story947.xml
Title
story947.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-07-30
911DA Story: Story
I wrote these thoughts on September 14, 2001, while on a layover in Osaka as a flight atendant for United airlines.
My flight to Osaka was Monday, September 10, 2001, with a short overnight layover and then return home on September 12th. But on September 11th, the crew awoke in the middle of the night to hear our nation was under attack. Our first reaction was shock and unbelief. We were glued to the TV for any tidbit of information that was new. We sought out our fellow crew members to find comfort and share our tears, and we prayed.
As airline crew, we are in a unique job. No one understands our life style like another crew member, so we gravitated toward each other. United, FEDEX, KLM, it did not matter, we were the same. We pictured ourselves in those hijacked planes and wondered how the crew felt and responded to what was happening to them. We cried to see those airplanes crash and to know our flight attendant brothers and sisters were in those planes.
We sat in Osaka day after day waiting for the news we longed to hear, that we could go home. We felt like there had been a death in the family, and we could not get back. Finally, on Friday we got the message that we would fly home on Saturday.
Home...is there a better word to describe the place of comfort, love and safety. But would we ever be totally safe again? Would our skies ever seem completely safe? Would our jobs ever be free of the threat of terrorists? Would our country ever be as naive or secure as it once was? That all changed on September 11, 2001.
My flight to Osaka was Monday, September 10, 2001, with a short overnight layover and then return home on September 12th. But on September 11th, the crew awoke in the middle of the night to hear our nation was under attack. Our first reaction was shock and unbelief. We were glued to the TV for any tidbit of information that was new. We sought out our fellow crew members to find comfort and share our tears, and we prayed.
As airline crew, we are in a unique job. No one understands our life style like another crew member, so we gravitated toward each other. United, FEDEX, KLM, it did not matter, we were the same. We pictured ourselves in those hijacked planes and wondered how the crew felt and responded to what was happening to them. We cried to see those airplanes crash and to know our flight attendant brothers and sisters were in those planes.
We sat in Osaka day after day waiting for the news we longed to hear, that we could go home. We felt like there had been a death in the family, and we could not get back. Finally, on Friday we got the message that we would fly home on Saturday.
Home...is there a better word to describe the place of comfort, love and safety. But would we ever be totally safe again? Would our skies ever seem completely safe? Would our jobs ever be free of the threat of terrorists? Would our country ever be as naive or secure as it once was? That all changed on September 11, 2001.
Collection
Citation
“story947.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed April 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/15097.