Twenty four years ago today I was sitting in my office in Arlington, Virginia. I was fortunate not to be on the road, although several colleagues were and it was a challenge to help them get home when planes were grounded on 9/11. A whole generation of adults was born after that day which remains ingrained in my life’s experience.
Video Taken From a Plane on September 11th 2001 shows the initial reactions of passengers to the news of the attacks. pic.twitter.com/SQYGvNpd52
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) January 24, 2024
The first news I heard about planes crashing into the World Trade Center came over email. It wasn’t on the newswires yet. I was on an airline industry list, and the subject line was “Terrorists are bombing us with airplanes.” I didn’t think it was real. News was quickly coming in, much of it wrong, speculating on the aircraft types (a private plane!) and that there could have been an accident (especially after only one plane had hit).
Two 9/11 hijackers almost missed their flight. One American Airlines agent still deals with the guilt of helping them make it onto American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles that crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., killing 59 passengers and crew and 125 in the building as well.
Ticket agent Vaughn Allex saw two full fare first class passengers and wanted to offer his best customer service.
"I realize that there's probably nothing I could've done to prevent what happened. I've come to terms with that."
Vaughn Allex, former American Airlines gate agent, speaks about the guilt he feels for allowing hijackers onto Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001. https://t.co/qabkKxf6WD pic.twitter.com/HYj7VXTVRK
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) September 10, 2021
He marked the two men for extra security because they couldn’t answer the standard security check-in questions, but they didn’t have bombs or guns so got through just fine.
Here’s an amazing thread with an inside look at how 9/11 unfolded. Dick Cheney gave the order to shoot down United flight 93. Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney scrambled her jet without any missiles on board, in a suicide mission to take out the civilian jetliner. She made the decision that she would ram the tail of the aircraft. It was the first time the U.S. military had been given permission to shoot down a civilian plane, and with U.S. citizens on board. It would not be the last.
On 9/11 it didn’t happen because passengers took matters into their own hands. One passenger dialed 911 from the lavatory using a cell phone while other passengers used Airfones to call loved ones.
- Passenger Todd Beamer: “Ok. Let’s roll.”
- The cockpit voice recorder has a man in Arabic saying “Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen.”
- And as United flight 93 is crashed into an abandoned coal mine in Pennsylvania, nine times in Arabic, “Allah is the greatest.”
The Boeing 757-200 Which Later Operated as United Flight 93, credit MacMax via Wikimedia Commons
People cleared out of my office fairly quickly after the news broke, but my boss kept me around wanting to work through budgets. Traffic that afternoon was terrible, worse than I’ve ever seen in DC. The atmosphere in the city was completely surreal, and the days that followed were just sad.
D.C. didn’t ‘come together’ in the same way I remember New York being different at the time. And I didn’t lose anyone very close to me, though many friends of friends were in the Towers that day. I grew up visiting the towers. One friend lost all four of her roommates.
I would bring snacks and chocolates and other little gifts to the agents I knew at United’s city ticket office down the street. There were neighborhood offices then and those are the people I knew best. Here are the names of the flight crew who lost their lives on 9/11.
Flying in the aftermath of 9/11 is hard to describe. I remember flight attendants who were genuinely scared. And when the flight attendants are scared passengers are too.
Washington National airport didn’t re-open right away. The approach path is so close to ‘important people’ and important people are always more protected. When anthrax was delivered in the mail on Capitol Hill, Hill staffers all got Cipro but Postal Service employees didn’t.
I had a ticket to fly in and out of National airport before flights had resumed, so United moved me over to Dulles but capacity was limited. I had to fly back from South Florida Miami – Orlando – Dulles since I couldn’t get anything non-stop home.
Many airfares after 9/11 actually rose briefly even though people were avoiding the air. Normally you think empty planes means lower prices. But dropping price wouldn’t have convinced marginal flyers into the skies. The people flying were the ones who really had to and they were less price sensitive.
Airport security was federalized. The TSA was initially part of the Department of Transportation. There was no Germanic-sounding Department of ‘Homeland Security’ yet. We got secondary gate screenings but could still bring liquids through checkpoints for about 5 more years.
Passengers became our best line of defense. Before 9/11 if a plane was hijacked everyone would remain docile. We’d wait it out until terrorist demands were met, and in all likelihood most people would be released. The equilibrium shifted and passengers now assume terrorists will bring down planes, so they aren’t going to sit idly by. That may be the most important change in aviation security over the past quarter century. Reinforced cockpit doors are a net positive as well, though most pilots think the new ‘secondary barriers’ that are being added are quite silly. Everything else is far less clear, or clearly negative. It saddens me to see this displayed by TSA as though they somehow own the legacy of 9/11, even if they’re a sad result of it.
Each day for the next 8 years was a reminder for me of 9/11 because my daily commute at the time took me right past the Pentagon. Flying for me wasn’t scary. Neither were most of the places I’ve visited. I attribute that to driving twice a day past an actual 9/11 target. What else that I would do would be more dangerous?
We all remember 9/11 in different ways. In 2013 the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley offered 30 minutes of free mini-muffins for guests.
What pic.twitter.com/L35ytAtCWP
— guillotease (@eclectrica) September 11, 2013
9/11 will always be personal for many people, and I’ll forever resent those who used it for their own political or business purposes. Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) for instance, a month after 9/11, declared of the government pork opportunities “It’s an open grab bag, so let’s grab.”
Sadly the legacy of 9/11 isn’t the part about coming together, it’s the forever wars (including in places not at all connected to the attacks) and the forever war at home that’s given us a ramped up security state. George W. Bush said they hate us for our freedoms, but if that’s true then surrendering our freedoms capitulated to them.
Thank you, Gary. Never forget.
As a previous FA, today is always a deep sadness day.
R.I.P. to all those who died that day.
This event forever changed our lives and the way we look at travel and go about our lives
It’s a painful reminder of the precious lives lost in the air and on the ground
We must never forget the hero brave passengers and crews that gave their
very best of America in time of crisis
To this day I have a sense of gratitude when I safely land and get off a flight where others hadn’t before me
A salute to those too on the ground who risked their lives to save others
I was living in New York at the time and can never forget those memories & images
Barely saw anything in the news on this current anniversary compared to years past
Thanks Gary for the post
Never, ever forget. My US flag is at half staff today in memory of 9-11 and Charlie Kirk.
@Coffee Please — As to yesterday, I hope the FBI catches whoever did this soon, and brings them to justice.
People need to know that this isn’t right, and that we, as a society, actually do something about it if and when it happens, because it shouldn’t happen here.
I flew the day when they re-opened airspace. I was flying LGA/BWI on USAir (think it was USAir Express) and connecting to USAir/Metro Jet to Tampa, where I was going to rent a car to go see my parents. The LGA airport was empty. Maybe five people on my first flight and maybe same on my Metro Jet flight. In many ways that was the final end to air travel as we knew it. Metro Jet was a nice Southwest “knock off” with boxed meals and although all coach generous seating. Ditto for the USAir Shuttle flown on brand new A320s.
And there are days I still think the correct response should have been burning Riyadh to ash.
I encourage everyone to visit the Flight 93 memorial. The flight we know so well and so little remained on this hallowed ground. It is an emotional museum. Children may be upset by the large amount of crying adults, so a school tour may be more appropriate for them.
Thank you for remembering every year. It is one of those things that those of us who were alive will never forget and never “get over”. I am proud of the many fellow citizens who focused on the safety of others and hope that I could be as selfless as they were.
I recall flying DL, LAX-TPA on the second day of resumed flying. Myself and one other were the only pax. @Gary- I agree with your conclusion.
I shed tears reading your post. The memories for me are as fresh as yesterday although I had no direct loss…at the time I was working at our local office on aging and that day there had been a bus tour that took off and was in the vicinity of Shanksville PA, but I didn’t know much more than that as I was on vacation that week, and had flown to Toronto, from CLE. I was due to fly home that day, later. Got a call from my mom about a plane crashing into one of the buildings and imagined it as a small private one. Put the TV on, tuned to CNN and was in shock. Remember taking the few paged little memo pad the hotel provides when they were mentioning flights impacted…and yelling at the TV because first they said it was American, then United and I said Yo’u’re CNN can’t you get it straight? The next days were just horrible, repetitive. Couldn’t tear myself away from the TV coverage, but would leave my room long enough to get some food and bring it back. Everywhere you went there was a TV on….They announced there was a book of condolences availabe to sign at city hall, which was right across the street from my hotel. They were keeping the building open 24 hours for people to sign. A small group of women were in line chatting amongst themselves as to where they had come from…and they included me. When I said I was actually from the states, there was a soft gasp and they wanted to hug me….I also, after many visits there, had not realized how close I was to the US Embassy building…I went to see it and found the garden bed surrounded it filled with notes of support, cards, flowers…And at some point many years ago I bought very few shares in American Airlines…I heard about Betty Ong and how helpful her communications to operations were in letting people down here know what was going on. I will never forget.
Unfortunately these monsters of this religious sect would love to do something like this again. Don’t forget many of this sect actually celebrated the achievement and deaths of the victims of 9/11 by these hijacking pigs, which is an insult to swine I do know.
This sect of people love to attack freedom. Just ask October 7, Israel, or survivors of TWA, Pan, Am, BOAC etc. Attacks upon civilian airliners is indefensible almost to a greater extent than attacks upon civilian populations. End the cultural invasion of the US by the perversity of those who believe attacks on civilians is acceptable. God bless out Western World Freedoms.
Unfortunately the monsters of this religious sect would love to do something like this again. Don’t forget many of this sect actually celebrated the achievement and deaths of the victims of 9/11 by these hijacking pigs, which is an insult to swine I do know.
This sect of people love to attack freedom. Just ask October 8 Israel, or survivors of TWA Pan, Am, BOAC etc. Attacks upon civilian airliners is indefensible almost to a greater extent than attacks upon civilian populations. End the cultural invasion of the US by the perversity of those who believe attacks on civilians is acceptable.
God Bless our 1st World and Western World Freedoms as well.
@KlimaBXsst — As they say, ‘freedom isn’t free,’ and it takes real effort, resources, and determination to preserve it for all, lest we forget.
NYC certainly hasn’t forgotten. And the first responders and secondary victims (cancer rates increased in the aftermath) need support (namely, proper healthcare).
I’ll defer to victims families, of course, but in my opinion, they’ve done a decent job with the Ground Zero site to tastefully honor victims, to preserve the footprints of the towers, and to hold meaningful events each anniversary; maybe some find that all to be ‘not-enough’ or merely ‘performative.’ You can and should feel however you want; it’s a complicated topic.
If you do visit, I highly recommend to go to the museum at the memorial. They also reconstructed the Greek Orthodox church nearby, St. Nicholas, which is also well done, regardless of your affiliations. It’s a good space to find comfort and reflect.
Admittedly, there’s still plenty unresolved here. We literally have some of the people who orchestrated this heinous act still sitting in Guantanamo today. Will there ever be sufficient ‘justice’? Hard to say. We cannot bring these victims back. It’s changed our country and the world.
Yeah, it’s not ‘great’ that in the following years we’ve practically buddied-up with the Saudis, even though they clearly backed the perpetrators (yet, at the same time, maybe, for geopolitics, there could be merit in favoring them over the Iranians, a topic for another day); and, as much as we (NATO) went to Afghanistan for 20 years over this, it wasn’t ‘great’ either how Pakistan basically provided safe-harbor for Osama for years (they knew). Iraq had little to nothing to do with this, and that was a disappointing detour.
Likewise, since you listed other historic examples of hijackings, etc., I’d add MH17 as an example of non-religious, state-sponsored terror, if not gross negligence. The Dutch certainly haven’t forgotten that incident. Putin and those who caused that tragedy have not faced accountability for those innocent lives murdered.
Soon, another October 7 anniversary will be upon us, and there are still hostages out there. That’s unacceptable. Sometimes we move-on too quickly; other times we overreact. It can feel better to do ‘something’ than not enough. Often suffering begets more suffering; I’m not a fan of that. Time will tell whether we’ve made the right decisions after these horrible events.
I think 9/11 is one of those moments that those of us of a certain age know what we were doing and where we were when we heard about it.
As a Brit it seemed almost unreal and impossible until the next day when flying out of LHR to Paris and there were people sleeping in the airport and blank not bored faces. There was also a security alert on my plane which genuinely scared the flight attendant on my plane – never seen BA cabin crew anything less than stoic before or since.
The memorial in New York is both beautiful and sad and sends shivers down my spine every time I see it.
My thoughts go out to all those involved or affected by this tragedy