Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids

The Plan for the Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) is an emergency preparedness plan of the United States which prescribes the joint action to be taken by appropriate elements of the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission in the interest of national security in order to effectively control air traffic and air navigation aids under emergency conditions. Known versions of the plan are dated June 1971 and August 1975. The plan implements parts of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the Communications Act of 1934, and Executive Order 11490 of October 28, 1969 (amended by Executive Order 11921 on June 11, 1976).

A similar plan by the same name existed in Canada for many years before its replacement with that country's Emergency Security Control of Air Traffic (ESCAT) Plan on October 9, 2002.

Use on September 11, 2001

The U.S. plan has been implemented once (other than tests) since its inception, and even then, it was a modified version. On September 11, 2001, the codeword was broadcast ordering that all U.S. air traffic be grounded, after the September 11 attacks. Even in that instance, the emergency plan was only partially implemented as the Defense Department left command and control of the air traffic system with the FAA and intentionally allowed all radio navigational aids to remain in operation to aid in the process of controlling and landing the thousands of planes which were aloft in domestic airspace.

The 9/11 Commission Report never refers to SCATANA directly, but it does discuss this unprecedented order and commends the air traffic controllers who carried it out.

While several people have been credited with issuing the SCATANA order for a national ground stop, the 9/11 Commission credits FAA National Operations Manager Ben Sliney with effectively issuing the directive. At 9:42 am on the morning of September 11, 2001, after the Air Traffic Control System Command Center learned from news reports that a plane (American Airlines Flight 77) had crashed into the Pentagon, Sliney "ordered all FAA facilities to instruct all aircraft to land at the nearest airport" (of sufficient runway length).

The Canadian federal government enacted Operation Yellow Ribbon to handle the diversion of most US-bound international civilian flights to Canada. In total, 255 aircraft were diverted to 17 different airports across Canada. Some international civilian airline flights bound for the United States were instead diverted to other countries (including Mexico) or were ordered to turn around and return to their point of origin.

Similar events

Military exercises known as Operation Skyshield had temporarily closed U.S. airspace to civilian traffic in the early 1960s.