9/11 Travel Memories?

[prescottbob]

Ahoy!

Since we have two active TSA threads going on I thought I'd start one that, although a bit premature, deals with the occurances on 9/11 and the coming anniversary next month. I direct this totally toward traveling on that day and not personnal non-travel, extensive antedotes. Needless to say the 'world' was shocked and most of 'us' were 'glued' to the tube that day with 'our' emotions were certainly at a level beyond 'civilized' description.

However, my basic questions include:

1. We're you, a member of your family or friends flying, cruising or traveling by rail that day?

2. How did you/they find out about the events that occured while, say, flying in the air, or cruising on the sea, etc?

3. What problems occurred when the planes became grounded, and transfer to other modes of transportation were non-existant for you or others you know that were traveling that day ?

4. Did the cruise ship captain / on-board chaplin make any sort of announcement(s) that day? Were you / they diverted from ports?

5. What sort of security enhancements did you / they notice that day and within the weeks to come following the tragedy?

 

Perhaps I'll think of more questions as time goes on. Feel free to 'chime in'.

 

In any event, a safe trip for one and all.

Bon Voyage and Good Health!

Bob:)

[hammybee]

I was there. I made it home. Now I am here. And that's all I have to say.

[tomc]

I found out on the Internet after hearing a pax say something. The captain made an announcement; the chaplain led a service. I later learned I lost someone.

[innlady1]

I was here at our inn and our then 18 month old granddaughter had just come to visit for the week...by herself. Her mother called from work to tell me that a woman she worked with had just arrived at work after putting her husband on the AA flight out of Boston.

 

The events came on the TV as our guests were eating breakfast. One family got up and left the inn...and the island...without a word. The young woman told another guest that she managed the Starbuck's in the WTC. Another guest cancelled a reservation for the next weekend because her boyfriend had died in the WTC.

 

Just last week, we had a guest who told me that two of the children of one of the pilots were in her classroom in NH that day.

 

Living in New England, it hit very close to home.

[sungoddess]

I was on the Statendam in Ketchikan. The ship was locked down for crew members, meaningwe couldn't go ashore for a week. We were doing a northbound cruise, so when we got to Seward none of the passengers could fly home, so most of them stayed onboard and sailed back down to Vancouver.

 

It was a very somber time onboard.

[gg3]

I was home watching "Good Morning America" as the tragic events unfolded, but two members of my family were traveling. Brother was in Vegas. He had flown in from Houston to attend a company convention and was to fly out 9/11. As he and friends were driving their rent car to the Vegas airport to return the car, they heard the news and also heard all flights were grounded. They just kept driving that rent car...........all the way home to Houston. Uncle was also at Vegas .......gambling, but was at the airport about to fly home to S. Calif when all planes were grounded. His neice drove from L.A. to get him, since he was 75 years old and so shook up by the disaster.

[bepsf]

My boss was returning from a trip to Ireland that she had organized for her husband and herself along with her Son, her Daughter and Son-in-Law and her grandchildren who were on different airliners.

 

She was re-routed to Edmonton, Canada and had to wait it out there, but in relative luxury as she was able to get a hotelroom for herself and her husband. Her children and grandchildren were not as fortunate as they were landed in Newfoundland and were among the thousands trapped there aboard useless airliners and shepherded to local churches and gymnasiums. My boss was unable to contact her children for days until the Red Cross could find them and get word to her where they were and that they were safe. Meanwhile, she also learned that her nephew was one of the NYFD lost in the towers...

 

...meanwhile, the head of our department was stuck in Southampton for nearly a week after her Northern Europe/Baltics cruise aboard a Rennaissance ship.

 

As for myself, I was glued to the TV/frantically trying to call my mother as she was working for the government outside DC/watching from my livingroom the SF skyline wondering which building would be hit next.

 

 

As I walked home from a dinner out that evening (I had to get out of the apartment) I looked up and realized that there were no airplanes circling the city making approach to SFO - no traffic helicopters, no contrails, nothing - just how utterly peaceful & beautiful the skies were above my City and how I'd likely never again in my lifetime see such a sight.

[Sunshine91]

I was working in a busy doctor's office. We wound up closing before noon, calling as many patients as we could, so that employee's could be with family, get their kids from school, etc. The husband of my immediate co-worker is the one who called to tell us what happened- he was in Omaha or OK City - he wound up renting a car & driving home to MD.

My cousin & his girlfriend, now fiancee, had just recently moved to NYC. She had been awarded a trip to Hawaii from her bank, & they were on a cross-country flight that day. But because she had started at a Philly branch, that's where their flight originated from. They were grounded in Little Rock. On the bus to Dallas they met an official from.................. the airline or a hotel or someplace very helpful. They were very fortunate not to have to stay in a shelter for the week. Once planes were flying again, they went on to Hawaii.

At the time John & I lived in Maryland, directly in the flight path of BWI. The silence was astounding. :o

We had our 10th anniversary cruise on Veendam booked for that November. Not once did we consider cancelling simply because we had to fly to Ft. Lauderdale. We weren't going to let the terrorists prevent us from flying. As soon as we arrived on Veendam, a plane leaving JFK? crashed into Jamaica, Queens. That was a terrible tragedy as well.

[onthegogirl]

DH and I were on the Whitestone Bridge, on our way to JFK to fly out for our Tahiti cruise, when we saw the smoke. Turned on the radio and heard what was happening pulled over to the side of the road and watched the first tower collapse.

 

By the time we turned around, all bridges from Long Island were closed and all roads toward the city were reserved for emergency vehicles.

 

We headed east on Long Island and tried to return to CT by ferry but they too were reserved for emergency personnel. Was finally able to find a room and made it home on the twelth.

 

The following year we flew to Hawaii on 9/11. Guess I'm stubborn.

[missygirl]

We were at a hospital awaiting the birth of my first grandchild who indeed shares the 9/11 birthdate. The doctor who was to arrive at 9 am to induce labor didn't come to to around 1 pm due to his son living several blocks from the WTC. He apologized because he and his wife were trying to get in touch with their son and had taken a while because of the phone service. Luckly their son was found safe and unharmed and my grandchild was born later that evening, a beautiful, healthy boy.

 

One thing that I did was to keep several magazines (Time, People) to show him when he is old enough to understand what happened on the day of his birth.

 

Missygirl

[Scrumpy]

I was not glued to the TV. We'd lived in Colorado Springs less than a month. I didn't even have the satellite hooked up, so I had no TV to watch. I'd been up all night; now, I don't remember why I hadn't slept. It was pure chance that I happened to have a radio on or I wouldn't have known anything was happening. DH was working in Austin, TX. I was alone in a new place and it was frightening. I didn't know when the attacks would stop and didn't know right away that they'd halt all air traffic. DH should have been coming home later that day and I had an irrational fear that he might be in some kind of danger. I don't remember when I learned all the flights were grounded, but it wasn't for at least several hours. Or maybe it took that long to sink in. Someone in DH's office had heard about the first crash into the tower on the news, but I told him they needed to stop and listen for updates because things were even worse than the initial reports.

 

I took my cell phone, drove up to Starbucks and encountered some of our local military. Some must have been called in early; still half-asleep and in shock. They looked very, very grim. I was reminded that I'd just moved to a military town and that some of those people had already realized they would likely be called for some kind of mission when those responsible were identified. I'd already called DH, but it was only the first of many calls. I sat in the parking lot and phoned all our friends and loved ones. I had to know if everyone was safe. For hours, a friend who was in NYC could not be located. His family was frantic. The phone lines were all jammed. I imagine a lot of people were like me. We wanted to make sure everyone we knew was accounted for, so communication problems were the result. Our friend turned out to be all right. He was supposed to fly out later that morning, but went to NJ for a few days until the flights resumed and things were sorted out. Other friends and family with an NYC connection were okay. That was my immediate concern because some frequented the WTC. The people the most shook up were probably my grandparents; I visited them shortly afterwards and they were still not themselves.

 

DH was stuck in Austin over that weekend. There was no easy way for him to get home to Colorado. It was too far for driving to be practical. He stayed put until the next weekend. That missed weekend with him seemed like the longest weekend I'd ever experienced. I had a flight planned for a week or two later and took off as scheduled. No way I was going to let anyone intimidate me when I needed to fly. It was on that visit with my grandparents that I first saw any of the video footage. I was glad I didn't see it when it first happened.

 

Our airport immediately had armed military personnel on-site. They also did random in and/or under-car inspections. They started strenuously enforcing the "pick-up only/ no waiting" policy and they barricaded the front of the parking lot. For months, there was a whole section of parking no one was allowed to use. It also seemed like the fighter jets were out a lot more often and I figured they'd increased the training exercises. At the Knoxville airport (where I went), they were using mirrors to look under ALL the cars and also having people open their trunks.

 

We were not travelling at the exact time, but he was only hours away. It hit pretty close to home because of the amount of time he spends in the air, along with other loved ones who also travel a great deal. Our new home was in the flight path of the airport. The first few weeks, I'd taken him to the airport, gone home, then watched the planes go overhead until I was sure he was on his way. I could pick out his plane. It was a long, long time before I was comfortable watching those planes again. I was afraid I'd see his plane crash right in front of me one day. I started to see and hear a lot more of the huge military planes going over; they share the runways with the airport. It seemed like within a week or two the military air traffic of all kinds was significantly greater. We started having more frequent (but brief) departure and arrival delays for a while since the military aircraft were more active.

[OleSalt]

We were booked to fly to Alaska and board a Princess ship for a southbound cruise to Vancouver.

 

When the flights were all grounded, I called Princess to advise them of my problem. Her reply was, "The ship will leave Friday whether you are on it or not."

 

Have boycotted Princess since than.....

[sungoddess]

Ole Salt,

 

It sounds like the Princess rep may have been rude to you, but what did you expect them to do for you? They didn't have any control over the flight situation.

[jtl513]

My daughter had just passed through the Pentagon Metro station on her way to work in D.C. about 10 minutes before the plane struck there. Then in July '05 she and my other daughter had just left downtown London and were on their way to Heathrow airport about 10 minutes before the bus bombings. I don't want to travel 10 minutes behind her anywhere! :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Like gg3 - we were home watching everything on Good Morning America.

 

It was very strange not to hear any planes going over our house for days.

 

We did learn within hours that Flight 93 went over our house before it went down. We live about an hour from the crash sight in Somerset County.

[froggykat]

My daughter lived in Battery Park City (2 blocks from the Towers) and took the subway under the Towers every morning to work in the Bronx. Thank God, she likes to go in early. We heard it on the radio and watched the Towers fall from our office building in New Jersey. One momemt they were there and the next they were gone. The longest hour of my life was trying to find her. This was before everyone had cell phones. She was an Assistand DA and we couldn't reach her by phone. She was finally able to call us. She couldn't get back in her apartment until Thanksgiving. We later learned we lost friends on the 105th floor.

 

In December my husband and I took a cruise from Ft Lauderdale for our anniversary. Security was still extreemly tight at airports and at the docks. National Guardsmen were patrolling with docks with M-16s. My husband was in the military and we were told not to bring our military ID.

 

We continue to travel and refuse to let someone else rule our lives. My duaghter lived in NYC until she got married in 2004 and only moved to NJ because her husband wanted a house. She still works in NYC as and Asst US Attorney and tells me every day how safe it is.

[Copper10-8]

My sister was in the air on a AA flight from Long Beach to DFW that morning. That flight made it in to Dallas since that was the closest facility when the FAA started clearing the airspace.

I watched the tragedy unfold on CNN and then rushed in to work. As soon as I got there we started making contingency response plans for the possibility of a pottential terrorist attack on Los Angeles targets. We held briefings and placed all our personnel on notice re: the possibility of going to twelve-hour on - twelve-hour off shifts. Our Emergency Operations Center was opened and staffed, logistics put in to place and we started monitoring intel.

We were one of the first ones on a plane after commercial flights were given the go ahead to resume by the FAA on September 13. We were on AA flights from LAX-JFK and JFK-LHR. I remember the captain standing first at the boarding gate door and then at the entrance to his aircraft giving everybody that boarded a critical once over. I remember him coming over the PA system before leaving the gate giving us all instructions and suggestions on how to respond to a potentail highjack. Anything from outnumbering the hickjacker(s), to using seat cushions and meal service carts for protection, and using fire extinguishers, throwing hot coffee and/or soda cans at highjacker(s). A lot of folks were stressed on those flights.

[Robin7]

Other than the horror over what happened, our lives were not directly affected by the terrorist attacks until two days after they happened.

 

One of our family's hobbies is high-powered model rocketry. (Engines range from teeny-tiny AAA to the Y engine that boosts the space shuttle. We are licensed to shoot up to an H engine.) We try to attend a regional rocket shoot called "Hellfire" every year, where we have seen engines on rockets as large as an N, which had to be hauled out to the launch range by pickup truck. It is held out on the Salt Flats west of the Great Salt Lake. (That's where they filmed the 'heaven' sequence with Johnny Depp in the latest 'Pirates' movie.)

 

In 2001, it was scheduled just a couple of days after September 11th. (As if anyone felt like going anyway.) NORAD shut the shoot down completely. We always have to notify the FAA and get a waiver when we shoot rockets, but that year, NORAD told us we weren't even allowed to shoot the 'baby' rockets, let alone the big stuff. We were disappointed but completely understood.

 

Since we (nor anyone we knew) weren't traveling that day and we didn't know anyone in New York or DC, we were surprised when even our seemingly mundane lives were affected by terrorists.

 

Robin

[mr green]

My wife and I flew to Boston, from Vancouver, via Montreal, for our New England cruise, two weeks after 9/11. We were supposed to leave from New York, but of course this did not happen, so we left from Boston, the cruises first port of call. We were on the NCL Sun, fortunatly, we chose to go Air/Sea, so our flight was changed.

HOWEVER, those who made their own arrangements to get to the ship, were never informed! Too much work, was NCL's excuse. Busses were laid on to take those who first went to New York, but I have to say, I have never seen such an angry bunch of cruisers in my life. Although we were O.K. with our arrival, to us, it was the final nail in NCL's coffin, we have not used that line since.

The main part of our tail however was the ease our 'Entry?' into the United States. We had a 'red eye' to Monteal, and it seemed that U.S. customs, were just standing about in the airport, looking for customers! One spotted us and we were given the usual form to fill out, staiting, in part that we did not have more than $10,000. U.S. Since we had four bags' we approached the officer, carrying said form in my teeth. He took it, smiled, and said 'Wecome to the United States!'

That was it! We never saw another officer, either in Boston, or the dock! How times have changed.

 

john

[lka1012]

Since Memphis is the main FedEx hub and has the ground facilties to handle a large number of planes, this is where the FAA directed many planes. As soon as one touched down, they sent it over to the FedEx hub and another landed. They were asking for donations of pillows, blankets, etc. We were probably among the last cites to have aircraft (non-military) flying overhbead.

[Chetsky]

We were in London along with my recently widowed 77 year old mother waiting for a tour bus. A bus conductor informed us that the "Twin Cities" had just been bombed. We immediately went to our hotel and stayed glued to CNN for the next four days. We soon found out that it was the twin towers and actually saw the fall of the second tower on live TV.

After 9/11 every Brit we encountered expressed their sympathy and treated us like Royalty everyplace we went. We went to a special changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace and for the first time in history of the ceremony the American National Anthem was played - needless to say there was not a dry eye anywhere.

This was the first time my mother had been outside of the US and she was terrified that we would never make it back to the states. As luck would have it, Heathrow reopened the day befor we were scheduled to fly home. As you can imagine security was very strict - it took us four hours to clear in London and three more in DC to clear from the International terminal of the airport to the domestic terminal.

We certainly will be able to remember where we were on 9/11 !

[innlady1]

My boss was returning from a trip to Ireland that she had organized for her husband and herself along with her Son, her Daughter and Son-in-Law and her grandchildren who were on different airliners.

 

She was re-routed to Edmonton, Canada and had to wait it out there, but in relative luxury as she was able to get a hotelroom for herself and her husband. Her children and grandchildren were not as fortunate as they were landed in Newfoundland and were among the thousands trapped there aboard useless airliners and shepherded to local churches and gymnasiums. My boss was unable to contact her children for days until the Red Cross could find them and get word to her where they were and that they were safe. Meanwhile, she also learned that her nephew was one of the NYFD lost in the towers...

 

...meanwhile, the head of our department was stuck in Southampton for nearly a week after her Northern Europe/Baltics cruise aboard a Rennaissance ship.

 

As for myself, I was glued to the TV/frantically trying to call my mother as she was working for the government outside DC/watching from my livingroom the SF skyline wondering which building would be hit next.

As I walked home from a dinner out that evening (I had to get out of the apartment) I looked up and realized that there were no airplanes circling the city making approach to SFO - no traffic helicopters, no contrails, nothing - just how utterly peaceful & beautiful the skies were above my City and how I'd likely never again in my lifetime see such a sight.[/quote]

 

I know exactly what you mean, Brian...looking up at the sky and seeing nothing.

 

I took my granddaughter home on the ferry on Friday (9/14). After leaving her at my daughter & SIL's house, I went to our house in Hingham before returning to the island on Sunday....we're not that far from Logan...direct route over our house into the airport. When we're there in the late fall/winter/early spring, we see planes from our living room window every few minutes making the descent into Logan.

 

But nothing that weekend...the sky was scarily quiet. All I heard were the planes way overhead...protecting our borders.

 

It was a very eerie and scary time.

[innlady1]

My boss was returning from a trip to Ireland that she had organized for her husband and herself along with her Son, her Daughter and Son-in-Law and her grandchildren who were on different airliners.

 

She was re-routed to Edmonton, Canada and had to wait it out there, but in relative luxury as she was able to get a hotelroom for herself and her husband. Her children and grandchildren were not as fortunate as they were landed in Newfoundland and were among the thousands trapped there aboard useless airliners and shepherded to local churches and gymnasiums. My boss was unable to contact her children for days until the Red Cross could find them and get word to her where they were and that they were safe.

Meanwhile, she also learned that her nephew was one of the NYFD lost in the towers...

 

So sorry to hear about your boss's nephew. That is tragic.

[jaja]

I still find it hard to talk about. We live in Northern New Jersey-only a few miles from NYC....I was teaching at the time --and the entire day was devoted to "keeping things normal" for the children ..it was the longest day of my life---when I finally got home-I sat,watched TV and cried for hours....

We are in the flight paths of 3 airports-so I can totally relate to all the comments re: quiet skies.just so eerie...though, ours was occasionally puncutated by the roar of the military jets on patrol-they would circle over our house after crossing the Hudson River..

.

Everyone in this area knew someone who lost someone...

We will never forget...

 

janette

[arabrab]

Though we live in Colorado, my husband worked at the time for a company whose owner lived on Long Island, though the employees were all out here. People went into work, only to get called into a meeting later that morning (about 1PM NY time) and told that the company was being shut down and everyone was being laid off immediately.

 

My husband says that it was the weirdest layoff imaginable. Weird that it was happening that day, and that a doctor on Long Island could ignore what was going on in the city at the time and still conduct a telphonic layoff meeting, and weirder still that nobody here cared about the layoff given the real problems at the WTC and the Pentagon.