The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

Around the country and the world, people watched their televisions in stunned disbelief. Many feared that the country was under attack.

The presidential team, at an elementary school in Florida, heard that a plane had struck one of the WTC towers. Like many, they assumed that it was an awful accident and continued with the engagement; President Bush read a book to a second-grade class. After receiving word that a second plane had hit the WTC, Chief of Staff Andy Card whispered the update to the president, indicating that the country was under attack. Bush looked concerned but finished the book he was reading and excused himself calmly. The team charged with the president’s safety, worried that he might be a target, rushed to the motorcade and toward Air Force One. They took off quickly and climbed rapidly.

Initially, Congress staff did not believe that the event would interrupt their day’s business. Ted Olsen worried about his wife, Barbara, aboard Flight 77, but reasoned that her plane wouldn’t have had enough time to reach New York.

Mirroring the reaction around the country, the mood of Congress members changed dramatically the moment that Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

White House staff learned that a plane five miles from the Capitol had dropped below 500 feet and couldn’t be found; they were rushed to the White House’s underground shelter, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). The vice president and his team worked to identify and ground planes in the air.

Flight 77 had left Dulles International Airport en route to Los Angeles at 8:20 am. Barbara Olsen reached her husband, Ted, to tell him that her flight had been hijacked.

Flight 77 showed up on radar outside of Washington, DC. Military jets were ordered to follow the plane, but it was flying quickly and erratically. Air traffic control and military personnel, as well as family members who had heard from passengers aboard Flight 77, waited fearfully.

People in Arlington County around and in the Pentagon heard the immense noise of the plane flying full throttle toward the building; it exploded into the Pentagon in a ball of fire. Ted Olsen saw it on television and knew that it was Barbara’s flight. At the American Airlines base in Washington, DC, Rosemary Dillard learned that it was her husband’s plane, Flight 77. Dulles was told to hold all unbound flight traffic.

The flight slammed into Wedge 1, on the western side of the Pentagon, at 9:37 am, traveling at 530 mph. This part of the building had recently been renovated, and staff had only just moved back into the space. The plane breached three of the five rings of corridors. Those who weren’t killed instantly were engulfed in fire and thick smoke. In other parts of the building, people felt and heard an explosion. Most people assumed that it was a bomb.

For Sheila Denise Moody and Louise Rogers, it was the first day working at the Pentagon. The building started to shake and debris fell. Lieutenant Colonel Rob Grunewald was in a closed meeting when the ceiling exploded in a fireball, filling the room with thick smoke. The Pentagon was evacuated. People ran, terrified. Arlington County police and fire departments rushed to the scene to help evacuate the injured.

Staff at Capitol Hill saw smoke from the Pentagon. Congress canceled its session, except for a quick prayer before staff were evacuated to safety. A network news team set up a camera pointing at the Capitol Dome, assuming that it would be hit next. The Speaker, who was in the line of presidential succession, was rushed to safety, but many of the other staff milled outside the Capitol.

United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark International Airport toward Los Angeles at 8:42 am. Pilots were warned of possible cockpit intrusions in light of the earlier hijackings. A message was heard two minutes later from First Officer LeRoy Homer: “Mayday! Mayday! Get out!” (209).

Cleveland Air Traffic Control center received a call from Flight 93 that sounded like a “life and death struggle” (209). A flight attendant called the Los Angeles maintenance office to say that they’d been hijacked. The plane left its planned altitude and flight path. Those aboard calling loved ones heard about what had happened at the WTC towers. Tom Burnett called his wife, Deena, and told her to ring the authorities. In a later call, Tom told his wife that a team of people on the plane planned to take back the plane. Passengers from Flight 93 left messages of love on voicemails.

Verizon Airfone Supervisor Lisa Jefferson spoke to Todd Beamer, a passenger aboard Flight 93, who told her that the pilot and the copilot were dead; their throats had been slit. The plane began a rapid descent. Another commercial plane, Flight 73, was forced to take evasive action as it came into Flight 93’s path.

At the WTC towers, cell phones weren’t working, and confusion ensued as the NYPD and FDNY worked to evacuate people; those watching the news at home had a clearer picture than those at the site. Gunshots were heard as police fired shots to break windows, trying to help people escape from the lobbies of the buildings, but other officers misinterpreted this as terrorists shooting at civilians fleeing the site.

Teams of firefighters and police officers wished each other luck and vowed to come out together. Many had a sense of doom as they entered the buildings. James Luongo, a NYPD inspector, flagged down a disoriented group who left the base of one of the towers, waving them toward him, but they were immediately killed by falling debris. He then forcibly carried a civilian woman away who threatened to enter the building, saying that she needed to find her husband.

On the 103rd floor of the South Tower, Judith Wein climbed over bodies as she escaped; many died at the moment of impact. She was directed out of her office by a colleague who was a volunteer firefighter. Stanley Praimnath, who dove under his desk when he saw the incoming plane through his office window, was trapped on the 81st floor by a rock wall that fell across his path as he tried to reach the stairway. Brian Clark heard his calls for help and assisted him over the wall. They descended the stairs together.

Melissa Doi, trapped on the 83rd floor of the South Tower, called emergency services; the air was extremely hot and smoky, and she feared that she would die. Christine Olender called from the 106th floor of the North Tower, wondering where she should direct people to escape the hot smoke.

In the North Tower, fire alarms blared, and civilians filed down hot stairwells as emergency workers filed up. Judith Wein had a premonition that she should keep moving. She was in the last group to exit the tower before it collapsed. John Abruzzo’s colleagues helped him get down in his evacuation chair.

In the South Tower, Rick Rescorla, a retired colonel who worked at Morgan Stanley, immediately began evacuating people when the North Tower was hit (despite the Port Authority’s initial advice that those in the South Tower should remain where they were); he was credited with saving hundreds of lives but died himself while returning up the stairs to continue evacuating people.

Disoriented civilians emerged from stairwells that flooded from fire sprinklers in the stairways. As they stumbled into the destroyed lobby of the North Tower, emergency workers directed them out. Students and teachers at the High School for Law and Public Service (HSLPS) were evacuated to Battery Park.

People trapped on floors above the crash sites of both towers, trapped in unbearable temperatures and smoke, fell or chose to jump from the buildings. The FBI’s Wesley Wong was confused when he was told to “watch out for the falling bodies” (257) but then was shocked when he looked up to see a man falling, spread-eagle. A jumper hit firefighter Danny Suhr, killing him instantly. Emergency workers were appalled at the sight and sound of the dozens of falling people, some screaming as they fell, who were obliterated on the ground or building roofs below. Some held hands with others as they fell.