I was a flight attendant in 2001, working red eye flights to New York. It was the only line that I could hold but at least it was a line and not on reserve. After awhile, I really enjoyed the red eye flights. Don't ask why, I just did.
My best friend was pregnant in September, 2001 and it was the second weekend that we celebrated with her baby shower. There were fun games, lots of laughs and awesome food. She didn't know what she was having but I had a feeling that she was going to have a boy.
Two days later I was still in L.A., waking up to the news that a 757 had just hit the World Trade Center. I was stunned. The airline that I flew for only flew 757's and my crew was flying that day. The only reason why I wasn't flying was because I had dropped the trip to go to the baby shower.
I watched the news, crying. I called our crew scheduling and the line was busy. All I could think was that it was my crew. I would have been on that plane if I hadn't gone to the baby shower. When I finally calmed down, I looked at the time. My crew should have been in the air at least an hour before any of the events took place. All I could hope for... their safety.
I sat and watched T.V. the entire day ~ just in a daze. I was just in the World Trade Center the week before. Crazy.
I finally got word at the end of the evening that my crew was okay. They had to land in Chicago. The captain landed at a small airport that he knew and they were in and out of security pretty fast, compared to those that landed in O'Hare.
The crew had to dump all of the food and dress in their regular clothes. They had to dispose of their uniforms. Police officers came on to the airplane and inspected it before ANYONE could get off. I guess that it was a pretty scary situation.
My boyfriend at the time (Brett), was in L.A. at the same time for the baby shower. He was supposed to get back to El Paso but after 9/11, there weren't any flights. Crazy company that he worked for at the time, called it vacation time. Even though there weren't any airplanes allowed to take off. There wasn't any way for him to get from L.A. to El Paso ~ even by bus. They were sold out.
Oh well. Vacation time.
We took Brett's parents boat out and there was security everywhere in the harbor. It was a beautiful day but we were totally being watch. Not really relaxing, if you ask me.
When we could finally get back to our bases, I was on the very first crew to go back out to New York. Oh, it was the very first time that I looked at each and every passenger. We didn't have a very full flight but I memorized everyone. They all watched the safety briefing. That was a bit weird in itself as just a week prior, I had a man shake his newspaper at me while doing the safety briefing ~ like I was disturbing him.
All of the passengers were very quiet but very nice ~ unusual for New York travelers. I grew a backbone doing New York flights. This flight, however, was quiet different. It was erie. All of the passengers listened to our instructions and nobody argued. When we finally arrived in Newark, at about 6am, the passengers even thanked us for getting them their safely.
We got the plane ready to go back to Las Vegas and we got off of the airplane and into the van to take us over to New York. As we came out of the Lincoln Tunnel, the city was still on fire. You could see smoke everywhere. You could smell the burning city. There was still soot falling from the sky.
We finally got to our hotel and we took a short nap. Then we took a walk over to the World Trade Center. The city totally had a different feeling. Everyone's head was down and lots and lots of tears. We finally arrive at the towers, or what was left of them, and there aren't any words to describe what we saw. It was so tragic. It was so devastating. You just sat there with your mouth wide open.
I will never forget the one lady with tears in her eyes asking for the police officer to find her son. Or, the group, just standing in silence, praying.
As we walked back to our hotel, there was silence. There wasn't anything that anyone could say. It just took our breath away. It was one thing to see it on T.V. It was another to actually see it with your own eyes.
As the 10 year anniversary is tomorrow, I went looking for the pictures that I had taken that day. I did clean out a closet of ours that needed to be cleaned out but I didn't find the pictures. I know that I have them somewhere and they are put away in a safe place. I just need to find that safe place. Or maybe, I put them away somewhere where I would "forget" on purpose. It was such an emotional journey, that trip, that I still get goose bumps just thinking about it.
I think of myself as very lucky to have seen the city just a few days after that tragic event. But, each year, I also wonder if that lady ever found her son or if those that were praying... did they find their missing family members?
I know that September 11, 2001 will be a tragedy that my daughter will read about, just as I read about Pearl Harbor in school. But, I will have the pictures to show Katherine and the stories to share with her one day, that hopefully she will understand it a bit more than I ever did with Pearl Harbor.
**Hugs**
Indeed it is our generations Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeleteI too spent hours glued to the TV because my parents were in the air at that time on a flight bound for D.C.
I lived on Guam at the time so for us it was like 11pm at night when the first plane hit. I remember coming home from drinking, turning on the tv and going into bathroom and then the kitchen, and just starting to clue into the reports of planes crashing, and as I was making my midnight snack thinking, "what a screwed up movie". What I didnt realize is that I had left the tv on CNN and not some SciFy or some such. I didnt sleep that night as I sweated my parents status. They were fine, just stranded on the taxiway at LAX, their flight was minutes from taking off when the no fly anywhere order went up. But those hours of not knowing where all the planes originated from and knowing that my parents were supposed to be flying sometime that morning aged me so.