Norad Interception in the Fall of Two Thousand One

During the cold war, we had many fighters in the air or on the runway ready to respond to a russian threat. On nine 11, there were only 14 military planes on alert to cover all forty eight states. That's only one plane for every three or four states. For the military to intercept a civilian plane, norad would need to be given the signal from the f a a. But in sep ember of two thousand one, these systems were not linked. There was an elaborate procedure needed to trigger a norad interception. Popular mechanic summarizes the procedure like this.