Originally Posted by
FlyingBear
To AD, that's a great story, but like lucky definitely sends chills down your spine. I am curious though, how much did you guys know in the cockpit about what was going on. I'm guessing you knew that planes had been hijacked and used as weapons, but did you know what had been hit, etc.. This is all assuming that you don't mind answering; if you do, don't worry about this post.
We were getting some ACARS messages that a plane had flown into the WTC. We were thinking it was a small plane or something, but then I pulled up the weather and saw it was a crystal clear day. I started to feel something bad stirring. We ended up getting lots of traffic from the company quickly and started working a divert plan. As we were working this out we got a message of another jet crashing, multiple hijackings taking place and to defend the cockpit. That was when everything happened very quickly. I can't go into where we went, but it happened VERY FAST!
Originally Posted by
youreadyfreddie
AD:
Wow! Thanks for your point of view about that day. I'm wondering if you might care to elaborate on this:
bolding mine
Were the people in the town paying your bar and restaurant tabs or were they inviting folks into their homes for meals, etc? I had heard of this (being invited to private homes) happening with the folks who were diverted to Newfoundland for a few days. My dad always says "most people are pretty nice". That terrible day brought out the best in many people.
Cheers,
yrf
Yes, the town we were in opened up everything for us. The hotels helped us get rooms, but local folks were offering their homes to stranded passengers. Like I said, it was sureal, but one of my best memories was how everyone just really pulled together as Americans.