9/11/01 Remembrances

derg

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
Well, actually, my 9/11 event started someplace over central Pennsylvania on 9/10/01. I was watching the moonrise over the hills thinking, "Holy crap, it can't get any better than this! We're hiring, I'm moving up the seniority list at a steady clip and I've got a long Boston layover this evening."

I land in BOS, find the hotel van and head to the Park Plaza with the captain. He's off to study for recurrent and I head down to the bar at McCormick and Schmick's downstairs for a friendly Samuel Adams and perhaps a story of local folklore from the bartender. Things felt good -- I'm not sure if it was the beer hitting my half empty stomach or a little euphoria from 3 1/2 hours of pondering on how I felt I had finally 'arrived'.

Kristie's sister was getting married the next weekend and I had to find a way to jumpseat down to Tampa because the flights were full and Kristie was pressing me to what my travel plans were.

All I knew was that I was going to use the moment, enjoy a frosty Samuel Adams IPA and just relax.

The next morning, my telephone is ringing off the hook.

"Dangit Kristie," I thought, "Don't you know I got in late last night and it's only 8:30am?"

I picked up the telephone and she said, "turn on the television, what's going on?"

I turned on the television the news was murmuring something about an aircraft hitting the world trade center and about how it was probably lost, yadda yadda yadda.

Then, live coverage as the second plane hit the towers.

"Weird, what the heck is going on? Hey, lemme call my so she knows I'm safe before she blows up my cellphone"

(and here's the controversial part, but it's true)

"...Geez, maybe this is what the Canadians in Montreal were all freaked out about before we departed last week."

"Huh?" Kristie said.

"Remember when I said that they were doing some positive bag to passenger match and doublechecking passports at the gate because of some crazy terrorist threat? Anyway, let me call my mom."

My brother Mike insinuated something about a hijacking.

"Nah, I dunno man... Gotta call the captain".

I call up Fred and say, "Fred, this is Doug, I'm not sure if we're going to be delayed today..."

Fred says "Huh?"

I tell him that a couple of planes hit the world trade center and how we're probably going to be delayed departing around noon.

"Ok, I'm going to go out for a jog, lemme know if you hear anything."

Holy crap. What the HELL is up?

I get a call from from scheduling about how the flight was cancelled and how the FAA had closed Boston Logan.

"I left a message on my captains machine about our flight being cancelled for the day and how we were to wait to be contacted."

About twenty minutes later Fred calls and says that he saw another captain and that we're all meeting downstairs at McCormick and Schmicks for "Happy Hour" at 1600.

I got dressed, went downstairs, but nothing felt the same.
 
Bill had jumpseated up to ORD from IND the night before, and we were sound asleep when my roommate (who worked an Eagle desk job at ORD) called at 8:20. I'm really not very 'alert' in the morning, especially when awakened from a nice deep sleep. She tried for 10 minutes to tell me that something big had happened, two planes had hit the WTC, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why she was getting so uptight because some yahoo in his 150 had managed to fly himself into a building.

Finally she gave up and just said "Dammit Amber, get out of bed, and go turn on CNN right now!!!"

So I did, and I saw that it was not "some yahoo in his 150". One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was go wake up Bill and tell him what was going on. At least neither of us were on a trip. About 10 minutes later all the phones in the house started ringing (the house phone, our cell phones), and didn't stop for hours. Soon it came out that two of the involved ac were ours (AA). I got on the company computer and figured out the flight numbers. Pretty easy because the company had already locked the info for the two flights out of FOS. Instead of crew lists & flight info in SABRE, all it said was "Contact FOS". I don't remember when they finally released the crew lists, but it seemed like an eternity.

As the day went on, the sick feeling in my stomach got worse, as I realized my life had now changed forever. I lost my entire line for the month (BOS & DCA overnights). Our apartment was right off the departure end of the 9s at ORD, and for the days following when all planes were grounded, it was so erie to not hear any planes. Usually the departures started at 6am sharp, and you'd hear a constant rumble all day.

The rumors of furloughs started within a few days. Two weeks later I was turning in my ID & books.

It's not a day I really care to remember. A couple weeks before 9/11 I remember thinking to myself "life is great, I've got a great job, I'm based where I want to be, I've got 1200 people junior to me, a couple years I'll be able to hold international out of BOS or JFK......"

Never take anything for granted, it can be snatched from you in a heartbeat.
 
On that day, I had just walked into the orthodontist office and they are always playing videos in the waiting area. I was standing there watching after the first plane had just crashed and thinking, "I've never seen this video before" when the second plane went in - I looked over at the receptionist and said "what is this?" and she said, "this is live" It was just so unbelieveable - then while sitting back in the chair having adjustments made, they broke w/ the Pentagon story and footage - the harsh reality was that everyone kept working around me but it felt like we should be doing something! When I got to work later that day it was just like you were there but in slow motion or something - we have a lot of AA res agents come in and you just felt so bad cause they had to keep working answering calls about loved ones that were on the planes, knowing the agents were worried about co-workers, too. We were worried about our fellow employees, too, since we had a office in the bldgs. Will never forget that day--
 
Good morning, Everyone:

Three years ago, I was thinking about changing my career from school to aviation. My thought was leaning toward to "ATC." The pay was not bad and shift is about as long as my school job - "avarage 12 hours per day".

I was in the classroom and trouble shooting a small CAD/CAM (Computer Assist Design / Computer Assist Manufacture) machine. The front office secretary walked into my classroom and asked "Why have you not turn on the TV yet? Have you heard a announcement?" She proceeded to turn TV on, then I saw the footage of 1st plane hitting the tower.

My wife called and asked about what was going on at busy NY air space. I said "Some ATCs are so fired." Then, I saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. I realized these were not mid-air accidents. It had suicides "written" all over it. I looked at my students' naive faces. Some of them were still talking about amazing fireballs, who they went out with last night...etc. The place were noisy as NY stock exchange. I told my students "Shut Up, your fellow Americans are dying. All of you guys can think about where can I go tonight? The life as we know has been changed by this event. If there is more attacks, I would not be surprised about curfew issued by U.S. government. It is time to grow up some."

Few weeks later, I switched school that I am teaching from MI to GA for better job offer. 9/11 hit and imprint in my head - One of teacher whose son worked and died at WTC that day. It became way too real for me. I will remember that day.


adreamer
 
Very interesting stories. Doug, I like your style of writing. Have you considered writing a book? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Was on approach to BHM, the next to last leg of a 4 day trip. The controller told us, "you guys are going to be here a while, a plane hit the World Trade Center, maybe two of them and they are shutting down the airspace" ????? Didn't even know how to respond, we landed and taxiied to the gate.

Once we deplaned the station wanted us to move the airplane off the gate as they now were expecting diversions. We taxied out and sat on a taxiway as airplanes rained out of the sky. Lots of Delta, but also lots of United airplanes, including a 777 international diversion.

We knew something was really serious, because the United guys were demanding immediate access to gates to get their passengers off. Of course there weren't nearly enough gates to do this, especially for the 777. We didn't really understand until later that United had told their flights to deplane immediately upon landing. Some were getting so agitated on the frequency I expected slides to start popping, but they didn't. Finally found a place to park our airplane, walked to the terminal (there was no chance we were getting a ride and it seemed like "normal ops" were no longer in existence).

Spent 5 days in BHM which turned out to be a great place to be stuck. There were tons of SWA people there and we hung out with them. They were much more into getting together than our own airline's crews. During that time I spent a lot of time finding and talking to f/a's who were spending too much time in their rooms watching CNN (couldn't get FOX). They were getting more and more depressed. So we finally put together a big keg and pizza party at the pool and pretty much forced people to attend. That seemed to relax them some. Tried to convince a number of them that they needed to stay in BHM so we could get the airline ramped back up. I think a few did leave and drive home.
 
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A couple weeks before 9/11 I remember thinking to myself "life is great, I've got a great job, I'm based where I want to be, I've got 1200 people junior to me, a couple years I'll be able to hold international out of BOS or JFK......"

[/ QUOTE ]

Amber you have probably covered this before but if you were 1200 from the bottom how far up did AA go? How many have been recalled?

===================
On September 11, 2001 as I pulled into my office parking lot I heard the announcement on the radio that a plane had accidentally crashed into the WTC. Life was good for me I was an operations manager over AT&T’s High Speed Internet department, where I had been since 1999, I was making boatloads of money traveling extensively and really enjoying life. I walked into my office and turned on my television to see Peter Jennings telling about the accident that had occurred. A supervisor of another department came into my office to see my TV and said “He couldn’t believe it” I said “Robert this was no accident those are the tallest buildings for miles and miles, you don’t accidentally not see them” about that time we watched the second plane crash. Being an ex-navy man Robert instinctively said “Were under attack” and indeed we were. It was at this time that I realized that I have friends in those towers and at the NYSE so I started calling there cell phones and houses to find out the “status” of those friends, at first I could get through with no trouble, but there was no news. Later as the towers crumbled it became impossible to get through, I would just sit and hit redial, redial, redial, redial, until I finally go through, it was the same every time I did, no news. Later around 6pm that night I was finally able to confirm that all of my friends had made it out safely. However they had all lost friends and co-workers that day. Sept 11 was a terrible day in the history of this country. May we never forget.

I traveled to New York City around September 20, 2001 on a prescheduled trip the city I had been to so many times was forever changed. After landing in EWR I rode the train into NYC and remember how different it looked with out the WTC. The smell of burnt wires and metal was awful, you could smell it over the whole city and it was so strong that it gave you a terrible headache. I have some pictures in a box around here I’ll share if I can find them.

September 11, 2003 was the final straw for an economy that had been slowing down for sometime, as a result AT&T began layoffs and cut backs. I made it through the first 3 rounds to only be “got” in the fourth round in March 2002.

There is an excellent flash movie on 9-11 called “Remember the Blood of Heroes” at http://www.sextongroupe.us/heroes
 
Only a select few days of my somewhat short life can I tell you specific detailed memories of, 9/11 was one of them.

Day started of absolutely beautiful, it was still the first week of school for me (9th grader at the time). I remember walking the halls that morning and over hearing something about a plane crash and a building, now of the thousand conversations I hear in the hallway why do I still remember that one, I guess because it was the first I heard of 9/11. The next class was Biology I walked in sat down took out my stuff and was still somewhat curious as to what I had just heard in the hallway. My teacher was then called out of the room by another teacher he then walked back in with a face that I can still remember. He told us what had just happened and walked into the back room. We all thought holy •! how could some idiot hit the WTC, of course we thought it was some bozo in a C-150 then we hear the second plane hit and they were boeings well then we knew it was an attack.

The rest of the day was kinda numbing. I didn't think of it till a few hours later that my dad was working in downtown manhattan that morning. All I can say was that when I got home that day and say him sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands was the happiest I will ever be. Let me tell you his account of the story; My father is a construction worker, at the time he was working on 23 rd street, not far from the WTC, anyways the building he was working on was completely open b/c it was still under contruction. He was going about his work when he hears a radio report talking about the WTC he being within viewing distance of the towers walks over to the side of the building to see something that he will never forget, as he is watching the fireball consume the first tower he cannot believe what he sees, that being tower 2 being he. He then decides that a tall building is not the safest place to be at this time so the job site empties out. He then begins his trek from 23 rd st to the 59 th street bridge. He also saw the 2 clouds that devoured manhattan as the towers came down. He was lucky enough to find someone he knew to drive him home from there and that was his story.

My friend wasn't so lucky. My friend Brian's father was a member of the NYFD's Rescue 3. His life was taken while trying to save countless strangers.

May september 11th never become a national holiday so that kids in 50 years from now when they are sitting around on their day off from school forget why this day is important.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Amber you have probably covered this before but if you were 1200 from the bottom how far up did AA go? How many have been recalled?


[/ QUOTE ]

There are a total of 24,852 F/As on the APFA master list.
My senority # is 23,981.

That means I have 871 F/As junior to me. So I either had miscounted on the 1200, or about 300 have quit. (That is, submitted letters of resignation.)

The most # of furloughed F/As AA had was 6150, that was before the DEC 03 recall. 390 were offered recall at that time, and another 233 have been offered recall as of 1 JUL 04. (For a total of 623 offered recall)

Senority # 18702 was the most senior FA furloughed, with a hire date of 12 NOV 99. Currently the most senior F/A on furlough has a hire date of 10 AUG 2000. (The most junior working F/As date is 3 AUG 2000.)




3604 of the 6150 furloughed were the TWA F/As with their hire date of 10 APR 01.

All numbers were taken from the APFA master list dated 24 JUN 04.
 
I started college at Western Michigan University in the fall of 2001. I had just gotten done with band camp, played in front of 36,000 people and was generally having a blast at college for the first few weeks. Things were looking up, and we were hopeful that the hiring boom would continue in some way through college, and that we'd all be able to jump out of college and into a paying gig that involved airplanes.

My first class that day was at noon, which was physics, but I got up early to study for an exam we had that day. I remember going down to the caf and looking up to the TV and seeing the WTC buildings on fire. I thought to myself "Huh, some idiot ran a 172 into those buildings. Wonder how, CAVU day...ah well, time to study!"

On a whim, I turned the TV on when I got up to my dorm room. I about crapped myself when they showed a video of a giant Boeing slamming into the building. I called my then girlfriend and said something to the effect of, "This is some crazy stuff here." She had no clue what I was talking about, she had been in class all morning at the university she went to (about 100 miles away).

Things changed quickly after that of course. I dropped out of the flight program, seeing another great reason (a economy coming to a halt) to get SOME kind of a backup degree.

That day changed all of us.
 
John, recognize any of these people /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

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I do quite well actually; I'm in the bottom picture and not too far in front of the the person that took the top one.
 
I forget if wether I heard about it first in lunch or band class. I was in 7th grade at the time. We were told at the end of the day what had happend. I got home and saw my mom watching tv, which was weird because she's usually not home 'till after 5.

Got alot of family in the New Jersey/New York area, and thankfully all but one family member came out ok. Very distant relative worked in the towers, and was on and elevator when one of the planes hit. Him and a couple of other guys managed to pry open the doors and a few of the slimmer ladies got out. He didn't make it.
 
Was in homeroom in 7th grade when my Social Studies teacher rushed into our room, and turned on the TV. Ironic, my friend and I were talking about it then, and said that no one would attack Pittsburgh. When we heard about it later, our jaws dropped. (Even though we didn't really get attacked.) Sad day for all, God Bless the families of the victims
 
Was working in my office, finsihing some paperwork for Uncle Sam.

Someone came in and said a plane hit the towers. A friends of mine went on CNN's website with me and couldn't believe it could happen on a clear day. Then we heard the report of the 2nd plane hitting. Our captain came on and made a very somber announcement that the USA was under attack and that we didn't know who the enemy was. He annoucned that "one of the WTC towers had collapsed, the pentagon had been hit and that there was another plane missing. Continue doing your job until told otherwise, say a prayer for any family you have and be prepared to do your duty in any capacity you are asked." I'll never forget his words. I had duty the next day. By the time I came into work, the entire base was different. We had a tank in the middle of the road. Security (who were really just low ranking enlisted guys) dressed in camo and armed for what, they didn't know. It became very difficult for me to do my job of helping people make decisions about their career or try to finish their education or get a comission. I started trying to find out my chances to get back to a ship. I wanted revenge on someone big time. Was told, there was no chance I was going back to sea anytime soon, that I needed to just do my work as best I could. I'll be honest. Had my finger been on "the button " after that attack, there would be a few less nations in the world today. As much as I dislike W, he handled himself with poise, courage and distinction in the days and weeks following the attack. I was proud at the time to be in the US Navy. That anger has faded over time but I think that it is normal to forget events like that.
 
I was also in 7th grade when it happened. I was in science class when the announcements came on telling all the teachers what had happened when the first plane hit. They didn't let the teachers show us the coverage on tv. I only got to really know what was happening when I got home later that day. We were all scared as planes were being hijacked. We didn't know where/when the next one would hit.
 
I lived in Hoboken, NJ at the time (right across the river from NYC) and workied in the city. I just got off the PATH train which is a "subway" that runs from Jersey to underneath Tower 1. My office was across the street at 195 Broadway. I exited the WTC by the Barnes and Noble like always and was waiting to cross the street when the first plane hit right behind me. All you heard was an incredibly loud sucking sound and then BOOM!

After that....running, screaming, falling stone, glass, bodies, etc. People trampled in the streets. Glass falling from 80-90 stories up in a three block radius of the towers ripped people up pretty bad. Saw many, many folks jump. Terrible!

Still nobody had any idea what had happened. You could not tell it was an airplane. There was just a huge hole in the building and an intense fire. After that there were thousands of people waiting around, just watching trying to put the pieces together. There were no phones, televisions, radios, etc.... Nothing worked. Then we say the second plane. After that there was no question. Mass panick. I kept hearing on the news say how everybody was so calm.....there were obviously no reporters near where I was.

I wasn't able to contact anybody I knew until about 4PM that day. I wasn't able to get back across the river until about 7PM. There was only one ferry running and the line lasted for about 4-5 hours at the Javits center. It was an eary sight watching warplanes circle Manhattan and order being kept on the streets by NYPD and FBI swat teams.

After going through Fire Department detox, I got together with some of my friends in town to watch the Presidential address and have a bear to try and settle my nerves. I didn't return to work for about a week and a half.

It was obviously a day I will never forget and one that has changed my life in significant ways. I use it to remind myself to live life every day. Take something from every experience you have. Don't pass up experiences or things you want to do.....you never know. There is no replay button.
 
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I lived in Hoboken, NJ at the time (right across the river from NYC) and workied in the city. I just got off the PATH train which is a "subway" that runs from Jersey to underneath Tower 1. My office was across the street at 195 Broadway. I exited the WTC by the Barnes and Noble like always and was waiting to cross the street when the first plane hit right behind me. All you heard was an incredibly loud sucking sound and then BOOM!

After that....running, screaming, falling stone, glass, bodies, etc. People trampled in the streets. Glass falling from 80-90 stories up in a three block radius of the towers ripped people up pretty bad. Saw many, many folks jump. Terrible!

Still nobody had any idea what had happened. You could not tell it was an airplane. There was just a huge hole in the building and an intense fire. After that there were thousands of people waiting around, just watching trying to put the pieces together. There were no phones, televisions, radios, etc.... Nothing worked. Then we say the second plane. After that there was no question. Mass panick. I kept hearing on the news say how everybody was so calm.....there were obviously no reporters near where I was.

I wasn't able to contact anybody I knew until about 4PM that day. I wasn't able to get back across the river until about 7PM. There was only one ferry running and the line lasted for about 4-5 hours at the Javits center. It was an eary sight watching warplanes circle Manhattan and order being kept on the streets by NYPD and FBI swat teams.

After going through Fire Department detox, I got together with some of my friends in town to watch the Presidential address and have a bear to try and settle my nerves. I didn't return to work for about a week and a half.

It was obviously a day I will never forget and one that has changed my life in significant ways. I use it to remind myself to live life every day. Take something from every experience you have. Don't pass up experiences or things you want to do.....you never know. There is no replay button.

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I'll be honest, I had no clue anything was happening. I was in SAN for a trade show, so I woke up early to go for a jog, at 6:30 AM Pacific time. That meant that the planes hadn't hit yet.

Well, I got back after my jog, saw the WTC on fire, and figured it was a preview of the Ahnold movie that was scheduled to be released at the time. I went in and hopped in the shower. Didn't even think twice.

I get out of the shower, and they've still got the WTC on there. I'm like, okay, something isn't right. And why is Tom Brokaw talking to Ahnold -- shouldn't it be Matt Lauer or Katie Couric?

I turn the volume up, and then I'm like, oh, bleep.

God, if only I could have remained as oblivious to what was going as I was when I was jogging along the beach in So Cal.
 
I had just started my senior year of high school. I arrived at my English class, from art I believe, to find a crude drawing on the board of what was the World Trade Center being it by airplanes, although I had no idea what was going on yet. The teacher was talking about it; she and a few other students had seen it on TV in other classrooms. I figured it was most likely small aircraft, like a turboprop or corporate jet. She then put on a radio, and I could hear Dan Rather I believe it was, barely being able to keep his composure, talking about the towers collasping, the Pentagon being hit, and possibly more planes. I had this image in my head of the towers tipping over, like trees, rather than falling the way they did. We listened in silence, and it felt like a scene out of a movie or a really bad nightmare. I don't think I'd ever been so scared, and I knew that life as we knew it would never be the same again.

I didn't actually see the images until I got home. I flipped on the TV and the first thing I saw was a clip of one of the towers collasping. Still gives me a sinking feeling inside. I also had work that evening. I was a Professional Cart Pusher at Sam's Club at the time, and the place was dead, and would stay slow for about a week. Also, being just a few miles from PVD, a lot of departures from 23L would turn right and fly directly overhead, so it was definitely strange not seeing them for a while. Same for contrails.

To this day I still get a little bit of a depressed feeling when I see a picture of the World Trade Center, because for me, it reminds me of a time when life was normal.
 
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