Sept 11, 2001 in Adventures of New baby and family

I remember it like it was yesterday.... I was an airline worker. I worked for Midway Airlines. It had occurred to me when working ay the airlines of terrorists and such but that seemed so ‘80’s ish. That stuff hadn’t happened in years not to mention they equip planes with buttons to know that they have been hijacked. A few days prior or maybe even a week I sat out with one of my coworkers on the tarmac knowing something had to give. People were irate about going through security and simple stuff.

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. A little cooler and crisper around the 70’s even in Raleigh NC. The sky was blue looked to be a great easy day working at the airlines. I was a little over 4 months pregnant with my first child. It had been a rough last month as the airline I worked for went bankrupt about a month before. The hustle and bustle wasn’t as crazy and I was a bit thankful for that. I also liked working Tuesday as the planes were not full. It makes for an easy day.
There was a few shows i watched in the morning before I got ready for work but this being the beginning of the fall season on TV they changed it up on me and found myself jumping around. At around 8:45 I took my normal shower and got dressed in my airline uniform and came downstairs. it was about 9 am. Flipping through the stations most of the channels were broadcasting that a plane crashed into the WTC. They kind of kept going back to that it has happened before and although it was a kind of a big deal its nothing NYC hasn’t dealt with. An airplane has run into the tower......sigh. there goes a quiet day working at the airlines. NYC airports are notoriously bad to go in and out of and this can make it a big deal. They weren’t even saying it was a commercial flight at this point. And as if I was watching a movie, my eyes felt like they were playing tricks on me I watched like the rest of the world the 2nd plane hit the tower. Again I switched the stations to ground myself and all of them were showing it. My brain couldn’t comprehend that it was more that another bizarre accident and didn’t till Pres, Bush got on and said it was an act of terrorism. Then there was more reports of them both being commercial planes. I paced the floor..... heavily after that. My mind was going a mile a minute.... What do I do??? Do I go in? Do I call in sick? What will I see when I get there. Deep breath… They are using planes to crash in to building.... They are using planes to crash into buildings… airport, planes....they aren’t doing anything at the airports. I can do this....if its bad I”m leaving. I did leave early, much earlier than I usually do. I guess I wanted to see what I was getting myself into when I went. I got in the car. Every radio station was covering now what was going on and it didn’t take me long to realize the Pentagon was hit too. OMFG!!! People were jumping from the WTC and the Pentagon was hit. I drove to the airport listening to this.

I parked and had to take a shuttle to the airport....The shuttle was as empty as they come. There was the driver a coworker and me. Me and My coworker looked at each other as we listened to the chaos that was going on. During our trip to the airport they ordered all airplanes out of the sky immediately. We both looked at each other again. What do we do?? I don’t know but we are going to find out, I said , as we got off the bus. People were lined up trying to get the heck out of the airport. Tons and tons of them… Police were all over the place not letting any cars near the front entrance. Only the bus was allowed at this point. We made our way up to the terminal through security. Most of the time I cut through as I didn’t have to go through security. I needed to see what the airport looked like. I wish I had grabbed my camera. Security was a ghost town.. Nobody going through it. I met up with my supervisor Jessica whom had forgotten out of all the days…her ID badge. Meaning there were places she had to go but couldn’t especially on this day.Well I now know what red means. We don’t fly. She said. What do we do ? We knew they ordered all the planes out of the sky. Well she said ours didn’t take off or if they did they got as far as Greensboro and they were busing people back we are okay but check with the other airlines. So we did. The TVs that were usually playing in each of the waiting area were all shut off. It was a mental note I made having heard if there was a plane crash the airport would shut the TV’s off. Now I don’t think they have TV’s as everybody has phones and tablets to watch stuff on. A 757 American Airlines plane was deplaning and decided to help out. The plane was coming from Tampa and was suppose to go to NYC. One of the passengers came off screaming obviously having heard what happened. Its one of your God Damn planes that did this. I was taken aback. I didn’t work for American and I understood his frustration but at the same time was mad that he would even say that knowing what was going on in NYC. sigh.. and that’s why New Yorkers get a bad wrap. I don’t remember what I said to calm it but know it was okay and didn’t provoke another insult. Looking out the window at the tarmac the planes were lined up back to back to back like rush hour traffic. I still don’t know where they put them all. Tons of planes that never would land here. I remember climbing on board that 757 to check to make sure there were no more passengers knowing it WAS a plane that was like this that ran into the WTC.

Since most people were deplaning or deplaned we went down to the chaotic baggage area and passed out fliers for hotels that were giving discounts. Thankfully they were trying to help the passengers out and not screw them. Not that it mattered much to the stranded passengers that had not intended of spending a night in NC. There was also cargo that had to be dealt with. Animals aboard planes that didn’t have travelers with them like monkeys and other critters. I am not sure what they did with some of those but I know some people did take them home to care for them… no choice. After that I found myself back in the now empty shut down in the middle of the day airport. The gate was down for security. Again don’t need to pass security to get to the terminal. Someone told me the tower collapsed. I never thought it would have been like that were it looked like an implosion. I saw it on the only TV that was still on in the terminal and that was at the bar. After that we headed down to the break room and watched more of it on TV and watched the 2nd tower collapse. it came across on TV that only essential personnel were to be at the RDU airport. Here we were.... They had bomb sniffing dogs and ramp agents search the planes to make sure they were safe…

I know I was home by noon… I just watched the coverage all day as there was nothing more for me to do. Not knowing when I would be going back to work or at all.
2 days later I find out on the radio I don’t have a job as they went totally under from not being able to operate.