It cannot be doubted that the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11th September 2001 will change both commercial and military aviation for a great many years, if not decades. I certainly do want in any sense to belittle the tragic events, or their aftermath and grief – however, the events after that date do offer us one or two clues as to perceptions of defence significance. It should also be noted that during the total ban on commercial flights in the USA immediately after the attacks, there were many spurious reports of ‘phantom aircraft’ that very much echoed the invasion paranoia of December 1941. Perhaps we also need to study the incidents of UFO reports in the USA during this period - how many people were further misidentifying natural objects as potential aerial threats?

Whatever credence you give to Bob Dean’s accounts and claims about the “Evaluation of Possible Military Threat to Allied Forces in Europe”, a study alleged to have been carried out by SHAPE in the late 1950s, it defies belief that the powers that be of both NATO and WARPAC during the height of the Cold War did not take true unknown incursions into airspace very seriously – for goodness sake, we were talking about possible Mutually Assured Destruction by the world’s nuclear arsenals! Don’t place too much belief in the often publicised ‘encounters’ when RAF or USAFE interceptors flew out to intercept ‘intruder’ Soviet reconnaissance aircraft – these ‘intruders’ were very much known ahead of the interception, and expected, and the ritual game then played out of taking photos and exchanging good-natured waves between aircrews before the ‘intruder’ and ‘defender’ return home.

How would the interceptors have reacted to a true unknown? No government or defence force could afford to take the chance that an unknown aerial incursion was not a nuclear first strike by ‘the enemy’. Indeed the Belgian events of the late 1980s perhaps confirm this viewpoint, or did they?

Let’s recall that at the height of the Belgian Wave, it was only the Belgian Air Force that scrambled any aircraft to intercept aerial targets coming in from Eastern Europe. Be in no doubt, these were supposedly true unknown aerial targets, not the games of Soviet reconnaissance aircraft – where in NATO was the decision taken not to mobilise its defensive aircraft? Remember, the unknown targets had already flown across the NATO airspace over West Germany – home to numerous USAFE and RAF bases, whose very role was to intercept WARPAC first strike incursions! Seems like someone in the chain of command forgot to tell the Belgian’s what was going on!

According to the accounts, at times in the Belgian Wave, these unknown targets flew towards British airspace, yet at no time did the RAF apparently think it warranted an alert, implying that they already knew this was no threat, and to that end they would be of no defence significance.

Let’s not forget the world situation at the time of the Rendlesham Incident in December 1980 – again supposed to be of “no defence significance.” Martial law had just been enforced in Poland, under the instigation of the Soviet Union, and the Cold War was at its coldest since probably the Cuban missile crisis. We had a relatively new government in Britain, who were preparing us for nuclear war, hence Deputy Prime Minister William Whitelaw’s major policy gaffe on a TV interview – “Of course people are going to die when we have a nuclear war!”

Western Europe at this time could not have been more aware of defence and security!

We have to think again to another tragic event, and subsequent ones, to consider another factor here. We all remember the mystery that surrounded the loss of TWA flight 800 on 17th July 1996, which even now prompts conspiracy theories that is was downed by a rogue anti-aircraft missile, or even links to the alleged Montauk Project, to say nothing of claims of UFOs being seen in the vicinity...

Another commercial flight suffered a near tragedy in the very same area only six months later. However, this near tragedy was directly attributable to air-defence operations, and I was always surprised that certain sections of the media didn’t cover this event more fully. On 5th February 1997, a Boeing 727 of Nations Air Charter was en-route from Puerto Rico to New York’s Kennedy airport. When it was 70 miles off the US’s eastern seaboard, it was intercepted and buzzed by two F-16 fighters of the 177th Fighter Wing of the USANG, causing great panic and distress on the airliner, as its pilot’s were responding to proximity warnings of collision – the F-16s had gone that close. The pilot’s of the Boeing 727 had to take evasive action, and the passengers were given a very rough ride as the airliner was forced to dive 4000’! At one point the F-16s had buzzed the 727 so close that the airliner’s proximity warning system could no longer detect the fighters, and they ‘engaged the commercial airliner more than once. ANG commander, Col. Thomas Griffin - spokesman for the 177th Fighter Wing made some very interesting comments at the time, and which seem even more curious in September 2001.

The two fighter pilots had detected an “unauthorised aircraft” in their area – remember this airliner was transmitting its identity to civilian air-controllers by means of its transponder. He added “..it was their mission to check out any aircraft that appeared to be intruding US airspace”, and that “..they had to get close enough to identify it”. The two ANG F-16s were on exercises being controlled by the US Navy, who insisted that they had ordered the pilots to disengage their intercept of a civilian airliner.

While the above may indicate a gross lack of communication between USANG, USN and civilian air controllers, it should not be forgotten that even in 1997, the US military were vigilant to aerial intruders, remember, according to Col Griffin “..it was their mission to check out any aircraft that appeared to be intruding US airspace” I see no reason to suspect that this policy had not been enforced between February 1997 and September 2001.

I have to admit that while I was watching news reports of the airborne terrorist attacks in the United States on 11th September, I was left wondering just what the USAF and ANG were doing, once it must have become clear that the first airliner hitting the World Trade Center was no accident. I did see reports that confirmed that the hijackers turned off the automated identification transponder systems on board the airliners, which would have effectively made them invisible to normal commercial air traffic control, but surely air defence radar must have been tracking these aircraft – surely four civilian airliners (even recently I have seen statements attributed to Vice-President Dick Cheney that six airliners were at one time unaccounted for) vanishing off air traffic control systems with no reports of crashes might have raised suspicions?

In the days and weeks following the attacks, it has been ‘revealed’ that the governments in both the United States and Britain have now empowered their air defence fighters to shoot down commercial aircraft that are deemed to be potential threats - I would be fascinated to find out how the RAF are now reacting to ‘UFO’ reports and anomalous radar traces! I would be very surprised if there is any real change in air defence policy.