Reply #164: About the Predator drones.

[MercutioATC]

I hadn't heard any stories of them being used, but it wouldn't surprise me. Civilian air traffic was shut down, so they wouldn't have gotten in the way and they're cheaper and easier to put up than fighters.

I'm sorry about your friend. I was at the FAA's tech center working on a project on 9/11. When I arrived in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at to meet my coworkers in the morning, I saw the second plane hit on the TV in the hotel's lounge. I immediately called my sister and brother-in-law on my cellphone and my brother-in-law answered. As it turns out, they had both decided to go into work late that morning and hadn't even been watching TV (they're attorneys...my brother-in-law worked on the same block as the WTC buildings). They were fine, obviously. Had they been at work as they usually were, however, things might have ended very differently. I still think about that from time to time, especially on 9/11.