Tell me about your 9/11.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. It was a clear, sunny morning, and I was driving to work

at a major airline, where I worked in a flight operations department. I was listening to NPR on the radio when they reported that an airplane had crashed into the WTC. The report was vague enough at that point that I assumed it was a small airplane that had got off course somehow (something like that had happened many years ago when a small plane hit the Empire State Building). I got to work within minutes of that report and immediately dashed into a meeting I was late for. By the time I got out of the meeting a short time later, it had become apparent that it was a lot worse than that, and everyone was gathering in a large conference room to watch the TV reports. We also learned that our airline's dispatchers had directed all aircraft to land immediately at the nearest suitable airport and that none of them had been involved in the attacks. But by this time they were scattered all over the world with no way for passengers, crews or airplanes to get home. To say that we were freaked out was an understatement.