I can change my mind, but I can't change the relevant facts.

As you note, NORDO is just an abbreviation for 'no radio' (obviously), but a transponder is essentially a type of automatic radio (TRANsmitter and reSPONDER) to aid in navigation and keeping track of the plane.

Again, imo, the exact meaning of NORDO is not critical here, nor can we be sure that the term is always used precisely.

By 8:15 or so, the plane apparently was off transponders (since there was no hijack code ever received from the pilot), and the pilot was not responding by radio, facts which certainly should have, and probably did get the controller's attention.

In any event, by 8:20 the plane is veering dramatically off course to the NW, and at 8:21, two flight attendants have informed ground personnel by phone that the plane has been hijacked.

Twenty-six minutes remain until the doomed 767 slams into WTC 1, the north tower.

As for the top speed of the F-15, every source I could find gives it just as noted in my post - mach 2.5 (at sea level), or more than 1800 mph. Yes, the plane needs to be at about 40,000 feet in order to attain that speed, but an F-15 can get to 40,000 feet in just a minute or two on afterburners.

The pilots have already stated that they had plenty of fuel, and that they flew at top speed toward NYC.

Again, the important point is that the F-15 is certainly fast enough to have gotten to Flight 11 in well under 15 minutes from launch at Otis, and might have reached the errant jetliner in as little as 10 minutes, in accordance with the remarks of the Otis spokeswoman.

In such a scenario, the average speed of the fighters would probably be on the order of 1200 mph or so, which jibes with Gen. Arnold's statement.

If everything had gone optimally, therefore, the F-15s might have intercepted Flight 11 while it was still more than 100 NW of NYC and heading SSE over the Hudson R.

At this point, the intercepting planes would have begun the graduated series of maneuvers described by Major Snyder, with the intent, I believe, of forcing the plane to divert to the nearest suitable airfield.

Failing that, and with F11 descending rapidly and hurtling toward NYC at high speed, the decision might have been made to down the plane BEFORE it got over the more heavily populated areas in the immediate NYC environs.

Frankly, I believe the controllers probably did exactly what they were supposed to do, but NMCC, NORAD and/or other authorities sat on the information until it was too late. In the wake of the tragedies of 911, a false time-line was set up to deflect attention away from the guilty parties. There are just too many contradictions in the statements and explanations of the responsible authorities.

In short, a classic cover-up.

The argument has been raised that the controllers had never seen this kind of scenario before and it took them a while to figure out what to do.

Nothing could be futher from the truth.

FAA and other responsible authorities have very strict guidelines for dealing with an off-course aircraft, especially when communications and/or radar contact with it has been lost. The Curtis Strange case provides ample demonstration of these procedures in action.

It is my understanding that the decision to shoot down the Strange plane had been made if it appeared ready to crash into a populated areA.

In any event, FAA regulations instruct the controllers to error on the side of caution: if there is any doubt that it is an emergency, they are instructed, treat it as an emergency.

The "they didn't know what to do" argument is ludicrous, and somewhat analgous to a driver claiming, "Well, I'd never seen an elephant in the street before, so I didn't know I was supposed to stop."

sp