Posted on 05/12/2006 5:38:52 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
I thought you would find this email that I just received thought provoking to say the least.
United Airlines Flight 93, the movie Guys, Susie and I just got back from seeing "UAL Flight 93", it was absolutely gripping, and as a former airline pilot who was flying a trip that morning on a Boeing 767 from Cincinnati to Orlando it was almost too horrific to watch...it was very disturbing!
For you pilot types, the attention to detail, the cockpit, the preflight, the crew, pilots and flight attendants boarding the aircraft and making small talk was OH, so real and routine...just another day in the office! Likewise the views from central flow control, NY and Boston ARTCC and the NORAD command center were very realistic.
Should anyone have any doubts about our response, or lack of that morning you need to view this movie. Watching all the various controllers and their supervisors trying to get their arms around the problem and to come to grips and connect the dots is so very real. The movie appears to almost happen in real time and you can really sense the problem that the commanders had in thinking outside the box and realizing that we were really at war.
Fighters are scrambled, late, and in the wrong direction, as threats are suppose to come from over the water to the east not from over land to the west; the planes are not armed, can they ram, and who has the authority to give that command...the command is given but not relayed to the pilots. ; The lack of communications, or rather the disbelief and lack of coordination is stunning but easy to understand. Even the pilots of UAL Flt 93 are given a data link message that the Towers have been hit and to beware of cockpit intruders...they brush it off in disbelief...as I'm sure any pilot would have prior to that date.
The time line given at the end of the movie and the confusion over what planes were involved, and which flights were being hijacked is very revealing...we just couldn't get it together quickly enough.
As pilots and crew members we had never been trained to deal with suicidal hijackers who were prepared to die, it was simply inconceivable at the time. A key point, though not belabored, was when the supervisor of the FAA Central Flow Control ordered that all aircraft in US airspace land immediately, (there were over 4200 in the air), that no planes from overseas would be allowed into the country and would be turned back, and that there were to be no over flights...he realized that we were at war but didn't know with whom...it was a very bold and brave move and he was thinking way outside the box...I believe that it was also his first day on the job as the boss!
All Americans should see this movie as it may help them get a grip on the terrorist threat that we are up against vs. the radical Muslim world. I don't know if we belong in Iraq or how we should deal with Iran or North Korea or the Sudan, but I know that there is a real threat to our way of life from the radical Islamic fundamentalists.
I continually hear that this is not a true reflection of the Koran or true Islamic beliefs. Well that may be true, and it might not be, but there would appear to be plenty of Muslims in the world that have an entirely different and radical interpretation of the Koran which we cannot ignore.
What was probably as disturbing as watching an airline crew, that could have been me or any of my friends, seeing their world and their life taken away, was the hijackers preparing to die, washing themselves and praying to their god as if they were doing his will. They looked like ordinary young men, and to think that they could sit next to all these people on that plane that they were going to kill, who had nothing against them or done nothing to them, was beyond words.
I guess if nothing else it gives you insight into the minds of suicide bombers, which to our Western way of thought is beyond comprehension.
This movie will make you angry, very angry. My experience on 9/11. We were just ready to close the door for our Delta767 flight from CVG to MCO when the gate agent came on board and asked if we had heard anything about a small plane hitting the World Trade Center, we had not, so she said goodbye and closed the door. Shortly thereafter we were airborne climbing out on a beautifully clear crisp fall morning heading to Florida with not a cloud in the sky or a care in the world. I heard a bizjet ask for a reroute since he could not get to New York and I thought that was strange. Then another bizjet said "well I guess we won't be going there either" and asked for a clearance to an alternate. At that point I asked center what was going on. There was a pause and then the controller came back in a very excited voice and said "they have hit both of the Trade Center Towers, they have hit the Pentagon, they have hit the Capitol and the White House"...well you can imagine it got really lively on the frequency.
I turned to my Co-Pilot and said "I don't know what has happened, but I do know that things will never be the same", and I think I got that right! Within seconds the controller had composed himself and said all flights on this frequency standby, and it was dead quiet. He then said all flights are to land immediately and went down the list of the planes under his control..."American 235 turn right heading 230 you're landing at Pittsburgh, Continental 456 turn left heading 180 for Cincinnati, Delta 235 (that's me) turn right to 250 and descend to 8000, you're landing at Knoxville, airport your 2 o'clock 40 miles....etc" It was the best, fastest and most efficient handling I have ever had from ATC...they had everyone on the ground all over the country in minimum time.
After all the initial confusion, their professionalism, and that of all the flight crews was exemplary! We spent two days in Knoxville and then ferried an empty 757 back to Atlanta and I believe were one of the first flights to land back at our main hub.
Our arrival at ATL was one of the most moving experiences of my flying career. The airspace was totally empty, there was no talk on the radio, and we were the only plane in the sky over ATL, the busiest airport in the U.S., but we did have, unknown to us until informed by the controller, an F-16 right on our tail, but we never saw him.
When we taxied in the normally frantic ramp area was dead quiet, all the ground equipment, tugs, baggage carts, tugs, fuelers etc. were lined up in military precision and the ground crews were standing at attention and saluted....wow, I'll never forget that. They needed a sign that things were getting back to normal...that we were moving and flying again.
Reflections. As you may know I was on a United Flight several weeks ago from Chicago to Sacramento that had a passenger who tried to open the front cabin door, allegedly claimed to have a bomb, and took a swing at the flight attendant. We'll yours truly was sound asleep in the last row of coach and missed all the action, but suffice it to say that before he got very far he was rapidly subdued by the first class section and we diverted to Denver.
Unlike Flight 93 he couldn't have gotten into the cockpit as the cockpit door is now armored and no passenger is going to sit still and let anyone interfere with the flight. I always felt that with the improved cockpit door that I would be totally safe, and that all my passengers in the cabin would act as Sky Marshals...I was and they did...they remembered 9/11, lets hope that we never forget!
I would also like to mention that all the crew members on my United flight as well as all the ground rescue folks in Denver and the United station personnel did an absolutely marvelous job in handling this incident. It made me proud to have once been a part of this profession.
The poisonous directions to "slay infidels" can't be missed and they are all reading the same perverted scribblings of a sick-minded "prophet."
I'll never forget how empty the sky was for those days after 9/11. I live right below one of the main east/west routes and grew up with contrails day and night.
For a few days (if not more) the sky was totally still--until one morning, I heard this loud, rumbling roar. Looking out from my apartment window, I saw some kind of military jet (would it have been an F-16? I don't know these things) blasting across the sky. For a few minutes, I panicked and wondered if we were under some other attack. It was so loud and jarring, and almost as if I'd forgotten the sound of planes.
What a weird time that was.
Same here. I live under the east/west incoming route for IAH (Houston) - it's always like watching a cloud of fireflies at dusk and I never fail to be amazed at air controllers' skill. But for those few days after 9/11, no fireflies.
I live next to a Navy air base. My skys are never empty. Day or night.
BTTT/PING
Very interesting read, thanks for posting.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but plan on doing so when I can.
All of my neighbors were outside the Friday evening after 9/11.....with lighted candles. When the first plane flew overhead we all clapped and cheered. The first sign of normalcy.
If he knows that we are at war with fundamentalist Islam and doesn't know if we should be in Iraq... then he doesn't really know that we are at war with fundamentalist Islam.
Same here - it was just too eerie!!
Weird indeed. Our desert home (where we now live permanently..it was a weekend place then) is also under a couple of west-to-east jet highways.
Either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning - I can't remember which - I heard the first jet sounds of that trip, looked up and saw a commercial airliner at full altitude...and a very much smaller jet not very far behind it; undoubtedly an "escort".
I live just south of Boston and I remember the absolute silence at night. Having flights overhead is part of every day life and you don't realize the noise until it's gone.
Good read! Thanks Ferdie
Todd Beamer's father says, "It's too soon ... to forget."
It hit me hardest on a golf course in Seattle where most of SeaTac's approach traffic comes in at around 300 feet. The course had replaced all their pin flags with small American Flags and while putting out on one of the holes, one of the guys in this threesome I'd been stuck with intentionally stepped on one of the flags as it laid on the green.
Between what I was feeling about the planes not being in the sky, and what he'd done, I almost punched the son of a bitch.
To this day, I wish I had. Instead, I called him an unrepeatable name, took my clubs and walked off the course.
I was living 3 miles from O'Hare in 2001. It was odd indeed.
Armored door or not, if a terrorist had a knife at the throat of a stewardess after killing the first one as an example, would the pilot have the resolve to ignore the demands of the terrorist? That would be one heck of a tough decision. However, the legacy of United 93 will save that day since, as the pilot put it, "no passenger is going to sit still and let anyone interfere with the flight." And that is the real key. It isn't the armored door or TSA confiscating nail clippers that makes the difference, it is the mindset of the passengers that will save the day. And we have the Heroes of United 93 to thank for showing us the way.
I was living in Lisle, and we always had a steady stream of jets in the landing pattern right over our home. I just remember going outside on Sep. 12 and hearing the faint roar of an F-16 zooming somewhere overhead on the quietest night I can remember.
I lived in El Segundo, California, immediately to the south of LAX, on 9-11. I was used to the sound of planes throttling up, taking off, and landing. From the street next to my house, I could see the taxi area for takeoff. Those three or four days were the quietest of my life. I'll never forget them.
When my son got off the bus from elementary school he was excited about the stories he had started to hear. Plus the principal had made "strange" announcements at the end of the day to the kids about going to neighbors' houses if they're parents are really late coming home from work in NYC. (Nothing specific about the attack)
I think he had seen a few minutes of tv at my parents house before he came home (they had cable and were still getting reception, we only had broadcast tv at the time & only CBS(?) & UHF were still broadcasting.
All of a sudden he looked at my neighbors house and asked if Mr. B was okay. I cautiously said yes, he was on vacation that day, but had gone back to work. He had actually gone back before the all-hands was announced and had briefly called his wife saying, "all the rescue squads are gone!"
Mrs. B's husband and 1 brother are FDNY; another brother, NYPD. Thank God, they were all safe.
I will never forget that day. I will never forget watching my neighbor going out in his dress uniform for MONTHS afterwords for departmental funerals.
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