On Native Soil Essay

Sixteen years ago on September 11, the United States experienced a terrorist attack that ended the lives of 3,000 Americans. Four airplanes were hijacked, two were used to crash into the World Trade Center, one was used to crash into the Pentagon, and the last one failed and crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. On Native Soil is a documentary about the 9/11 Commission that investigated the flaws that allowed 9/11 to occur. After watching the movie it is clear that there were some major flaws that, if corrected, could have prevented 9/11 from happening. One of the major issues that influenced 9/11 was the lack of proper airport security. All nineteen hijackers were able to make it through. In On Native Soil it shows clips of the hijackers going through security. In the video, you can see how the metal detector continuously goes off when the hijackers go through it. According to security standards, the security guards should have tested the hand detector on a mental object first, then checked the hijackers, but …show more content…
At 8:24 a.m. the FAA received a message from the hijacker of American Flight 11 saying how they had some planes and to stay quiet and everything will be ok. The FAA did not inform the military until thirteen minutes later, and even then the audiotapes showed that they were consumed with confusion and indecision. By the time they finally got the jets scrambled American Flight 11 had crashed into tower one of the World Trade Center. The FAA was unable to alert to the military in a timely manner of the hijacking, and in the case of American Flight 93, they did not inform NORAD at all. Even when the jets were scrambled, due to lack of information, they were sent in the opposite direction toward the ocean. Had the FAA alerted NORAD in a timely fashion and with less confusion and chaos, they would have been able to intercept some of the