On the morning of 9/11, I
awoke in room 344 of the Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan,
NYC. Since I didn’t turn the TV on for another 30 minutes,
the world hadn’t quite changed for me yet. At 0930, I saw
the damage from the first airplane and wondered how an
aircraft could accidentally run into a building on such a
beautiful day. When I saw the second one hit, I realized
commercial aviation would never be the same.
Pickup was scheduled for 1300,
so I knew I had time to look around a bit. I put on my
jogging gear and headed for Times Square. As I ran over
there, I could see the smoke from the damage, mostly white,
like a low-lying fog bank over lower Manhattan. The island
was already becoming eerily quiet. The crowd that had
gathered at Times Square was talking of different
possibilities. “Was it American or United?” “What kind of
airplane was it?” “I think the hijackers stole the airplane
from the ground. There probably weren’t any passengers on
board.” I knew that last one was wrong—much easier to
commandeer an aircraft in the air than steal one on the
ground and take off.
Back at the hotel, it soon
became apparent that I would be staying in NYC for at least
one more night. That afternoon, I headed for lower
Manhattan, deciding I would get as close to the damage as I
could. Streets were beginning to be barricaded, but there
were still a few cracks in the armor, so I got to within
about one-half mile of the damage. Although much smoke was
visible, I couldn’t see any debris or damage due to other
tall buildings in the area. Many other people had gathered,
all eager to see and assist if possible. A bunch of us
started helping the Salvation Army distribute bottles of
water to emergency personnel. Soon the net tightened and
“unknowns” were no longer allowed to help. As darkness began
to fall, I returned to my room.
As chairman of the Critical
Incident Response Program (CIRP) at the time, I knew I had
to start mobilizing the team. Unfortunately, we were
scattered all over the planet, completely immobile. Both the
trunk lines at the hotel and the cellular circuits were
overloaded, so communication was difficult. I eventually got
a message to the team through ALPA’s voice messaging
network. I asked those available to contact their chief
pilots and help in any way they could.
In the meantime, several
crews who might need CIRP assistance were stuck in New York.
I called or left messages to 35 people, mostly pilots.
Twenty-five gathered in a conference room at the hotel at
1300 on Thursday afternoon. I spent 15 minutes talking about
stress-related issues and then answered a few questions. We
then got a conference phone from the hotel and got through
to a chief pilot in Atlanta. Flight information was changing
by the minute. It soon became apparent that we wouldn’t be
leaving the city for at least one more night. After another
gathering at the hotel on Friday afternoon, we were told to
head to LaGuardia, where a special flight would take us all
to Atlanta. I arrived in Atlanta too late to catch the last
flight to Salt Lake, so I didn’t get home until Saturday
night.
In the meantime, Delta was
able to get some CIRP teams on the move earlier. One team
drove to New York from Atlanta on Wednesday. Some of our
pilots who were not stuck away from home headed to the
flight attendant and pilot lounges of their home bases. The
program is designed for pilots to interact with pilots, ramp
personnel with ramp personnel, etc. But this event was of
such magnitude, and the need was so great, that everyone
pitched in to help where they could. Howard Rohan and Dick
Allis spent days in the Atlanta lounges meeting incoming
flights to offer assistance to pilot and flight attendant
crews. Tim Velasco and Mike Dunn not only spent time in the
SLC lounges, they also went to LAX for a couple days to
assist, since we had no other CIRP volunteers in the area.
John Peterson and Lynn Rhoades commuted in early and spent
many hours in the lounges talking and answering questions.
In addition to his coordinator duties, David Cleveland spent
many hours at the airport helping out. Many others from
other bases went to where the need was greatest.
Responses to individuals
started diminishing after about ten days. The worst was
over, although we would be forever changed. CIRP pilot peers
alone interacted with several hundred employees, mostly
flight attendants and pilots, although a few responded to
mechanics, ACS, ramp personnel, etc. As of November 9, 2001,
Delta peers interacted with a total of 8,058 employees,
approximately 10 percent of the workforce.
When this program began at
Delta in 1995, no one envisioned an event such as the
terrorist attack of 9/11. But the team stepped up to the
task and accomplished the mission. My thanks to all the
pilots of the team who made it possible.
Captain Chris Hayes, Delta |