During the September 11, 2001 Attacks General Schwartz at that time was the commander of Alaskan Command, a joint subordinate unified command of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) which oversee the state of Alaska. At that time of the attacks all of air-traffics above The United States Airspace was grounded and most of the flight are diverted to Canada as part of the Operation Yellow Ribbon in response of the attacks. However one aircraft, a Korean Air Boeing 747-400 Flight 85 which en route to Anchorage International Airport for stopover with final destination to New York, John F. Kennedy International Airport, suddenly reported being hijacked and transmitting the international hijack transponder code. Lieutenant General Schwartz who was in-charge of Alaskan Command at that time ordered to scrambled two F-15s aircraft in-order to intercept the Korean Air Flight 85 and order the F-15 pilot to then established direct radio contact with the Korean Air Flight 85 pilot.