In 2001 I was working on the XM satellite radio repeater network – getting it ready for when the service launched in late Sep 2001. So I had been flying to Atlanta all year from Dulles.

On Monday Sep 10th I took an afternoon flight from Dulles to Atlanta. (when I got there, XM told me that they were drive testing in Atlanta so I couldn’t work on the repeaters anyway. It was a wasted trip – fuckers). The next morning, I got a call from one of my friends telling me that one of the World Trade Center buildings had been hit by a plane. I turned on the TV in the hotel and watched what everybody else that day saw. I knew my brother often worked in Manhattan so I spent some frantic time calling his cell phone over and over again until I finally got a hold of him. Luckily, he was working in Pa.

Since they stopped all flights and closed the airports, I was now stuck in Atlanta. My scheduled flight back was Thursday night. I was hoping that flights would be running again in time for that flight.

Thursday comes around and it sounds like they *might* be flying again, So I drive to the airport to see if I can get a flight back to Dulles. I figured if there was ever a time to fly and not have to worry about a hijacking, this was it. I get to the Atlanta airport and the place is empty. I mean nobody but a few national guardsman with M16s manning the metal detectors and a few airline people at check-in. Seeing the Atlanta airport empty was very strange. It was like the twilight zone or something. That place is usually packed with thousands of people.

I go to check-in and ask when flights will be starting back up. (By this time I pretty much figured I’d be driving home). They tell me that they are just starting flights back and that mine will be one of the first to leave the airport since 9/11.

So I make the long walk to the gate through the deserted Atlanta airport. I get to my gate and see about 20 or so people waiting there. I find out that we can’t leave yet because they only have about half a crew for the airplane. After waiting for a while, we learn that there is another flight leaving for Dulles (I guess – it could have been leaving for somewhere else and Dulles was on the way; I don’t remember). Anyway, they combine the crew and passengers from that flight with my flight.

Now, I finally board the plane and take my seat. This was another twilight zone kind of scenario. No one on the plane is doing anything but watching for someone to try something. Everyone is on high alert. No one is reading or listening to music or sleeping. This would not be a plane where you’d want to get out of line.

On high alert, I’m sitting in my plane when I notice a not unattractive woman get on. She’s looking around at everyone on the plane (like we all did, trying to figure out the most likely person to be a terrorist). She sees me and heads for my seat. It’s as if she was looking for a big guy to hide behind in case something happened. She sits in the middle seat next to me (I’m on the aisle seat). She puts her hand on my forearm, leans close to me and says “get ready to kick somebody’s ass”. As if I weren’t already wound up tight enough, now I’m ready to kick someone’s ass just out of general principal. Anything to get rid of this adrenaline.

We have an uneventful flight back to Dulles. Everyone stayed wide awake, and everyone was on guard duty. That woman kept her hand wrapped around my forearm for the entire flight.

2011-06-11 1002

2011-06-03 1604

2011-05-30 1445

2011-05-23 1859

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