AA 77, a special case, Indianapolis Sector monitoring the aircraft had ONLY secondary returns (not primary) available to them.
For FL77, when the transponder went off, Indianapolis ATC Center presumed the aircraft went down, and began their search in the direction it was heading. oops = but gee, the article says two planes headed for NYC, oops, the article got what right? Nothing. What happens when we fail to filter the news to what really happened, and let reporters make up the news.
For instance, RADAR data on 911 proves all four planes were tracked from takeoff to impact.
Are you confusing primary with secondary radar? They looked in the wrong direction. And again how does radar data after the event help me during an event ?
The failure to find a primary radar return for American 77 led us to inves-
tigate this issue further.
Radar reconstructions performed after 9/11 reveal that
FAA radar equipment tracked the flight from the moment its transponder was
turned off at 8:56. But for 8 minutes and 13 seconds, between 8:56 and 9:05,
this primary radar information on American 77 was not displayed to controllers
at Indianapolis Center.
142
The reasons are technical, arising from the way the
software processed radar information, as well as from poor primary radar cov-
erage where American 77 was flying.
According to the radar reconstruction,American 77 reemerged as a primary
target on Indianapolis Center radar scopes at 9:05, east of its last known posi-
tion.The target remained in Indianapolis Center’s airspace for another six min-
utes, then crossed into the western portion of Washington Center’s airspace at
9:10.
As Indianapolis Center continued searching for the aircraft, two managers
and the controller responsible for American 77 looked to the west and south-
west along the flight’s projected path, not east—where the aircraft was now
heading. Managers did not instruct other controllers at Indianapolis Center to
turn on their primary radar coverage to join in the search for American 77.
143
In sum, Indianapolis Center never saw Flight 77 turn around. By the time
it reappeared in primary radar coverage, controllers had either stopped look-
ing for the aircraft because they thought it had crashed or were looking toward
the west. Although the Command Center learned Flight 77 was missing, nei-
ther it nor FAA headquarters issued an all points bulletin to surrounding cen-
ters to search for primary radar targets. American 77 traveled undetected for
36 minutes on a course heading due east for Washington, D.C.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
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