by Rick » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:00 pm
That was a very sad day. I was at work and walked into the break room and saw one of the towers with smoke coming out of it on tv. I went into the coordinators office and asked what was going on, and he said the reports were that evidently a small general aviation aircraft had hit one of the towers.
He sent me out on an assignment and when I reached the gate I was supposed to work, they said another plane had hit the other tower. I thought the guy was joking, so I walked into the gatehouse and sure enough.... I remember the cold chill that went down my spine.
Then reports of hijacked planes came across the wire and that made the chill even worse. Then it was reported that there were two AA planes and two UA planes hijacked. I work for AA, so it really hit home then.
I called my mom and asked if she was watching tv and she said no, so I said with tears in my eyes that she might want to turn it on.
It was just the most awful thing I had ever witnessed.
Then the buildings collapsed one at a time, and all we could do is hope everyone got out.
The government then declared a nationwide ground stop on aviation, so we really had to go to work unloading more planes than DFW could handle. Then we had to go upstairs and take peoples bags off of the carousels because they couldn't handle so many. I remember a lady asking me how she could find her bag, and I asked if she was a connecting passenger and she said she was. I said well there is no way to tell whether or not your bags have been transferred yet or not, so they could either be here in this area, or at the baggage claim where your inbound flight came in. And she said "I just can't believe American Airlines is doing this to me!!". I so wanted to give that woman a piece of my mind, but I just calmly said, "Well good luck finding your bag ma'am.".
It started out as a really good morning, but after the attack, the airport was in a total frenzy. I worked my butt off for the rest of that day, but was glad to do so. I felt so bad about what was going on that keeping busy and helping stranded passengers made it almost bearable.
We lost 23 of the AA family that day, but I can't even imagine how it must have been for those who lost their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and other relatives. And the New Yorkers that lost such a great part of their city, and the difficulties they went through, the uncertainty in their lives. Being scared that they are living in a terrorist targeted city. They had been through it before, but nothing of that magnitude.
God Bless America and all the people that suffered from that horrible day.