Touching History

[Everskyward]

I searched to see if anyone had mentioned Touching History by Lynn Spencer before but I didn't find anything.

The book is about clearing the skies on 9/11 told from the perspective of civilian and military pilots who were flying that day, air traffic controllers, and military managers. I had no idea about the level of confusion that was going on although I had never really thought about it, and in retrospect it is understandable.

I wasn't sure that this was something that I wanted to read but I was curious and and it ended up being a real page-turner. The author's writing style is very straightforward and and not over-the-top emotional which would be an easy trap to fall into with the subject matter. One stylistic thing I had to get used to is that it is written in the present tense so the feeing is that it is not a book about history but is happening in real time. Since she is writing to a general audience and not specifically to pilots or people in the military there are some explanations that seem a bit awkward, but I guess they are necessary.

 

[Teller1900]

I don't do much reading (ever), but that is one book I absolutely couldn't put down. My parents are borrowing it, but I'm happy to loan it out once/if I get it back. It's an absolutely fantastic read!

 

[Matthew]

I searched to see if anyone had mentioned Touching History by Lynn Spencer before but I didn't find anything.

The book is about clearing the skies on 9/11 told from the perspective of civilian and military pilots who were flying that day, air traffic controllers, and military managers. I had no idea about the level of confusion that was going on although I had never really thought about it, and in retrospect it is understandable.

I wasn't sure that this was something that I wanted to read but I was curious and and it ended up being a real page-turner. The author's writing style is very straightforward and and not over-the-top emotional which would be an easy trap to fall into with the subject matter. One stylistic thing I had to get used to is that it is written in the present tense so the feeing is that it is not a book about history but is happening in real time. Since she is writing to a general audience and not specifically to pilots or people in the military there are some explanations that seem a bit awkward, but I guess they are necessary.

Thanks for the find - I went to the library yesterday and checked it out. I'm about a third of the way through it. I see what you mean about the writing style - it reminds me of the way "Blackhawk Down" was written. It jumps around a bit because there was so much going on all at once. It's tough to write in a linear form when there are dozens of lines that need to be followed, but it's working for me.

 

[Everskyward]

Thanks for the find - I went to the library yesterday and checked it out. I'm about a third of the way through it. I see what you mean about the writing style - it reminds me of the way "Blackhawk Down" was written. It jumps around a bit because there was so much going on all at once. It's tough to write in a linear form when there are dozens of lines that need to be followed, but it's working for me.

Glad you are enjoying it. I never read "Blackhawk Down". I had a harder time following the military line of the story since I don't have much of a clue how they are organized or what the chain of command should be, but I think Ii managed to understand most of it.

 

[Matthew]

Glad you are enjoying it. I never read "Blackhawk Down". I had a harder time following the military line of the story since I don't have much of a clue how they are organized or what the chain of command should be, but I think Ii managed to understand most of it.

Finished it last night - it's a different perspective on what happened, one I hadn't heard before. Yeah, the military aspect was pretty tough to follow - the National Guard units mixing with the Air Force, and all the different levels of command. Also, a non-pilot reader would get lost quickly trying to keep track of the different ATC levels that were involved, too.

Several times I looked at the timestamps in each section heading - I am pretty impressed at how quickly an entire air defense net was put together to handle a chaotic situation. A whole lot of personal initiative was involved.

 

[Everskyward]

Several times I looked at the timestamps in each section heading

I did too but mainly because I have a personal interest in that I was flying on 9/11 during when all of this was going on. I always wondered how we fit into the picture. I even got out the old trip sheet to see what times we took off and landed. Wow, that seems like a long time ago.

 

[Matthew]

I did too but mainly because I have a personal interest in that I was flying on 9/11 during when all of this was going on. I always wondered how we fit into the picture. I even got out the old trip sheet to see what times we took off and landed. Wow, that seems like a long time ago.

I live pretty much next to KC Center, and have known a couple of controllers that were on duty that day. They all have stories. And yes, it does seem like a long time ago.

 

[SCCutler]

I did too but mainly because I have a personal interest in that I was flying on 9/11 during when all of this was going on. I always wondered how we fit into the picture. I even got out the old trip sheet to see what times we took off and landed. Wow, that seems like a long time ago.

Mari:

Might you consider telling us your story - what you first heard, how it unfolded, what you did to cope?

 

[Everskyward]

Might you consider telling us your story - what you first heard, how it unfolded, what you did to cope?

I think I've told parts of it at one time or another but...

It started with a phone call at about 0430 telling me that one of the pilots had called in sick and they needed me to do a trip for them. The trip was supposed to be KAPA (Denver, Centennial) to KSUN (Sun Valley, ID) empty, to somewhere I can't remember for fuel, to KAPF (Naples, FL) and back. The Captain called and told me to bring street clothes because he wanted to go out to eat in Naples and the leg home would be empty. It ended up being a good thing that I did.

We took off at 0645 local which would have been 0845 eastern which is about the time the first tower was hit. When we were about 30 minutes out of KSUN Salt Lake Center asked if we had an outbound flight plan out of Sun Valley. I'm pretty sure they already knew we did. Then they told us that once we landed at Sun Valley we would not be able to take off again because there was a ground stop in the entire country. I said, "May I ask why?" And they answered, "Terrorism on the east coast." The Captain and I looked at each other and he said, "This is big." I shrugged and said, "I don't know." My theory was along the lines of someone hacking into the ATC computer system or something like that. I can't recall that there was any other airplane on the frequency but it was pretty early in the morning out there and not in a very busy area.

When we were about 15 minutes out I made the usual call to the FBO telling them we were inbound and that we would need to be topped and that we had catering. They said, "You know you're not going anywhere." I was thinking that was an abrupt answer but I told them we wanted to be ready when the ground stop was lifted. After we landed I asked tower if they could keep our outbound IFR flight plan in the system but they were pretty evasive and I think they ended up telling us to contact FSS for that. By that time I was irritated that people were being so unhelpful.

After we taxied up to park a bunch of line guys came out and surrounded the airplane saying that airplanes had run into the World Trade Center and one of the buildings had collapsed. When we went into the FBO, which at that time was a pretty small building, there were a crowd of people around this tiny TV. My first thought that I remember was, "We were just there last week." Ironically that had been my first trip back to the NY/NJ area in about 20 years after growing up there and watching the towers being built.

Anyway, we were stuck there for 3 days and 2 nights. The evening of the third day they opened the airport to 121 and 135 traffic so we took off a few days late for Florida. Besides it being a very long night, I remember that most of the traffic we were hearing (which wasn't much) were freighters. I don't think the airlines had gotten organized enough yet to start flying again.

In the days afterwards we were very busy and everything was confused. Each airport seemed to have their own different security procedure, none of which made too much sense. At first it was hard to believe that things would be normal again, but we all adapted and got used to the new normal. I still work for the same company that I was working for on 9/11 and I can look back and see how some things are done quite a bit differently now. Like I mentioned in the earlier post, it seems like a long time ago.

So my story isn't nearly as dramatic as the stories in Touching History, but whenever they show the "clearing the skies" video where you see all the airplane blips landing, I look for our blip in southern Idaho. I can't say that I've spotted it exactly yet.

 

[Matthew]

Thanks for the story.

One of the center controllers I talked to told me his story about trying to get a 172 to land. The 172 pilot kept passing up airports because he wanted to get home - can't really blame guy. The controller kept trying to land him, but finally gave up. That probably happened a lot that day.

One of my neighbors, two houses down, was in NJ, right across from Manhattan, for a meeting when everybody's cell phones started ringing. His call was from his wife asking if he was OK. He didn't understand what she was talking about. Then he stepped away from the conference table to take the call and looked out the window and saw the towers. Took him 4 days to get back via rental car.

I remember seeing the F16s flying circles overhead for a couple of days. Then I started seeing B2s on their way to Gaum.

Time sure goes fast, doesn't it?