸⁶

DCA is located due south of the National Mall, and The Mall happens to be restricted airspace up to 18,000 feet.  So, to avoid the real possibility of being shot down by military SAMs, pilots aren’t allowed to fly straight in on a southbound approach to Runway 19: instead, they have to manually fly the plane down the Potomac and line it up with the runway at the last minute.[vi]

…a former U.S. Marine … said “There is no way a plane of any kind hit the Pentagon unless it was on purpose.”  He explained that the Pentagon has radar and heat guided anti-aircraft missile system batteries on top and around the complex, and that the area surrounding the Pentagon is a “no-fly” zone. ^{NOTEREF _Ref131902842 \h  \* MERGEFORMAT 86}

April Gallop … got a classified tour of the building introducing her to its defenses, and she was told it was the best defended and safest building in the world.  To this day she cannot comprehend why those defenses would have failed on 9/11. ^{NOTEREF _Ref131902842 \h  \* MERGEFORMAT 86}

These multiple layers of defense inexplicably failed on 9/11 in the midst of a national crisis especially, just after two prior attacks had just taken place on the World Trade Center towers.  The attacking object was known and monitored by NORAD, while the response was purposely delayed until it after impacted its target.