Features Operations
Tragedy

Sympathy. Regret. Confusion. Frustration. Disbelief. On Tuesday,
September 11, I was awakened at 06:58 hrs by a phone call at my
Vancouver Island home. A personal friend who has a long and
distinguished career in aviation as both a pilot and mechanic had
called. He snapped me out of my sleep-fogged state by telling me to go
and turn the TV on right away. He quickly described the catastrophic
events that will remain a part of everyone's memory for the foreseeable
future. I wouldn't believe him at first. A commercial aircraft had been
hijacked and then made a suicide plunge into the North Tower of the
World Trade Center in New York City.

The
totality of his statements could not be absorbed. I went to the TV and
switched it on to CBC and was immediately confronted with horrific
pictures of not only one aircraft but now two large commercial jet
airlners destroyed as these airborne 'bombs' were plunged into the
tallest standing structures in New York. Then – more stories. An
aircraft had crashed into the Pentagon. Soon thereafter another had
crashed into a field southeast of Pittsburgh. What had happened?