It was a very busy day on Flyertalk. If you don’t know, Flyertalk is a board for frequent flyers. In those days there were maybe 8000 members. There was a check in thread. It was a way for everyone to report in that they were safe. Since it’s a frequent flyer board, many were flying. All of us reading were concerned about our fellow frequent flyers. Was anyone on AA or UA? We didn’t know.
As a New Yorker, I knew many that worked downtown, but I didn’t know where they worked. My cousin worked in the WTC. Lucky for us she was in D.C. on September 11.
In the first circle, I knew 5 people that died. I went to one funeral. Well, it was a memorial because his body was never found. He was 52, and had a wife and 2 kids. His mother and father were never the same. For the longest time after September 11, you would sit on the subway and look at people. We were there, but engrossed in thought about what happened. It was the only time in my life people weren’t paying attention.
A good friend of mine lost his secretary and business partner on September 11. Bob was, and still is, in commercial real estate. He’d always get to his office early. He told me CEO’s always answered their phone early in the morning, before their secretaries arrived. That morning, he left the office about 8:00 and headed to the Times Square area. When he got out of the subway, everyone was looking up at the giant tv screens. He saw what was going on. He tried calling his partner and secretary. They answered the phone, but nothing could be done for them. It was a sad call. My friend Bob looked like a football player. Big tough guy. It took him years to recover, and I’m not so sure he has.
On the 6 month anniversary, or maybe the first anniversary, I was flying home from LA the night the blue lights were turned on. We were scheduled to arrive at JFK around midnight, when the lights would be put out. I asked the pilot if he thought we’d make it back in time. He wasn’t sure. There are multiple approaches to JFK. ‘Lucky’ for the 25 passengers on the 2 aisle 767 that we flew east towards New Jersey, and headed south at the George Washington Bridge. That’s a rare approach. As were were flying south over the Hudson, on Manhattan’s west side, the pilot told everyone to move to the right of the aircraft to see the lights. We were approximately 8000 feet. As you know, you can’t get up when you’re about to land; but the Pilot approved it. I’ll never ever forget those lights. I was looking down at the hole in the ground. I didn’t know anyone that was able to look down. It was as if everything I was looking down at was in slow motion. I can recall this with clarity. The scene is etched in my mind.