ATC: You WILL land here...

[MachFly]

Found a recording on liveATC (attached) where the pilot wanted to depart the airspace and go to an airport that was 10nm north. Instead tower said that he does not like what she's doing (don't know what she was doing, can't tell from the recording) and told her to land.
I never heard that tower could make you land, can they really do that or is it just this guy?
Doesn't sound like she busted someone's airspace or TFR.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Those orders to land did not originate with ATC.

Indeed - they originated from the White House; specifically from Cabinet member Norman Mineta, then Secretary of Transportation, over-ruling an objection from the FAA acting administrator on pilot discretion:Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order-there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary."

[Expletive] pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those [expletive] planes down."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mineta

It would be an interesting to compare and contrast that order with a hypothetical case where the White House ordered all water craft immediately off national waters, or all vehicles off national roadways in response to a terrorist attack.