9/11 report
He who is first shall later be last.

I am reading the rest of the 9/11 commission report. One shocking aspect is the cost of technological lock in.
A key example is communication technology used by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). Firemen were among the first to have mobile communications devices -- walky talkies. Now they have the worst mobile communications devices. While passengers in the high jacked airplanes had no trouble talking to their relatives on the ground, Firement evacuating the North tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) could not communicate with each other because the signal from their walky talkies could not penetrate dozens of floors of the WTC and because they were all trying to use the same freequency. This was a problem on 9/11 in spite of the fact that it had been a problem when the WTC was bombed in 1993 and the Port Authority had installed a special repeater specificially for FDNY walky talky signals. The repeater appears to have been knocked out when the South Tower collapsed. Also FDNY commanders did not know that there it provided two services amplification (turned on) and public address (never turned on). This means that Fireman did not all receive the order to evacuate. In contrast the NYPD managed to communicate with itself.

FDNY has a separate "command channel" used only by high ranking fire officers which was not overloaded. Obviously commanders should have the capability of over-riding ordinary walky talky communications with messages like "get out now the south tower has collapsed and the north tower might collapse soon." This should be technologically easy. The if the walky talkies received on two frequencies they could be set so the speakers give the signal on the standard freequency unless an over ride code is sent on the command frequency. Everyone and his cousin has a dual band cell phone so why did firemen die because their walky talkies could only hand one frequency at a time ? The FDNY has new portable repeaters but has not addressed the issue of freequencies overloaded with cross talk except, I suppose, by ordering firemen not to talk too much on their walky talkies.

The tech issue should not be over stressed of course. Many firemen died because they refused to evacuate before finding and warning all firemen in their squad and others because they refused to evacuate leaving injured civilians behind.

Another example of technological lock in was that some of the firemen in the north tower were among the last to know that the south tower had collapsed. Your average shmoe with a TV could have learned this before they did. Much poorer than average shmoes with a TV and no cable knew before they did. I knew before they did and I live in Rome. Italian television was, in this respect, a better source of information than the FDNY. This is partly because the main command post and communication center was abandoned for 10 minutes because it was threatened by debris of the collapsing south tower.

Many people in the WTC relied on 911 operators for information and advice. Unfortunately the standard advice was to wait for help. More strikingly neither workers in the WTC or 911 operators know what was on TV
p 296 "Those who called 911 from floors below the impact were generally advised to remain in place. One group trapped on the 83rd floor [North Tower] pleaded repeatedly to know whether the fire was above them or below them [it was probably above them the impace was on floors in the 90s], specifically asking if 911 operators had any information from the outside or from the news. The callers were transferred back and forth several times and advised to stay put. Evidence suggests that these callers dies."


Over in Rome I had decided that the impact to the north tower was on floors in the 90s before the south tower was hit.

Here I think part of the problem is that TV is not only an amazing communications device but also a terrible vice. Clearly allowing TV in a work place is considered to be like putting vodka in the water cooler.

Down in Virginia the "Arlington County:After Action Report" also shows the cost of technological lock in
P 315 "With respect to communications the report concludes, " [my snip] ... Radio channels were initially oversaturated.... Pagers seemed to be the most reliable means of notification when available and used, but most firefighters are not issued pagers.""
These are examples from chapter 9 of the report. Other examples from the report which show how the people who need communications and intelligence most are using the oldest least effective technology are
P 37 "Operators worked feverishly to include the FAA, but they had equipment
problems and difficulty finding secure phone numbers. NORAD asked three
times before 10:03 to confirm the presence of the FAA in the teleconference.
The FAA representative who finally joined the call at 10:17"

Here part of the problem is worrying about secrecy when speed was key.

P 40 "The President told us he was frustrated witht he poor communications that morning. He could not reach key officials including Secretary Rumsfelf, for a period of time. The line to the White House shelter conference room - and the Vice President - kept cutting off."

The FBI had it's own information network before the internet. Now it is slow and unrealiable, while eveyone else uses reliable e-mail. If the FBI and the CIA were willing to post information on the regular internet, a google search for al Mihdhar might have foiled the plot.

finally, I recall in the 80s that the Defence Department (which IIRC bought 70 or so of the first 100 computers) had the worlds oldest computer system and that it once mistook a flock of geese for a Soviet attack.