This piece is covered by a Creative Commons Copyright..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Every year I struggle with how to write about my experience on September 11th 2001. Working in commercial aviation at the time granted a unique and disturbing perspective. I was also on FM radio and. in the time following the attacks, featured progressive foreign policy authors, activists and religious leaders...but that is another angle.
This is the story of how people who fly airplanes for a living dealt with the events of that day.
**NOTE- Names have been changed and aircraft that we usually referred to by tail number are referred to here by type.
My 9-11 PART 1
September 11th 2001 5:45AM mountain time/ 7:45 EST
As Operations Manager at Luxury Jet Services in Santa Fe, New Mexico it is my job to be up early to "baby-sit" two charter flights that are due to depart that morning.
At 6:15AM local time we had a King Air 200 due to depart Santa Fe's airport with just the pilot, stop in Albuquerque to pick up passengers and then go on to southern California. Later that afternoon we had a Learjet 55 scheduled to depart Santa Fe for Las Vegas, NV with a regular customer to go hit the casinos. Our company-owned jet was in Colorado undergoing scheduled maintenance and was due to ferry back in another 24 hours. It was a regular Fall day for our little aircraft charter and brokerage service.
We were running from a few hanger offices at the Santa Fe Airport. The place was an almost perfect, small regional airport with gorgeous weather, picturesque views, along with a variety of interesting aircraft and operations. Outside my office door the resident Lockheed Constellation stood majestic guard over the ramp. The lusty curves of the fuselage and still shiny wings made the 4 prop behemoth seem weightless....always flying.
In this small town, the airport community of Santa Fe represented an even smaller universe within ...a tight knit group of commercial, private and military aviators who all served as something between a pride and a pain-in-the-ass to the city. After having worked at the local FBO keeping the flight instructors' schedules and airplanes' gas tanks full, this airport was old stomping ground for me. I moved on to a job at the United Express Station and then to Luxury Jet Services. Everyone at the small airport who was engaged in flying for an occupation relished their jobs.
Before Sept 11th the prospect of a charter company who operated only a single airplane was still a thriving business model. We were a small company 4 pilots, one of which was the company president and myself; the charter sales/operations/dispatch person. Our pride and joy was our Learjet 35...it had a gorgeous new paint job, the best new avionics and a gleaming leather encased interior. All of it had two powerful jet engines bolted to the sides and, from our advantageous geographic location, could reach anywhere in the US non-stop from our home runway. Getting back may require some gas though.....
Our company also brokered dozens of aircraft for customers across the country. A typical day might have our Lear35 departing home for a passenger pick-up in Teterboro, NJ and another passenger flying form San Jose, CA to Seattle, WA on a brokered Citation V or King Air. Some flights would even use a single engine Cessna. Because of the nature of our operation we, at the time, had access to real-time software that monitored every IFR flight in the United States. Once a crew filed the Flight Plan, even if it had not left the airport yet, the aircraft would show up on the tracking.
I woke up that morning brewed some coffee, fired up the computer and called the King Air pilot to check in. Dave was a seasoned pilot and one of the nicest pilots you'll ever meet. It was always a pleasure to work with him and send passengers along in a fast, pretty King Air with a born talker up-front to highlight the trip. Dave was on the high-desert airport ramp in the all-embracing sunlight fueling up, I could almost smell the tang of jet fuel over the phone as he enthusiastically raised his voice over the fuel truck din to say that he was on schedule.
After 30+ years of flying this was just the type of morning that was a joy to a Pilot's Pilot. Take off from Santa Fe with no passengers and full of gas- do a turn over the southern tips of the Rockies and take in the changing Aspens creating their own impressionism on the canvass of the ancient mountain peaks. Then: Slowly turn down the Rio Grande Valley and follow the canyons and golden arroyos for a 14-minute flight to Albuquerque finishing off with a fuel-full landing that requires true skill and touch. Pick up coffee, catering and the passengers and then take off for a 2 and ¼ hour tour of the some of the most stunning American landscapes, from an almost perfect sightseeing altitude of 5-12,000 feet AGL. All with a pilot who has hiked many of the canyon floors below for years. Even the most experienced charter customers and business travelers intent on a "working flight" closed-up the laptops and took turns sitting up front with Dave to share his knowledge and the unique, privileged experience.
But not today.
My company had supplied me with a hand-held aviation radio for my sometime flight training and also to monitor our own flights and their progress locally from approach to the ramp. There was a choir of services to orchestrate on arrival or a private jet from limos, cars, luggage-transport even re-fuels, crew changes and new passengers for a quick turnaround. Because it was a super clear day in New Mexico Dave was flying VFR down to Albuquerque and wouldn't come up on the FlightTraker, so I switched on my radio at 6:10 and reassuringly heard him taxiing out. At 6:35 I got a cell phone call that he had arrived, Dave said the catering order was present so he was standing by for the passengers.
Feeling like the day was certainly going well and that there was some time, I went upstairs to shower and then drive out to our airport office. Invariably the cell phone rang just as the warm water warmed my scalp and shoulders. Picking up the cell phone with a washcloth ( I was used to this by now...) I saw it was my boss, Andrea, and answered. Her voice was serious and quiet. She had flown turbo-props, airliners and corporate jets for 15 years...she was driven, attractive and used to excelling in the man's world of airplanes and airports. "Chris something is happening in New York City, there was an airliner crash right into a building"……"I don't know how those guys ...something really must have gone wrong..."
" Jesus Christ....where in New York?"
"Manhattan." She was barely audible; there was definite confusion in her voice. Andrea then went on to speculate....Why Hadn't the crew done something to get the aircraft away from the buildings? She had checked NYC weather online there was no fog....what had happened? Then she asked if we have any flight to or from NYC in the next 48 hours confirmed or quoted?
Another call was coming through, it was Dave in Albuquerque. I told Andrea I'd call her back with the info. "Dave?"
" Chris something terrible has happened in New York. It just awful, they say an airliner crashed right into the city...."
"Dave I know I just got a call from Andrea..." I could hear a television on the background and pictured Dave standing in the all-too-familiar pilot lounge at the Albuquerque FBO. His tone of voice was not surprising. Commercial Aviation in the US is a small town and any commercial aviation accident will illicit an immediate and deep response from any person involved in the business of transporting of people by air from Point-A to Point-B.
In the world of aviation that kind of accident gets around instantly. I switched on the TV.
The live shot of one tower of the World Trade Center belching smoke came up on the screen...."Dave it's the World Trade Center"
"I know...I just...I just don't know how this could happen...how could they have hit the tower?
" Dave I'll call you back."
My wife asked what was going on and I replied " An airliner crashed into the World Trade Center, its on TV right now. Her reaction was "o my god."
Andrea almost immediately called again.
"Its the World Trade center...the went right into it." she was in shock, " I just cant imagine what could have happened..."
" It's amazing that its still standing" I said.
" There must have been some sort of fire...." Andrea was still trying to understand an accident scenario that would have brought the airliner into contact with a building.
I told her the progress of our flights. "Dave called, he on the ground in Albuquerque waiting for our passengers...
" Has he seen the news."
"O yeah."
" Delay the flight. Call the passengers and delay the flight....at least an hour." It was a sound and immediate judgment in favor of passenger safety... after a lightning quick self-assessment on her part as a pilot watching the news.
"Ok."
"Call me back after you reach Dave and the passengers."
"Copy that, give me about 15 minutes."
Still dripping for the 2-minute shower I put on some clothes and ran downstairs to the computer, my wife was sitting up in bed transfixed at what was on the screen.
The tragedy was already so great....
At the computer I pulled up the passenger info and made the call , I got their voicemail and cited a fueling delay then hung up and called Dave. Being a diplomatic OPS manager ( and hoping the passengers would hear the voicemail) I told Dave that the passengers had delayed an hour.
By sheer chance my Aunt and Grandparents were in Santa Fe visiting from New Jersey. I called my grandfather's hotel room and told the retired Air Force Major that there was an airliner accident in New York and my day had gotten busy. I would call him back soon. His concern was telling and he let me go with the brevity required.
Waiting for the passengers to call back, I decided not to drive directly out to the airport and went upstairs to watch the news with my wife. She kept asking me "How could this have happened?"
This was the first moment I had to speculate and offered, "It must have been some really fast electrical fire in the cockpit....clouding the pilot's vision at the absolute wrong time..."
We both took a moment to ponder that explanation.
Then we actually watched the second plane hit the second tower live on television.
The shock was immediate and overpowering. My wife clutched on to me. It took us a very confusing moment to realize that it was not some previous clip of the first airliner...I said " that was intentional."
It was the ugliest most horrible thing I had ever witnessed, the announcer on the news was completely shaken and reporting over and over again that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center. Many things went though my mind - my two visits to the top of the Trade Center and then random images of the regular, passenger filled interiors of airliners...."What poor People" I thought and said out loud. My wife was in tears, after about 5 minutes Andrea called. She was shaken.
"Chris there was another one....it looked like it was on purpose...." she trailed off.
" I know we're watching, they must have been hijacked..."
Cutting to the heart of the issue Andrea actually said to me " There might be more..."
"Jesus."
Another call was coming through it was our company Captain, Jack. He was up in Colorado with our Learjet overseeing the final maintenance inspections and preparing to ferry the jet home the next day. Jack had flown for Eastern Airlines and then Southwest for almost 25 years. A seasoned old dog who flew weekend airshows in WWII warbirds, he loved driving the Ferrari of our Learjet 35 around....especially things like cutting a winter sunset close on the Aspen approach. He was also somewhat of a hard-drinking redneck...
I told Andrea who it was and left her on hold to take the call.
Jack boomed through the phone , " Chris, Jesus better watch over us all , they're crashing airliners into New York.
" Jack I know I know...."
" This is it buddy this is it, we're gonna get this jet home right now."
" I thought they still had to make the inspections, don't they have access panels off and all?"
"The mechanics are gonna button her up in 10 minutes and sign off on everything, the inspector can come down to Santa Fe an look over the jet on our ramp. We need to get this thing out of the way from appropriation..."
"What!? Jack what the fuck are you talking about Appropriation?"
Jack spoke to me like a 3 year old - as he tended to do to most folks. Since I didn't have a pilot's license yet I was thus classed by him as a "total civilian"....
" Chris we have a Learjet 35 sitting on the ramp in Colorado within driving distance of many military assets, we are now under attack, the Military can appropriate any aircraft it deems it needs to transport or anything...almost every other jet is out of town up here and we need to be out of town too...."
"Jack just sit tight." I switched calls.
"Andrea, Jack is watching the news and trying to get the mechanics to button of the Lear and let him jet home ASAP...this seems not cool."
"Definitely not cool, tell Jack to sit tight and I will call him right now. While I am calling him you call the mechanics tell them to not listen to a single word Jack says and leave the jet open and unflyable."
"Copy that, already have him sittin."
I hung up and made the call. The ex-Army helicopter pilot who ran our maintenance center answered the phone like a zombie with CNN blaring on his end and drowning anything he might have said out. I told him to leave the panels off of the Lear and send Jack to the hotel….I hoped he got the gist.
Then Dave called from Albuquerque with the King Air. Before the any official order was issued to cancel all flights, he had assessed the true reality of the situation. "Chris there was a second plane..."
" I saw it happen ..." I said.
" I'm buttoning up the airplane and getting someone to come a drive me back to Santa Fe. No one will be flying for today ...I think."
" Copy that Dave. I'll send a car for you." He tried to protest knowing that I was going to send one of our contracted limos, but the sober reality he had just given me made me thankful beyond words. I told him to wait for the car. By the time I had stepped upstairs again his car was ordered and on the way.
My wife insisted I lay in bed with her holding on tightly as we watched the news unfold. The information about the Pentagon came in and shock turned to deepened as we wondered where and what would be next.
I knew there would be an end-game soon, that we would begin shooting down airliners instead of waiting for them to crash. That was what I expected next.
The towers continued to burn and I kept remarking at their resilience, the fact that they had absorbed such enormous force and remained standing. Then there were television images of people clamoring at windows disgustingly far from any safety hundreds of feet below. Then they were jumping, releasing themselves into the air to avoid being burned alive.
The cell phone rang, it was the King Air passengers, my wife asked me not to answer - not to leave the room....but I begged off and went downstairs to take the call. The passengers were watching the news, they wanted to cancel the flight, I told them no problem.
For a moment of relief I stepped outside and began smoking a cigarette. A few drags into it I heard my wife shriek and scream from upstairs. It was a foreign sound, she never yelled that way.
I rushed up. The South Tower was falling.
She clung very tight to me as we both watched transfixed at the crumbling humanity. It was falling like a stricken hero, a horrible glory in its demise and overwhelming sadness.
The phone rang, it was Andrea, she was in tears now yet the oil of anger was pooling at the surface as well.... "They took those planes and they crashed them, "she said. "they crashed them and took out those buildings and the Pentagon....my god...where can we go from here?"
I consoled her and myself...The attacks will end, it will all be OK in a few hours. I was saying it loud- with force, for Andrea , for my wife, for myself. But who knew if it were true? I was still waiting to hear that our military aircraft had to shoot down hijacked airliners somewhere, in the twisted nature of the day that was the news I had sought for comfort.
The monstrosity of an airliner crashing into a building, with intent, defied the nature of the machines and people that work to make modern flight possible. As the official order came though to ground every civilian aircraft in the country, the Spirit of Aviation that had existed since a local boy was seated by Orville and Wilbur Wright into one of their test kites seemed to have been obliterated with the Towers. That certainly wasn't the case....but it felt like that in the moment.
Everyone working in civilian aviation was taken completely out of reality as every non-military aircraft in America rested on the Earth.
Part 2 will be posted next…
RE-LEGALIZE FUNDRAISER 
NORML's Executive Director, Allen St. Pierre joins the Stash today to discuss a recent NY Times piece he helped write. Allen comments on the reasons why the FDA has not considered whole plant, smoked cannabis for its regulatory approval. 
Sen Dog sat down with Chris Goldstein at the TLA in Philadelphia Monday night. Cypress Hill have long been been out on the front lines with the marijuana issue. Their steadfast ability and signature sound have kept them at the top of the charts and the top of their game, even as Hip-Hop and Rap have gone though transitions. 
Download Cloud 9 on iTunes
MEDICAL CULTIVATION
Bobby Black
