On September 11, 2001, I was a relatively junior captain for Southwest Airlines. I wasn’t flying on that day as I had finished a trip late the night before. I was awakened that morning by one of my twin daughters telling me to turn on the television. I turned it on just as the second aircraft hit the south tower. Needless to say, I was stunned along with millions of people all over the world.
Later in the day, after being inundated with too much news, I first drove out to Sky Harbor and looped around the airport. I don’t really know why I did that other than trying to bring some sense of normalcy. It didn’t work. By early afternoon, KPHX, which normally bustled with activity, was essentially abandoned.
From Sky Harbor, I drove out to our neighborhood airport, Falcon Field, where I kept a private aircraft primarily used for my son to gain his ratings and flight time. In those days, there were no security fences/gates, and anyone could just drive out onto the ramp area. The day before, I had received a Service Bulletin from the airplane’s manufacturer, Socata. The SB detailed an issue with certain seat pans. The only way to determine applicability was to see if the bottom of the seat was metal or foam. I climbed awkwardly into the cockpit to get my head and shoulders down in the footwell to reach up under the seat and determine its type. While in this awkward position, I heard a couple of police cars come screeching to a stop adjacent to the airplane. When I extracted myself from the cabin, I was facing officers with their guns out, telling me to raise my hands and come down slowly from the airplane. We got it all sorted out and we all nervously laughed that none of us really knew what to do about what had just happened.
The first day that I was scheduled to fly, the trip was canceled as the national system was shut down. We were told to just stand by at home and wait for news from the company. On the morning of the first day that airlines were permitted to fly again, September 14th, I received a call from scheduling at about 4:00 a.m. asking me to come to the airport as soon as I could get there and they would have an assignment waiting when I checked in.
When I arrived at the airport, it was still dark outside, but the pilot lounge was full of anxious aviators. I checked in electronically, and my “board” (schedule) showed that I was to deadhead to Oakland through Reno. That flight was already boarding, so we hustled to the gate.
When we got to Reno, we just stayed on the airplane for the flight to Oakland. Skeds called and we were told that we would be flying a flight to Seattle, but to call when we landed in OAK. When we arrived in OAK, we were told that plans had changed and that we would be taking ground transportation (Van) from OAK across the bay to San Francisco, where we would be flying to San Diego.
When we arrived in SFO, we went to the gate and found the airplane waiting, empty, with no flight attendants present.
We called Skeds and were told that our flight attendants had missed their connection, so we were going to ferry the aircraft empty to San Diego. We were also told that SAN was short on fuel, so we would be “tankering” fuel to SAN. I remember that the airplane was brand new and still had the Boeing stamp in its logbook.
Getting close to SAN we were assigned a holding pattern. We had lots of fuel, so we really didn’t care. A stubborn marine layer had rolled in on SAN which was operating on Runway 9 because of winds, but the glideslope was out of service, so the localizer approach with its higher approach minimums was all that was available for use. At that present time, the ceiling was below minimums, but was reported to be slowly rising and expected to improve. Approach control asked us if we’d like to continue holding or attempt the approach. We elected to fly the approach, but at the missed approach point, we couldn’t see the runway, so we flew a missed approach procedure and came around for another attempt. Once we got above about 2,500 feet, it was bright and sunny on top. On the second try, we were able to see the runway and make a legal landing. Ground Control told us that we were the first aircraft to land at SAN after 9/11.
When we arrived at the terminal, the passengers who had been stranded for days were happy, and we were pleased to see that we had a proper contingent of flight attendants ready as well. Everything was a go for our flight to Nashville (BNA) where we imagined that we would be staying the night.
The flight to BNA took us over some of the most beautiful views of our great nation. Sights that under normal circumstances may seem routine, but on that day were extra spectacular.
While en route and chatting with the flight attendants, we discovered that they were based in Chicago and had been stranded during the entire time that air operations had been suspended. They were hoping to deadhead back to Chicago when we arrived at Nashville.
Arriving at Nashville, the passengers clapped and cheered so loudly that we could hear them up front in the cockpit. As they were deplaning, the ops agent informed the flight attendants that they would be working a flight to Detroit. One started crying, not because she didn’t want to help out, but because she didn’t have any backup plan for her two kids. She ended up making a quick call to the Salvation Army to pick up her kids and take them to their shelter, then she dutifully worked the flight as she was assigned to.
As we were packing up our stuff for what we thought would be a BNA overnight, we were informed by Skeds that we would be deadheading back to PHX because the goal was to get as many pilots in their home domiciles as possible. Because the flight was full with stranded passengers, we had to sit in the (uncomfortable) cockpit jumpseats for the longish flight to PHX. Normal contractual and regulatory flight and duty day restrictions on pilots had been temporarily suspended. I walked into my home about 20 hours after I had left it.
I was glad to have a job and hoped that it would continue. Fortunately for me, it did. However, many others were not so lucky and have felt the effects of that tragic day ever since. For better or worse, the entire airline industry changed dramatically in the aftermath of that terrible day.
We must never forget the sacrifice of those who were injured and killed on that horrible day. The airline crews and passengers, the workers in the towers, and especially the first responders who ran dutifully towards danger, fully knowing what was at stake. They and the loved ones they left behind must never be forgotten.
Hey Myron, we flew together at Southwest ages ago prior to 9-11. That week was chaos for everyone already on a trip including myself. I had landed in MSY the night prior and was woken by a phone call from my husband, who was Director of Training for another airline, to inform me about what was happening. The hotel soon filled with other stranded Southwest pilots and flight attendants, as every aircraft flying had to do an emergency divert. New Orleans was the closest for every aircraft flying over the gulf. Communication with headquarters was non existent, as there were no enough phone lines to get a hold of crew scheduling. Fortunately we had several check airman in the stranded group that could communicate with headquarters and we had briefings and the end of every day to understand what was going on. We finally got our assignments for the start up of flying on Sept. 14, the first day of my vacation. When my captain and I arrived at the airport, we did not have any flight attendants. We left several hours late when Scheduling could muscle up a crew for us. We flew to TPA, that was in the process of receiving a Tropical storm. Since we were late, our flight to BWI had already left, so we deadheaded back to our base.
For me, that day will always be in remembrance, lives lost and sacrifices made. In the aftermath, it was an eerie feeling flying empty aircraft as the airlines tried to recover. Like you, I was fortunate to fly with a company that did not furlough it’s employees during the recovery. Best to you!
I was living in a rental below the approach path of KSNA during 9/11. One noticeable thing immediately after 9/11 was how quiet it was after all the flights were shut down.
The day pt135 operators were allowed to fly again I did a charter to take a stranded airline passenger from CAK to INT. There were all kinds of airliners parked all over the field that evening. I departed after dark on what was the quietest flight on the radio I ever had. It was so quiet several times I asked Center for radio checks to make sure I didn’t loose communication. Fortunately my company survived the slowdown after 9/11. RIP to those who lost their lives that morning, and to those who may still be dealing with the health issues afterwords.
I was a Capt for another airline, we’d gotten to NY the night before, scheduled for a long layover downtown at the Milford Plaza, which was also a layover hotel for several airlines. I’ll never forget how eerie that was, initially isolated for for a time with no inbound or outbound calls. We had a flight attendant that overdosed on her bipolar meds and we were pretty much on our own, all doctors and hospitals were not taking anyone because they were awaiting victims from the towers that would never arrive.
With a north wind most of Manhattan had glorious fall weather, sunny and 70, the city was quiet. The only sounds were an occasional distant siren. I think we were the second airplane off the ground at LGA Friday afternoon, equally eerie, nobody in the sky except the armed F-16s circling the city.