On the morning of September 11, 2001, the first fighter jets were scrambled at 8:46 AM from Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These two F-15s were launched in response to the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, just as the plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center (though the pilots did not know the crash had occurred at the moment of takeoff). Later, at 9:24 AM, three F-16s were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to protect the airspace over Washington, D.C., following reports of the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77. These jets were still in the air when Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 AM. The timeline highlights a significant breakdown in communication between the FAA and the military's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), as the military was often notified of the hijackings only minutes before the crashes occurred. In the hours following the attacks, the military initiated "Operation Noble Eagle," which saw hundreds of additional fighter jets take to the skies to patrol major U.S. cities and escort the remaining commercial flights to emergency landings, marking the first time in history that U.S. airspace was entirely cleared and patrolled exclusively by military aircraft.