The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

A temporary command post was established outside the Pentagon, protected by a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team. Most people working at the Pentagon crash site didn’t know that the WTC towers had collapsed until that night.

Robert Hunor, a contractor at the Pentagon, walked home (the Washington, DC, metro was shut down), feeling elated to be alive but also guilty about this feeling of elation. He saw a colleague’s pregnant wife looking ashen and later learned that her husband was killed.

Other family members waited anxiously to hear from loved ones. Highly ranked officers broke down crying as they realized that colleagues could not be saved and died in the inferno. A rumor circulated that another plane was coming, and the emergency response at the Pentagon was paused again. A US fighter jet flew above; those witnessing it below felt reassured.

Communication was poor across the country; cell service was down (though BlackBerry phones were working). On Capitol Hill, people waited in line to use a landline to call loved ones. However, the sonic boom of a jet caused people to run for cover.

In the Pentagon’s unaffected areas, hampered communication complicated proceeding with the nation’s defense plan. Once the smoke in the building became worse, the team suggested that they could move to Site R, a secure bunker. Initially, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was indignant, arguing that the Pentagon was a symbol of American military might and that leaving would be inappropriate.

The president landed at Barksdale and was taken from the tarmac in an armored car. The location was supposed to be secret, but the media televised footage of Air Force One landing.

President Bush made a recorded statement to the country for broadcast, reassuring citizens that the government was continuing to function and that people should stay calm in the wake of the attack. Air Force One was loaded with food and supplies to keep it in the air as long as necessary.

Melissa and Joanna Gomez, whose father and uncle worked at the WTC, recall the morning of 9/11, when they heard about the attack at school. In the subsequent weeks, they had to make a “missing” poster about their dad and speak to the FBI and police in the coming weeks, since their mother didn’t speak English.

Richard Eichen recalls leaving the hospital and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. He felt the sun on his face and was relieved that the horror was behind him. Roads were closed to traffic, and the streets were filled with people on foot; it was uncharacteristically quiet. People walked to their homes or to the homes of others. Strangers took in stranded people and offered them showers and shelter.

At the WTC site, NYPD and FDNY workers confronted an apocalyptic scene. FDNY Captain Joe Downey asked after his father, also a firefighter; no one had heard from him. Dan and Jean Potter tried to find each other. She went to the firehouse in Chinatown, where Dan eventually found her. They tearful reunited. Herb Ouida reached his daughter’s apartment and, watching footage of the towers collapsing, thought desperately of his son, Todd, who was on the 105th floor of the North Tower.

Numerous people who walked across the Brooklyn Bridge recall how quiet it was, apart from occasional screams or the sounds of people crying. People desperately sought information about missing family members.

Rudy Giuliani set up a new command post at a firehouse on Sixth Avenue. He called in the National Guard and sent a message via CNN that New Yorkers were to stay away from the site. He spoke to Governor George Pataki, and they established a command center.

The team around Vice President Cheney was devastated to learn that Barbara Olsen, the wife of the solicitor general and a close personal friend of many of the team, was on Flight 77. Big and small decisions needed to be made based on information that was constantly changing.

People were still trying to trace the locations of family members. Thousands of citizens called Volunteer Arlington to offer their services: to enlist, to help dig at the WTC site, or to supply trucks for debris removal. People turned up at the Pentagon with food for the rescue workers and Army. People begged to give blood.

Those aboard Air Force One, which had just left Barksdale, as well as the fighter jets accompanying it, assumed that they were going to Washington, DC, but Air Force One continued to Offutt Air Force Base, outside Omaha, Nebraska. Those onboard these planes felt cut off from news.

Mike Morell, the presidential briefer from the CIA, told the president he was confident that the fault for the attack lies with Osama bin Laden.

Once it was clear that no rescue efforts would be taking place in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, FAA and FBI teams began looking for evidence at the Flight 93 crash site. They found the wallet of one of the hijackers and a “to-do” list for the hijack. Interested civilians kept arriving and needed to be turned away.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge arrived at the site to be briefed. The atmosphere was solemn and determined.

Congressional leaders were taken to a secret bunker in Virginia. Other officials were taken to a different bunker in Pennsylvania. Congress members and their staff found themselves in a spartan but well-stocked underground center. Press Secretary John Feehery reflected that this was the country’s nuclear winter plan to keep the government running.

The government members were impatient to return to their homes and colleagues in Washington, DC, and were eventually allowed to do so. A press conference was organized on Capitol Hill with all Congress members present.