It is now 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a day that will live - as certain as did Pearl Harbor - in infamy.  I am sitting in room 212 at the Baymont Inn near the Indianapolis ( Indiana) Airport.  I will be staying here for at least tonight and, maybe, even longer.  According to local reports, I am very fortunate to even have a room because of the five to six thousand passengers stranded - like fellow pilot John Baker and myself - in this city that we had never intended to visit.  The significance of this day, though, no one could have predicted, nor could anyone have imagined the events that would cause this to become one of the darkest days in our nation’s history.

Fortunately, days like this are rare…at least in America.  Although incredibly more horrific, today has been a bit like the days that Kennedy and Sadat were shot.  I will always remember those days and where I was and what I was doing as those stories unfolded.  I am recording these thoughts now because I want to be able to later recall this day in more detail than I could if I relied on my memory alone.

This Tuesday began rather routinely for me, or at least as routine as a day with a 3:45 a.m. wake-up time can be.  It was great sleeping weather last night in Omaha, and I enjoyed both the early bedtime (about 9:15 p.m., as I recall) and the cool, mid-50s° breeze through the open bedroom windows.  I awoke, as I normally do, five minutes before the alarm clock was to sound. I remember appreciating the long duration of the next four minutes. I then deactivate the alarm (so it wouldn’t wake up my wife), and got up. 

I had my usual breakfast of two granola bars and a banana, shaved and showered, pulled things quickly together to put in my flight bag, kissed my wife “good bye,” and then left the house for the airport at 5:24 a.m.  I know the time exactly because I remember looking at the clock in my car and realizing that it was actually about 14 minutes later than I had planned to leave.

The drive to the airport was pleasant, even unusually refreshing, because of both the light early morning traffic and the cool weather; it was the first time in a long time that I had not needed the air conditioner even early in the morning. 

I arrived at the hangar at 5:55 a.m., which was only five minutes ahead of my scheduled 6:00 a.m. show time.  That was not a problem, however, because John Baker was the Pilot-in-Command on the trip, which meant that, as Second-in-Command, I only had to preflight the corporate jet for our departure (normally about a 45 minute task – if all goes well).

All did go well, and I was finished with the preflight a little before 7:00 a.m.   The flight was scheduled as a 7:30 a.m. takeoff for BWI (Baltimore/Washington International), with a return at 3:00 p.m. EDT (although John said the passengers might be ready to return to Omaha as much as an hour and a half early).  John gave me the normal flight briefing, which included time enroute, weather, Notices-to-Airmen (NOTAMS), passenger requests, etc.  He also asked me to fly left seat on the leg to Baltimore, as he had just returned from a two-week vacation and knew that he might be a little “rusty.”  I then briefed the takeoff (since I’d be acting as Pilot-in-Command), got the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS), the ATC clearance to Baltimore, and used the office computer program to calculate the takeoff performance speeds and numbers (decision and rotation speeds, etc.).  After that, nothing else of note happened.  Our maintenance technician fueled the airplane (a Falcon 20, call sign “N149MC”), and then we just visited and waited for the eight scheduled passengers to arrive. 

John eventually went out to the airplane to start the aircraft's auxiliary power unit (APU) and finish the cockpit setup (avionics, route of flight, performance numbers, etc.).  I waited with the passengers until the last woman arrived (late) at 7:25 a.m.  One of the passengers was also waiting on a fax, but finally decided that it wasn’t really needed, and that they could go without it (although it actually arrived later, and was handed to me through the open cockpit window just prior to our engine start).  We boarded about 7:35 a.m., I briefed the passengers, started the engines, and began to taxi (blocked) at 7:43 a.m.

We ran the Taxi and Before Takeoff Checklists as I taxied toward Omaha’s Runway 18 for a southbound departure.  The only minor anomaly during taxi was on the engine thrust reverser check.  The reverser “buckets” deployed normally, but as I stowed them, the left one seemed to hang up a bit.  The levers were in the proper position, but when I advanced the throttles above normal idle power, the left reverser still indicated an unlocked condition.  I checked that the throttles were back in idle and simply jostled the left reverser lever, which returned the bucket to a stowed and locked indication.  Not convinced that things were normal, I did the whole check again, with the same results and using the same fix.  I briefly considered the situation (John was busy with other checks and check list responses), but decided that the reversers were working normally and were definitely stowed, but just had a bit of a strange “feel” when being stowed.  I thought that the extensive delay to taxi back to the hangar and check out such a minor anomaly would not be warranted.  Although the reversers worked perfectly upon our next landing, that delay might have kept us on the ground long enough to have had our departure cancelled by the eventual ground stop (although I still believe not taxing back was the correct decision).

The takeoff and departure were normal, with the only significant event being turning east into the incredibly bright morning sun.  It was so bright that I turned the autopilot on earlier than normal so I could adjust the sun visor to block as much sun as possible.  The sky was so beautiful and the air was so smooth, though, that - when I could see the instruments again - I disengaged the autopilot and enjoyed hand flying the airplane for most of the climb.

We received several step climb clearances to 10,000’, Flight Level 230, 290, 330, and then up to FL 370 (37,000 feet), our final cruising altitude.  We also had several heading changes as the Minneapolis Center ( Air Route Traffic Control Center) controller told us that he needed to “weave us through the traffic for our climb.”  I mentioned to John that I was wearing out the sun visor by having to move it every time we were given a heading change.  We were eventually cleared direct to the Bradford VOR (in central Illinois), and then direct to the Rosewood VOR, which is just northeast of Dayton, Ohio.

A few minutes later we received the first hint that something unusual had happened.  We heard a portion of a call from an airline crew (I had “tuned out” the first part of the transmission because it didn’t concern us) asking Minneapolis Center If they had heard anything about what had happened.  Center replied by asking if they had been talking to their company, and then stated that they didn’t have any more information at the time.  John and I assumed from hearing that conversation that there must have been an accident somewhere, maybe even at Minneapolis, since the crew was asking Minneapolis Center about it.

We then got a communication "handoff" to Chicago Center.  Shortly after checking in on the new frequency, the controller said something to another airline crew about the east coast, and mentioned that all he knew was that there had been several accidents in the east.  John and I looked at each other in bewilderment, and one of us said something about how strange that sounded, and that it must have involved terrorism or something.  Just minutes later (and after another handoff to another Chicago Center controller), we heard “Attention all aircraft:  There is now a ground stop in effect for all aircraft at all locations for all destinations.”  John and I looked at each other again and I said something like “I wonder what in the world has happened!”  My thoughts were that maybe terrorists had gotten their hands on some ground-to-air missiles and were using them against airline targets.

At that point we knew that whatever was happening was very serious.  I looked back and got the lead passenger’s attention and motioned for him to come forward.  We told him what we had heard and added that even though we could probably get to Baltimore, we might not be able to get out.  We also mentioned the possibility of returning to Omaha.  He asked how soon we would have to make that decision.  I told him “within the next ten or fifteen minutes or so to still have enough fuel to get back.”  We told him we’d keep him advised, and he returned to his seat. 

After one more handoff to yet another Chicago Center controller, we heard the report that all traffic was stopped going in or out of New York Center’s airspace, and to expect delays if that was your destination.  I asked the controller specifically about Baltimore and, after checking, he said that we could still get in there.  After just a few more minutes, however, we heard “Falcon One Four Niner Mike Charlie, we’ve got a situation developing here and we’re going to have to land you at the nearest suitable airport.”  We looked at each other again, and John asked the controller what airports we were near.  He said “Fort Wayne or Indianapolis…take your pick.”  We were only about 40 miles west of Fort Wayne at the time, so we both agreed (certainly for descent purposes) that Indianapolis would be better.  John told him we preferred Indianapolis, and we were immediately cleared direct to the Fort Wayne VOR to join the Chang One Arrival routing to Indianapolis.  I typed FWA (Fort Wayne) in the FMS (Flight Management System) and turned the airplane to proceed direct while John began looking for Indianapolis approach charts.  As I started the turn, I also asked the controller if he could confirm that returning to Omaha was not an option.  He said, “You’re right, that is not an option.”  I also motioned the lead passenger to come back up to the cockpit and told him that we were just told to land at the nearest airport, and that we would be landing in Indianapolis.

After that, things really began to happen in a hurry.  Even though we probably flew for another 30 minutes or so, things seemed to stay very busy and were very compressed.  John immediately began to get the Indianapolis weather report, load the arrival and approach to Runway 23L in the FMS (as the Automatic Terminal Information System had indicated), compute the landing data, etc.  I stayed busy with our step down descent clearances from FL370 to FL330, FL290, FL200, 11,000’, back to 16,000’, back to 11,000’, 7,000’, back to 8,000’ back to 7,000’, 4,000’, and - finally - 3,000’.  In the mean time, the landing runways had been changed to Runway 5 Left and Right, so John reloaded the FMS and set me up for the ILS to Runway 5 Right.  I both hand-flew the airplane and used the autopilot as I followed the numerous airspeed assignments (first 210 knots, then 180 knots, then 160 knots).  The radio frequencies also seemed to go from fairly quiet to very crowded in a hurry.  As a matter of fact, at one point after the handoff to Indianapolis Approach Control and after several attempts to call them, John looked at me and said, “Well, I’d like to talk to him.” 

One major factor that helped our diversion work as well as it did was that the weather in the entire central part of the U. S. was absolutely beautiful.  We were taken off the standard arrival routing and were turned to a 230° heading which took us towards the Indianapolis airport.  It was so clear that we could see the airport from at least 25 miles away.

Another notable factor was the absolute calm, professional manner in which all involved (crews and controllers alike) handled the situation.  No one asked anything or said anything other than the appropriate calls and responses involved in such a recovery scenario.  Everyone apparently believed, as we did, that whatever was going on was huge, and so all just "stepped up to the plate" and did - very well - what they were trained and asked to do.

We continued following headings and vectors for sequencing to the airport, and eventually received clearance for a visual approach to Runway 5 Right to “follow the heavy Airbus ahead.”  We kept the traffic in sight as we turned about a 15 mile final, continued the non-eventful approach, and then landed on Runway 5 Right. I made a very smooth landing (a “roller”), which - even at the time - seemed incredibly insignificant in light of the obviously serious situation.  Numerous other flights (a total of sixty, according to local media reports) also made unscheduled landings at Indianapolis in the minutes preceding or following our landing.

We taxied clear of the runway and continued as directed by Ground Control to the corporate aircraft area.  A ramp employee then directed us to a parking place near the corporate terminal facility.  It wasn’t until after I had shut down the engines, completed the immediate checklist items, opened the Captain’s side cockpit window, and asked the ramp worker what was going on that I learned - with incredible disbelief - about the horrific attacks upon our nation.

We soberly deplaned the passengers and completed the steps necessary to de-power and secure the airplane.  I quietly hoped that I would wake up soon, so that the shock and pain of all of this would end.  It wasn't a dream, though, as the eerie and surrealistic stillness of the skies, runways, and taxiways around us soon verified.

This day has changed our nation and probably every person in it.  I know it has changed me.  Who will ever be able to erase the memory of the terrible video replays of United Airlines Flight 175 hitting the second World Trade Center tower or the devastating pictures of both towers' later collapse?  I certainly won’t.  Although all of this is absolutely unbelievable, God’s grace is also still sufficient in all things.  Lord, teach us to understand what You want us to understand in all of this, help us as we face new uncertainties in the days and months ahead, and guide us as we re-evaluate not only our world, but also our own lives. 

And help us to never forget this day.

Copyright © 2001, Jerry E. Tobias

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