Four years ago...
Four years ago, on the eleventh of September, Good Half was flying from Amsterdam to the US.
I was working in the lab when my cell phone started ringing. A friend was calling me about the first plane that had hit the WTC.
I ran out of the lab and towards the nearest TV. Then the second plane hit the towers.
I had no doubt. Terrorist attack. I started thinking about Good Half’s plane, it should have entered US air space at about the time of the second impact.
I ran towards my desk, opened a browser window and started trying to track her flight. Not possible, no flight tracking available. I called our travel agent, she was already aware of what was going on, unless something was wrong Good Half’s flight would either land in the US, be diverted to Canada or be sent back to Europe. Same as saying she knew nothing about it, not that I am really complaining, after all by then it was about 4pm and she stood in her office until 2am, always in touch with me and making arrangements should I need to fly to meet Good Half anywhere.
By then I started to pull every string, calling every contact I had and so I got some news: her flight had been diverted back to Europe, however the plane didn’t have enough fuel to go back to Amsterdam and it was going to be refueled in Heathrow.
About one hour later a friend of mine calls me and says there may be a slight problem, Heathrow won’t fuel her plane, either the plane is refueled in Glasgow or it lands in Helsinki. Making a long story short, the plane was refueled in Glasgow and then it went to Amsterdam. The next day Good Half flew back to Lisbon.
True enough nothing happened to her. True enough my biggest problem was having no news.
A friend of ours had even worst a day, he was in Luanda, Angola, and his sister was supposed to attend a meeting in the WTC that morning. She was ok too. His problem was he only got news from his sis four days later.
I can’t even start to imagine what those who lost their loved ones have felt.
I was working in the lab when my cell phone started ringing. A friend was calling me about the first plane that had hit the WTC.
I ran out of the lab and towards the nearest TV. Then the second plane hit the towers.
I had no doubt. Terrorist attack. I started thinking about Good Half’s plane, it should have entered US air space at about the time of the second impact.
I ran towards my desk, opened a browser window and started trying to track her flight. Not possible, no flight tracking available. I called our travel agent, she was already aware of what was going on, unless something was wrong Good Half’s flight would either land in the US, be diverted to Canada or be sent back to Europe. Same as saying she knew nothing about it, not that I am really complaining, after all by then it was about 4pm and she stood in her office until 2am, always in touch with me and making arrangements should I need to fly to meet Good Half anywhere.
By then I started to pull every string, calling every contact I had and so I got some news: her flight had been diverted back to Europe, however the plane didn’t have enough fuel to go back to Amsterdam and it was going to be refueled in Heathrow.
About one hour later a friend of mine calls me and says there may be a slight problem, Heathrow won’t fuel her plane, either the plane is refueled in Glasgow or it lands in Helsinki. Making a long story short, the plane was refueled in Glasgow and then it went to Amsterdam. The next day Good Half flew back to Lisbon.
True enough nothing happened to her. True enough my biggest problem was having no news.
A friend of ours had even worst a day, he was in Luanda, Angola, and his sister was supposed to attend a meeting in the WTC that morning. She was ok too. His problem was he only got news from his sis four days later.
I can’t even start to imagine what those who lost their loved ones have felt.
posted by DCveR at 9:01 PM
8 Comments:
Must have been a most terrifying ordeal for you, D.
I heard about a Guyanese mother who lost her son, he was working there...a Muslim mother who lost her Muslim son. Someone told us that the mother wailed and wailed when she heard.
I can't even begin to imagine the pain of those who lost loved ones.
Loss is loss is loss and it hurts. Always. I am so glad, DCvR, that your Good Half was not harmed and you were spared that hurt.
Right now there is a lot of outrage in America regarding the lack of preparedness by Federal Emergency Management Authority for the hurricane Katrina aftermath, especially considering the extensive financing thrown its way after 9/11. I'll tell ya, I'm ashamed to be a f-ing American. We are such assholes.
GG: Fortunately none of the persons we know and were around NY at that time suffered any injury, but I confess the only one I thought about then when it all was happening was Good Half, not any of our friends who were actually in the city.
Bunny Jo: Something amazing and unexpected in Europe is the fact that India, after declining international help on this terrible monsoon season, is helping the US. Those guys were not only prepared to deal with floods in huge areas but have already overcome it and are actually ready to help out other countries.
Things like 9/11 seem to slap us in the face as a reminder that nothing is impossible for someone with determination.
We should turn this around and start believing that it is not impossible to solve the world's problems.
That kind of pain cannot even be fully understood unless you've experienced it.
DC: Bet that was one of the longest days ever for you.
cream: The only reason I don't agree with you is the fact that doing so would be considering their acts as some kind of achievement. Destroying something has always been easier than building it, it doesn't take much knowledge, wisdom or determination.
Bent: It was one of the longest days indeed. She has type I diabetes, whenever she gets stressed her sugar lowers, sometimes to dangerous levels, adding to that she is slightly afraid of flying. My worst fear was that she could panic and go into a coma.
I am glad GH's plane was nowhere near any of that madness four years ago. It was a bad time for me, as my dad had died the day before (of diabetes related complications, I hate to tell you) and we were STUCK in Hawaii, we could not get back for days to be with my mom. Not a great time, but we managed to get through it.
That story gave me goosebumps (chicken skin)...in fact, I don't even want to think about it.
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