While all of this was going on , senior battle staff at Otis were watching the news when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower . This immediately caused one commander to shout out , " We need to go to battle staff ! " This order caused senior commanders to disperse and head towards nearby operations buildings . Inside , the gathered together in the battle cab of the installation operations center . Soon after , a voice came over the base 's loudspeakers : " The commander has ordered the 102nd core battle staff to assemble . Please report to the operations building immediately . " Mobilization of the wing began to occur after this time . At the time of the order , eighteen planes were ready for flight and commanders began to prepare based on what they anticipated they would be asked to do . Most of these actions were guessing because there had never been an attack on the country before . Knowing that they could n't await on guidance from the North American Aerospace Defense Command , the recalled all training flights and began loading fuel and weapons onto all available fighter jets
United Airlines Flight 175
United Airlines Flight 175
102nd Intelligence Wing