Passengers would wait 15 long minutes to touch down after Pilot Bob Hammond on his O’Hare-bound United Airlines flight told them Tuesday morning that a “national emergency” would force an immediate landing. In Peoria. Now. Over the intercom, he said he didn’t know why.
It was a scene repeated across America’s skies, as hundreds of planes were abruptly diverted wherever they were.
But perhaps nowhere was the sense of foreboding more urgent than on this flight. Many of its passengers had been through this before: Flight 5726 originated in Oklahoma City.
With memories of America’s last terrorist strike still fresh in their minds, some wondered aloud in that 15 minutes what possibly could freeze the nation’s air traffic in its place.
Sitting on the tarmac in Peoria, United flight attendant Dara Fenney told passengers to wait a few minutes to deplane. The plane might be taking off again immediately, she announced.
But as the group walked into an otherwise quiet terminal, all attention turned to the TV monitors above. As the images of huge clouds of smoke billowing from the World Trade Center flickered on the screen, Fenney wept. “I just can’t believe it. This is impossible,” Fenney said. “It’s past surreal.”
At airports across the country, stunned passengers stared at TV monitors, clutched each other’s hands and wondered what had gone wrong. Stranded passengers raced to rental car lines, hotel phone kiosks and, most of all, their cell phones to assure panicked relatives of their safety.
All major airports were put under heightened security. Los Angeles International Airport was evacuated except for essential personnel, according to city police Lt. Howard Whitehead. In New Orleans, passengers were not allowed into the airport, but it was not evacuated.
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At O’Hare International Airport, passengers were barred from entering the gated areas, and police patrolled with dogs.
Experts on terrorism called the paralysis of the nation’s air traffic system a likely victory for those responsible. “To have such an impact on the only superpower in the world is an extraordinary situation,” said Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
Military personnel at O’Hare were ordered to the USO. The mass gridlock clogged cell phone lines and left many people unable to reach loved ones.
That included Nick Gillitzer, 41, who was stranded at Midway Airport and planned to abandon his business trip to Detroit and drive home to Dallas with a colleague. For him, the long road trip seemed a refuge.
“Probably the safest place to be is across the grain fields. I’ll be away from any metropolitan area … insulated by the heart of America,” he said.
Gillitzer said his first reaction to the news, of course, was disbelief.
“But then again, there is a lot of trust built into our transportation system,” he added. “You trust that everyone is going to be sane. Let’s face it, you can’t secure against things like that.”
Like many of his fellow Americans, Gillitzer compared the day’s terror to the surprise Japanese attack that brought the U.S. into World War II. “It’s like a modern-day Pearl Harbor, only against the continental United States. … How do I explain this to my 6-year-old son?”
In Boston, one of the departure cities for the hijacked planes involved in the coordinated strike, people felt especially touched by the danger.
“I’m sitting here with shivers down my spine,” said Dan Weiland, of Lewisville, Texas, an American Airlines passenger at Boston’s Logan Airport.
Greyhound Lines, the largest U.S. bus line, suspended operations in large parts of the country Tuesday as a safety measure after the airplane attacks, the company said. The bus line was trying to reroute some passengers and find alternative transportation for others.
“We are a major nationwide transportation company, and we decided to take this step for the safety of our employees and passengers,” Greyhound spokeswoman Kristin Parsley said.
Parsley said Greyhound’s largest terminal was in New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
Pam Schemel, 47, a registered nurse flying from her home in Clearwater, Fla., to her 30th high school reunion in Rockford, had no idea what had happened until she got off her plane at Midway.
“I wondered why everyone was crowded around the TV,” she said, adding, “What in the hell is going on in this world? What next?”
Walking through Midway’s newly opened terminal after their trip to San Francisco was canceled, Bernie and Diane Durkin of Darien echoed Schemel’s fears.
“You wonder, is any country safe? I guess we just become complacent as Americans,” Diane Durkin said.
Her husband noted that “yes, we are being inconvenienced here, but what kind of horror and suffering has gone on and will continue to go on for the families who have been affected by this. At least we have a home to go to.”
His wife finished his sentence: “And a whole family.”