The attack happened on my way to work as a package driver. PCM gathered and an ORS(who was not very gifted at public speaking/presentation) said "there's some bad things going on out there, keep your eyes open....go to work." I listened to am radio a lot back then(all day) and followed the coverage. Tv's were on at many of my industrial stops and I would take a peek. I actually watched the towers fall live. Remember, we had stops to deliver @ 14.2347 per hour.....and at that moment.....all mgt cared about. My wife was a secretary at a middle school and parents were withdrawing their kids from school.
The day went on basically as normal except for the tension. The odd closure.
My most vivid memory and one I haven't ever seen since.....an friend-16(fully loaded with missiles) circling downtown at low altitude. There were perfect formation contrails above the city flying racetrack CAP duty. 4 planes. By the end of the day, all air traffic was shut down and we live around one of the busiest airports in the world. Every airport big and small had planes parked everywhere. Bizjets where you never saw them. Some planes had delays for days because starting equipment had to be trucked in......
Our volume fluctuated some......of course air shipments were weird for a couple days but got back to normal. Of course, mgt cut routes and because you had less air stops......you got splits. If anything.....longer days. Customers bitched about delays.
There is a medium size international airport in town....I flew privately out of there frequently. Often on say a Saturday, the traffic pattern was so full of foreign student pilots.......you had to circle before a slot came open to land. Yes, Arabic types. Hard to understand with thick accents. The next day(Sept 12)........they were gone! Apparently lot's of over stayed Visa's.......nobody said anything to that point because struggling flight schools needed the money and all the rest that brings to the economy. These days, most of the foreign students are Chinese and Indian or some sort of Asians. Back then, most airports had no sort of security(some still don't).......no gates. You could walk around at will....next to million dollar planes.....Looking for a job? Walk in the hangar and ask. Most airports have gates and a lot of offices are inside the airport property. Website or nothing.
While things have gotten more "secure".........some things have not. The pandemic(and the new mgt) caused UPS to eliminate a lot of security in favor of productivity. This is fact. The price? We lost a great deal of freedom after 911 of which has greatly accelerated.
The day went on basically as normal except for the tension. The odd closure.
My most vivid memory and one I haven't ever seen since.....an friend-16(fully loaded with missiles) circling downtown at low altitude. There were perfect formation contrails above the city flying racetrack CAP duty. 4 planes. By the end of the day, all air traffic was shut down and we live around one of the busiest airports in the world. Every airport big and small had planes parked everywhere. Bizjets where you never saw them. Some planes had delays for days because starting equipment had to be trucked in......
Our volume fluctuated some......of course air shipments were weird for a couple days but got back to normal. Of course, mgt cut routes and because you had less air stops......you got splits. If anything.....longer days. Customers bitched about delays.
There is a medium size international airport in town....I flew privately out of there frequently. Often on say a Saturday, the traffic pattern was so full of foreign student pilots.......you had to circle before a slot came open to land. Yes, Arabic types. Hard to understand with thick accents. The next day(Sept 12)........they were gone! Apparently lot's of over stayed Visa's.......nobody said anything to that point because struggling flight schools needed the money and all the rest that brings to the economy. These days, most of the foreign students are Chinese and Indian or some sort of Asians. Back then, most airports had no sort of security(some still don't).......no gates. You could walk around at will....next to million dollar planes.....Looking for a job? Walk in the hangar and ask. Most airports have gates and a lot of offices are inside the airport property. Website or nothing.
While things have gotten more "secure".........some things have not. The pandemic(and the new mgt) caused UPS to eliminate a lot of security in favor of productivity. This is fact. The price? We lost a great deal of freedom after 911 of which has greatly accelerated.
. And no I didn’t have one Covid shot…so beat it scrub
