How did the government not know the planes changed course?

Originally posted by bothered

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by bothered
You know, it's funny, and ill-spoken of, but it's assumed that they used there GPS enabled cell phones that were calibrated to show current status.

?
Pilots don't need a control tower to tell them how to get anywhere. Also, the pilots could've flown the jets torward NYC and DC, if they thought it was just a hijacking, they'd expect to be re-directed to a different airport.

It was learned in WWII that flying by the seat of your pants(h) often ended up in the wrong target being reached.

The towers also, at the indication of trouble, flip on a monitoring microphone.

Do you have a citation for that? The stuff I have been reading has said that the pilots were periodically turning the recorders on and off as they could while the hijacking was going on.

If by citation you mean audio or transcripts, no. All I have is to offer the Media sensationalized screaming they got to hear in the cabins.

Sorry for my own quoting, but lacking a verifiable edit button, I really wanted to update my miss-misspelling of pants in the above.