Template:8:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: NEADS Commanders Give Order to Launch Otis Jets

8:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: NEADS Commanders Give Order to Launch Otis Jets
On the operations floor at NEADS, Major Kevin Nasypany, the facility’s mission crew commander, instructs Major James Fox, the leader of the weapons team, to launch fighter jets from Otis Air National Guard Base.

Nasypany has just received this order—to launch the jets—from Colonel Robert Marr, the NEADS battle commander. Marr issued it after seeking permission to do so from Major General Larry Arnold, the commanding general of NORAD’s Continental Region (CONR).

Marr will later claim, “My intent was to scramble Otis to military airspace while we found out what was going on.” Nasypany gives Fox a coordinate for just north of New York City, and tells him, “Head ‘em in that direction.”

The jets will be scrambled from Otis a minute later, but there will be conflicting accounts of what their initial destination is.

The 9/11 Commission will later state that, “Because of a technical issue, there are no NEADS recordings available of the NEADS senior weapons director and weapons director technician position responsible for controlling the Otis scramble.”