911: FAA Closure of US Airspace on September 11, 2001 (2010) NASA Radar Composite Animation

more at http://quickfound.net/

'This animation was created by NASA using FAA air traffic control data from September 11, 2001.   It shows the rapid grounding of air traffic across the US, and redirection of incoming international traffic, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Time is at lower left, number of planes in the air lower right.  At 9:06am, FAA issued a ground stop to all traffic not yet departed that would encounter NY airspace ["tier one"- NY, DC, Boston, Cleveland] .  A series of rapid decisions followed, including redirecting inbound traffic away from NY and warning airplanes in the air of potential cockpit intrusion. At 9:45am, FAA Command Center decided to close all US airspace for the first time in history.   Within a few hours, all commercial air traffic was grounded.  This animation is displayed in the National Air and Space Museum's "America by Air" exhibition.'

Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closings_and_cancellations_following_the_September_11_attacks

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Many closings and cancellations followed the September 11, 2001 attacks, including major landmarks, buildings, restrictions on access to Lower Manhattan, and postponement or cancellation of major sporting and other events. Landmarks were closed primarily because of fears that they may be attacked. At some places, streets leading up to the institutions were also closed. When they reopened, there was heightened security. Many states declared a state of emergency...

The entire airspaces of the United States and Canada were closed ("ground stop") by order of FAA National Operations Manager Ben Sliney (who was working his first day in that position) except for military, police, and medical flights. The unprecedented implementation of Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) was the first unplanned closure in the U.S.; military exercises known as Operation Skyshield had temporarily closed the airspace in the early 1960s. Domestic planes were diverted to the nearest available airport. All non-military flights needed specific approval from the United States Air Force and the FAA.[citation needed] There were only a few dozen private aircraft which received approvals in that time period. Civil Air Patrol's aerial photography unit was the earliest non-military flight granted approval. United Airlines cancelled all flights worldwide temporarily. Grounded passengers and planes were searched for security threats. Amtrak was closed until 6pm on September 11, but by September 13 it had increased capacity 30% to deal with an influx of stranded plane passengers. President George W. Bush was transported to a secure location via Air Force One.

Many incoming international flights were diverted to Atlantic Canada to avoid proximity to potential targets in the US and large cities in Canada. Some international flights that departed from South America were diverted to Mexico, however its airspace was not shut down. On Thursday night, the New York area airports (JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark) were closed again and reopened the next morning. The only traffic from LaGuardia during the closure was a single C-9C government VIP jet, departing at approximately 5:15 p.m. on the 12th.

Civilian air traffic was allowed to resume on September 13, 2001, with stricter airport security checks, disallowing for example the box cutting knives that were used by the hijackers. (Reinforcement of cockpit doors began in October 2001, and was required for larger airlines by 2003.) First, stranded planes were allowed to fly to their intended destinations, then limited service resumed. The backlog of delayed passengers took several days to clear.

Due to a translation error, controllers believed Korean Air Flight 85 might have been hijacked. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and U.S. authorities ordered the United States Air Force to surround the plane and force it to land in Whitehorse, Yukon and to shoot down the plane if the pilots did not cooperate. Alaska Governor Tony Knowles ordered the evacuation of large hotels and government buildings in Anchorage. At nearby Valdez, (also in Alaska), the U.S. Coast Guard ordered all tankers filling up with oil to head out to sea. Canadian officials evacuated all schools and large buildings in Whitehorse before the plane landed safely...