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History.com: 9/11: How Air Traffic Controllers Managed the Crisis in the Skies

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September 11, 2001 was not a great day in air traffic control. As the morning progressed, four separate terror attacks unfolded in the skies, with hijackers using commercial aircraft as weapons. Perpetrators deliberately flew three of those planes into iconic buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C., while a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field before reaching its target. Through shock and confusion, aviation professionals tasked with keeping America's skies safe had to stay cool and make unthinkable decisions -- to call in fighter jets, shut down U.S. airspace and land all airborne planes -- in response to dire, unprecedented events.

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