This is a story how New York was left out in the cold by American air defense (source: 9/11 commission report).

9:08 - Kevin Nasypany, mission crew commander with NEADS and responsible for the air defense, learns of the second WTC crash (p.23). He decides to scramble the Langley fighters, but is overvoted by his superiors who order "battle stations only at Langley" at 9:09 (p.460, note 137). So the Langley fighters don't take off. The official reason: "They might be called on to relieve the Otis fighters over New York City if a refueling tanker was not located" (the Otis fighters were allegedly running out of fuel).

But at 9:09, the Otis fighters are far away from New York. They have been scrambled at 8:53 from Cape Cod and are just commencing their "holding pattern" off the Long Island coast (p.20). They stay in this holding pattern until 9:13 "to avoid New York area air traffic". Then they fly to New York, arrive at 9:25 finally and establish a combat air patrol (p.24). Where are the fuel problems?

So let's repeat. The Langley fighters stay grounded after an initial scramble order, allegedly to be able to "relieve" the Otis fighters over New York - but the Otis fighters are not there, quite to the contrary, they interrupt their flight to New York to enter a holding pattern beyond Long Island.

It looks like someone wanted all of these fighters off New York City. But New York was the primary object to protect after the crashes. So who left New York unprotected - and why?

And this is the comment of Robert Marr, NEADS battle commander: "The plan was to protect New York City." (p. 460, footnote 137).