Ground personnel first learned that American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked through communications from flight attendants aboard the plane. At about 8:19 a.m., a flight attendant alerted American Airlines that the cockpit was not answering and reported that hijackers had a bomb, and that crew and passengers had been stabbed
. Specifically, flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney made emergency calls to the airline operations center, providing detailed information about the hijacking, including that the cockpit was inaccessible, some crew members were stabbed, and the hijackers were in control
. Additionally, air traffic controllers at Boston Center noticed unusual radio transmissions and loss of communication with Flight 11 starting around 8:14 a.m. The hijackers accidentally broadcasted a message over the air traffic control frequency, saying, "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you'll be O.K." which alerted controllers to the hijacking
. After these transmissions and the inability to contact the pilots, air traffic controllers officially recognized the flight was hijacked. This information was then relayed to the FAA and military
. In summary, ground personnel first learned of the hijacking through:
- Emergency calls from flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney reporting the situation onboard
- Unusual radio transmissions from the hijackers accidentally broadcast over the air traffic control frequency
- Loss of routine communication and transponder signals from Flight 11, signaling something was wrong
These combined communications led ground personnel to confirm that Flight 11 was hijacked.
