The Only Plane in the Sky

by Garrett M Graff

  9:01 A.M.

  Below, on the ground, confusion spiraled at air traffic control, as various sectors tried to piece together the rapidly changing events—even to understand that a second flight had been hijacked—and muster a response.

  Peter Mulligan, FAA New York Center: Do you know if anyone down there has done any coordination to scramble fighter-type airplanes?

  Controller at FAA Command Center, Herndon, Virginia: [Indistinct] still think the airplane’s in the air?

  Peter Mulligan: No, we have several situations going on here. It is escalating big, big time, and we need to get the military involved.

  FAA Command Center: Why, what’s going on?

  Peter Mulligan: Just get me somebody who has the authority to get military in the air, now.

  9:02 A.M.

  Learning that a second plane had been taken over, New York air traffic control called other FAA offices to try to spot United Flight 175 as it approached Manhattan.

  New York Center: Hey, can you look out your window right now?

  New York Terminal Radar Approach Center (TRACON), Long Island: Yeah.

  New York Center: Can you see a guy at about 4,000 feet, about five east of the airport right now, looks like he’s—

  New York TRACON: Yeah, I see him.

  New York Center: Is he descending into the building also?

  New York TRACON: He’s descending really quick too, yeah.

  New York Center: Well that’s—

  New York TRACON: Forty-five hundred feet now, he just dropped 800 feet in like one sweep.

  New York Center: That’s another situation. What kind of a plane is that, can you guys tell?

  New York TRACON: I don’t know. I’ll read it out in a minute.

  New York TRACON: [Indistinct].

  New York TRACON: Another one just hit the building.

  New York Center: Wow.

  New York TRACON: [Indistinct] Oh my god. . . . Another one just hit it hard.

  New York Center: Another one just hit the World Trade.

  New York TRACON: The whole building just, ah, came apart. . . . [Indistinct] Oh my god.

  New York Center: Holy smokes. All right. I guess you guys are going to be busy.

  “A host of potential problems”

  * * *

  The Military Gears Up

  Across the eastern United States, those in charge of the nation’s airspace—both the military air defense units and civilian air traffic controllers—dealt with the confusion sparked by a second hijacking, even as they were unsure about the fate of American Airlines Flight 11.

  Colin Scoggins, air space and procedures specialist and military specialist, FAA, Boston Center: Somehow it was determined that American 11 was still in the air, so I was the one who made the call to Northeast Air Defense Command and advised them that American 11 was still in the air. Of course, I was incorrect.

  Lt. Col. Kevin Nasypany, mission crew commander, NEADS, Rome, New York: We also had the indication—misinformation that we received through FAA channels—that Flight 11 never crashed and was heading toward Washington.

  Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, commander of the 1st Air Force, NORAD, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida: I wanted to scramble our Langley aircraft right then—F-16s out of North Dakota were on alert at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

  Ben Sliney, national operations manager, FAA Command Center, Herndon, Virginia: While we were trying to get information, New York Center starts to have a problem also. They were having a problem with an aircraft—it was United 175, it turns out.

  Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold: I said, “Bob [Marr], we need to get those [Langley fighters] over Washington, D.C., in case we are under attack.” Other airplanes now are being called “possibly hijacked” by the FAA.

  Col. Bob Marr, commander, NEADS, Rome, New York: We are looking at a host of potential problems.

  Capt. Craig Borgstrom, F-16 pilot and squadron operations commander, Langley Air Force Base: The guy from the sector asked me, “How many can you get airborne right now?” I told him I had two on battle stations. He said, “That’s not what I asked—how many total airplanes can you send up?” I said, “I’ll give you three.” He said, “Then go.”

  * * *

  In the air throughout the Northeast, confused airline pilots tried to decipher the chaos engulfing the country and air traffic controllers below.

  Chuck Savall, pilot, Midwest Express Flight 73: I was the captain of the Midwest Express flight from Milwaukee to Newark. We descended toward Newark on a normal and beautiful morning. We heard another airline pilot on the radio say, “We heard something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.” We were 25 miles away in the air. I looked out the window. We saw the flames and smoke.

  Gerald Earwood, pilot, Midwest Express, Flight 7: I was flying Milwaukee to New York LaGuardia. We started down to 18,000 feet and saw the smoke coming off the first tower that had been hit. We thought it was an air-conditioning unit that was on fire.

  As the two Midwest flights approached New York—just two among dozens of planes then inbound to the region’s three busy airports, each of which in 2001 served about 1,000 flights a day—they found themselves in the midst of the still-unfolding attacks, as United Flight 175 turned off its transponder and made a left turn toward Manhattan.

  Gerald Earwood: I was ordered to take evasive action to avoid colliding with United 175. I witnessed the disaster straight-on. We were descending to 4,000 feet on arrival for LaGuardia. The smoke from the first World Trade Center tower was obscuring LaGuardia Airport. I asked the controller, “We cannot see the airport?” Three times I called them. There was no chatter, no talk, no anything. Then he came back screaming at us, “Midex 7, are you with me?” I said, “Roger, we are descending down to 4,000 feet.” He ordered a hard left turn and started screaming, “Turn left, immediately—now, now, immediately!” I have never had a controller scream like that, be that excited.

  Col. Bob Marr, commander, NEADS, Rome, New York: As we’re watching the television, we see another aircraft come into view and hit the second tower of the World Trade Center.

  Frank Loprano, chief of aeronautical operations, Newark Airport, Port Authority: I had picked up binoculars and was looking at the Trade Center. I just put the binoculars down on the desk, and the second building erupted in flames. I picked up the direct line to the control tower and said, “Newark is closed. We’re launching bombs.”

  Ben Sliney, national operations manager, FAA Command Center, Herndon, Virginia: We were discussing shutting down all the traffic on the East Coast to deal with New York’s problem. We were shutting all that traffic down when, right before our eyes, United 175 came onto the television screen.

  Gerald Earwood: As we are coming out of the right turn, we heard an aircraft announce on the frequency, “We saw an airplane hit the World Trade Center.” I looked up and saw the impact of United 175.

  Lt. Col. Kevin Nasypany, mission crew commander, NEADS, Rome, New York: It was an “Oh, shit” mode. That’s the best way to describe it—disbelief. We’re under attack. We figured if there’s two, there might be more.

  Lt. Col. Tim Duffy, F-15 pilot, Otis Air Force Base, Cape Cod, Massachusetts: They say the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center—so confusion in my cockpit: The second aircraft?

  Ben Sliney: When United 175 struck the building, I told them to ground-stop every plane in the country, regardless. No one could take off.

  Within minutes, New York had closed its airports and begun redirecting inbound aircraft to other locations.

  Lt. Col. Tim Duffy: We were about 60 to 70 miles outside Manhattan, and I could see the Towers burning. Right then, I looked up and said, “Okay, obviously everything just changed.” From my personal mind-set we took off to go help somebody, then looked up to see it burning, and said, “Okay, now people are dying.” You switch into combat mind-set.

  Susan Baer, general manager, Newark International Airport: I called the manager of JFK and said, �
�Have you heard anything?” As I’m speaking to him, the second plane hit the South Tower, which we saw—the impact, the smoke. I said, “The Trade Center’s been hit again. I’m closing the airport. You should do the same.”

  Chuck Savall, pilot, Midwest Express Flight 73: At that point, we had to figure out our Plan B: How much fuel did we have and where could we go? Our initial thought was going to look at LaGuardia. Our dispatchers were watching this on CNN. They told us to get as far from the East Coast as we possibly could, so that is what we did. We headed for Cleveland.

  Lt. Col. Tim Duffy: They came back on and said, “NORAD took control of all the airspace in the country. Proceed directly to Manhattan and set up Combat Air Patrol.” I said, “OK, got that.” It was a very surreal experience—flying over Central Park at 1,000 feet and 500 knots, trying to identify possible targets. That was just wrong. You should never be doing this over Manhattan.

  At 9:24 a.m., the fighters at Langley Air Force Base were scrambled. Initially, not realizing the threat they were facing, the fighters were sent east toward the Atlantic Ocean, following standard policies intended to intercept incoming Russian bombers.

  Capt. Craig Borgstrom, F-16 pilot and squadron operations commander, Langley Air Force Base: Shortly after takeoff, they changed our heading more northwesterly toward D.C. and gave us “max-subsonic.” That’s as fast as you can go without breaking the sound barrier. I’ve never heard it before in my short career, but I don’t think anyone’s heard that order before.

  “Central, we’re under attack”

  * * *

  The Second Plane

  The Aon Corporation occupied floors 92, 93, and 98 to 105 of the South Tower. At 8:59 a.m., Sean Rooney, the vice president of Aon’s risk management services, located on the 98th floor, called his wife, Beverly Eckert, and left a voicemail message.

  Sean Rooney, vice president, Aon Corporation, South Tower, 98th floor: Hey, Beverly, this is Sean, in case you get this message. There has been an explosion in World Trade One, that’s the other building. It looks like a plane struck it. It’s on fire at about the 90th floor. And it’s, it’s—it’s horrible. Bye.

  Sean called back at 9:01 a.m. and again got Beverly’s voice mail. The recording captured an announcement in the background; it was the Port Authority reassuring occupants of the South Tower that they were not in danger.

  Sean Rooney: Hi honey, this is Sean again.

  Port Authority announcement: May I have your attention, please.

  Sean Rooney: Looks like we’ll be—

  Port Authority announcement: Repeating this message:

  Sean Rooney: —in this tower for a while. Um, it’s—

  Port Authority announcement: The situation occurred in Building One, if the—

  Sean Rooney: It’s secure here.

  Port Authority announcement: —conditions warrant on your floor you may wish to start an orderly evacuation.

  Sean Rooney: I’ll talk to you later, bye.

  Two minutes after the Port Authority’s announcement, television viewers across the country who had tuned in to see the dramatic live footage of the crash at the North Tower watched as United Airlines Flight 175 appeared on their screens. The attacks interrupted the final minutes of morning news shows, broadcasting the horror in New York City into the homes of millions of people sitting down to breakfast, racing to get kids to school, or readying themselves for a September Tuesday at work.

  Jane Clayson, anchor, The Early Show, CBS: It was a fairly light news day. We were finishing a segment with the woman who runs Gourmet magazine. We were about to close the show.

  Katie Couric, anchor, The Today Show, NBC: I was in the back room, where you could go between segments to work on what’s next, take a break, or drink a cup of coffee. Matt Lauer was doing an interview with somebody who had written a book about Howard Hughes. I looked up at the monitor, and I saw the World Trade Center was on fire. I thought, Oh wow. I looked at the time and was like, Thank God it’s before nine o’clock when most people get to work. Right away, Matt cut that interview short, and I scurried back in next to him and started to try to decipher what had happened.

  Deena Burnett, at home in San Ramon, California, wife of United Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett: I was awakened by the three children running into my room, normal for most mornings. They came in a little before 6:00 a.m., and I immediately got up and out of bed. Anna Clare and our two five-year-old twins, Halley and Madison, told me what they wanted for breakfast. I turned on the television. I noticed that on every station there was a news report about the World Trade Center. I thought, My goodness, air traffic control must be terribly messed up.

  Jane Clayson: The first witnesses kept saying it was a commercial jet. My co-anchor Bryant Gumbel and I kept asking, “Are you sure?” I was thinking to myself, This must have been an accident. “You’re certain it wasn’t a small plane?” Witness after witness said, “I am positive it was a commercial jet.”

  Katie Couric: The first glimpse of it, I don’t think I appreciated how massive the fire was because it looked like it was coming out of the side of the building. Smoke was obscuring a lot of the gaping hole that was there. I remember my hand was shaking like a leaf. Al Roker was very helpful because he knew a lot about the structure of the building, because he had been in local news there when that first bomb went off in the basement in ’93.

  Deena Burnett: The phone rang, and it was my mom, who said, “Deena, have you seen the television? They’re saying this is an American Airlines flight that’s gone into the Towers. Tom’s in New York, isn’t he?” I said, “Don’t worry, Mom. He’d be flying United or Delta.” I reassured her: “Mom, don’t worry. Planes crash all the time and Tom’s never on them.”

  Katie Couric: We were talking, we were getting eyewitness accounts, and then of course the really chilling, and shocking, visual was when that second plane was flying toward the building. It felt like it was in suspended animation.

  Jane Clayson: We saw it live. As it rounded the corner, there were people in the studio pointing to monitors. You could see it coming. You could hear gasps throughout the studio. Then it exploded into that building. There was silence. We all looked at one another.

  Katie Couric: Matt said, “This is obviously something deliberate.” I remember thinking, Well, don’t say that yet. If you remember the Oklahoma City bombing, everybody assumed that was the work of Muslim extremists. I was very cautious about calling it that. I was sort of paralyzed, but I wanted to be careful about characterizing it a certain way, but Matt said right away, “This is a terrorist attack.”

  Peter Jennings, anchor, ABC News: I simply put my hands in the air and told everybody in the newsroom to stay quiet, because we didn’t know what was happening. Our suspicions were instant. Rather than risk saying something foolish, I let the audience absorb it.

  At 9:03 a.m., traveling at about 590 miles per hour, United Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower—Two World Trade Center—hitting at an angle, its lower left wing slicing into the 77th and 78th floors, which housed the Sky Lobby, used to transfer from express to local elevators, and its upper right wing hitting the 85th floor. Most of the impact zone, floors 78 to 83, was occupied by Fuji Bank, where employees had evacuated after the attack on the North Tower, only to return to their offices when told by the Port Authority that the incident was under control. Fuji Bank ultimately lost 23 employees and visitors in the attack.

  Only a single stairway in the South Tower, Stairwell A, survived the crash. Fewer than 20 people would escape from the impact zone or above.

  Stanley Praimnath, Fuji Bank, South Tower, 81st floor: I was watching toward the direction of the Statue of Liberty and something caught my eye—a plane, and this plane is getting closer.

  Steven Bienkowski, Aviation Unit, NYPD: Our helicopter was on the southwest side of the South Tower. I glanced over my shoulder, and there came a United Airlines aircraft right at us, a little bit underneath where we were—I do mean underneath us—it prob
ably missed us by about 300 feet.

  James Cowan, Harbor Unit, NYPD: The second plane came in so tight the NYPD helicopter pilot took evasive action and pulled up.

  Steven Bienkowski: It proceeded to fly right through the building, right in front of us. I must have gone numb. I don’t remember hearing an explosion, although it must have been extremely loud. It was all I could handle to watch that happen.

  Melinda Murphy, traffic reporter, WPIX TV, New York City: We had gone back to our newsroom for the postmortem of our show. We had video monitors up—the television was always on. I saw the buildings on fire. My photographer ran to the assignment desk and said, “You’ve got to launch the helicopter.” I got in a cab and called my husband. I said, “Listen, I’m going to be really late tonight.” Just as we pulled up to the 30th Street heliport, the second plane hit. It was this unbelievable scene. The fire was right outside our window. In my ear, they were like, “We have to go live, are we ready to go live?” I wasn’t even ready to say “Oh my God” out loud, much less talk about it on camera. But I did.

  Robert Small, office manager, Morgan Stanley, South Tower, 72nd floor: I called my wife. There was this sudden swoosh, bang, boom. It was the most violent ride I’d ever been on. The plane came in over us. We were on floor 72 and it hit floor 78. I was thrown onto my desk, and then thrown back about two or three times. Stuff came off the walls, shelves came down. I pick up the phone and my wife’s screaming, “What happened?” I said, “Something exploded.” She said, “Get out of there!” I said, “Okay. I’ll call you later.” There was no “I love you. If I don’t see you again—”

  Michael McAvoy, associate director, Bear Stearns: I was in my office in downtown Brooklyn, with a clear view of the World Trade Center. The smoke was thick and black. I walked back to my desk to call my buddy Jimmy, my best friend for over 30 years. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in Tower One on the 104th floor. No answer. Maybe, just maybe, he took the day off and went golfing. Man, I hope so. After the second plane hit, I ran back to my desk and called my mom. She told me that my brother John, a New York City fireman with Ladder 3 on 13th Street, had worked the night tour, so he was still in the firehouse when the planes hit. I called his firehouse. No answer.