In the air at the time of the attack

By Chris Umpierre

Posted: Oct. 8, 2001

The captain came on the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize but we are going to have to make a landing in Las Vegas. There is nothing wrong with the plane. The plane is in perfect shape. Unfortunately, we have to make this landing. We will tell you more after we have landed."

The date: Sept. 11, 2001. It forever will be etched in my mind. Not only because of the worst-ever terrorist attack on America, but because I was indirectly involved.

I was in an airplane at the same time terrorist hijackers were ramming two commercial planes into New York's world-famous World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. My flight -- scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. -- was ordered to make an emergency landing 45 minutes after takeoff when our captain got the news from the East Coast.

The morning of my flight didn't seem any different than any other before a flight. Until I got to the metal detector. Ironically, the metal detector check I underwent that day was the most thorough of any flight I have ever taken. I put my bag and leather jacket through the security scanner and walked through the metal detector. The beep sounded and the security agent told me to empty my pockets and try again.

I heard another beep.

I was asked to empty my pockets. The security agents then took me to a separate metal detector with a different security agent. Once again there was a beep. I told them I thought it was my new metal belt.

The agent then passed a handheld metal detector over my body with beeps going off around my belt. Apparently this was not enough for the agent, who went on to methodically pat me down. She checked my arms, pockets and legs. After finding nothing she said I was free to go.

I grabbed my belongings and ventured up the escalator to my boarding gate, completely unaware that security procedures would never be the same again.

According to several news reports, as I was boarding my plane in Los Angeles, a plane on the East Coast was crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

Thirty minutes into my flight, the captain came on the intercom.

I tried to imagine what possibly could force the plane to make an emergency landing. My first thought was gas. Maybe the flight crew forgot that we were on a cross-country flight Þ maybe they failed to fill the gas tank. Maybe there was something wrong with the plane, and the captain didn't want to scare the passengers. But I really had no clue.

So like the other one hundred or so people on the plane, I decided to stop speculating and wait to hear more from the captain.

We made our descent into Las Vegas. Our landing was smooth. In all of this I never once felt I was in danger. That feeling of invincibility while in the air -- I had long felt that flying was safer than driving -- would be gone in a matter of minutes.

Then the captain delivered news that forever changed the way I think about flying and the security of the United States of America. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Once again, we apologize for having to make this landing in Las Vegas. We landed because there have been multiple terrorists attacks on the East Coast. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has ordered all planes grounded until the matter is resolved."

I would later find out that this was the first time in history that the FAA had grounded all planes in the air.

The captain was reassuring and asked us to pick up our belongings and deplane.

I didn't know what to think. I couldn't process the news. Terrorists, hijackers, attacks, all new things to me.

My first thought was, "It must have been a small plane that crashed." But then I replayed the captain's words, "multiple terrorist attacks."

How could it be?

The next thing I knew, a woman made a call on her cell phone and then told the other passengers that her husband had said, "A plane or planes have crashed into the World Trade Center and/or the Pentagon."

As I walked off the plane and into the terminal my first thought was to call my mother. I knew she would be worried. It seemed that every pay phone was in use. Many others were on cell phones. I had never seen an airport terminal so full. It was just the beginning.

When I finally reached my mom, and before I could say two words, she said, "Oh, Chris you are all rightÞ" She was crying.

Through her tears she began to tell me that terrorists had crashed not just once, but twice into the World Trade Center. The crashes were 18 minutes apart, she said. She then said terrorists also had crashed into the Pentagon. And a fourth plane had crash-landed near Pittsburgh. All four were commercial airlines, my mom said. She said United Airlines and American Airlines flights were involved.

How does one react to something that seems so unbelievable?

Terrorist attacks happen in movies. They happen in other countries, not in the United States.

Fellow Chips Quinn intern Moin Salahuddin and I went to the United Airlines counter and were told to wait in line for hotel vouchers. It took us a half-hour to receive hotel, meal, and transportation vouchers. They told us we would be staying at the Budget Suites. We were given two $9 buffet tickets and transportation to and from the airport.

I always try to look on the bright side of things. I began to think that if I were going to be stranded in any city, Las Vegas would be at the top of my list.

On the way out of the airport we stopped at a bar and watched the images on television -- smoke billowing from the top of the World Trade Center towers, a plane flying toward the second tower and hitting it. I lowered my head and spent a few moments taking in what I saw.

We watched the news for another 10 minutes and then figured it would be best to go on our way. Moin and I didn't exchange many words as we left. Our thoughts were on what was happening. My main concern was on how many people had died. There were reports at the time that said as many as 20,000 people were in the towers at the time of the crashes. Thank God the final death toll was much less.

There was absolutely no one in the airport as we left. It was around 9 a.m. on a Tuesday in a major airport terminal, and it was a ghost town. It was eerie. We boarded a tram from the terminal to the transportation area. Only one other person was on board.

As I left the airport, I didn't understand the magnitude of what had occurred. I didn't realize how much air travel and my life would change in the coming days and week.

I never will go to an airport as naively as I had on the morning of Sept. 11. I now understand that anything can happen in America at anytime.

Sept. 11, 2001 has become a demarcation.

There forever will be life before that day, and life after.

Chris Umpierre was a Fall 2001 Scholar at The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal when he wrote this essay. Reach him at cumpierre@news-press.com.

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