email649.xml

email649.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-09-03

Hi, all...

First off, my prayers are with everyone in the country, and around the world today, affected by this tragedy.

I want to thank the WWWAC list - You served as my, and the rest of United Flight 425, from Newark to Colorado's link to the outside world for about 20 minutes.

I boarded that flight at Newark at 7:40 in the morning. There were 14 flights ahead of us for takeoff, according to the pilot. I nodded off.

The pilot came back on when we were fourth for takeoff, telling us that something was wrong with the World Trade Center, and we'd be waiting on the runway for a few minutes.

I pulled out my Visor and wireless modem, and instantly checked my email. As I was, the pilot announced that a plane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center. Everyone looked to their left out of the plane, and sure enough, there was smoke coming off the horizon.

That's when I got the first few emails from the list, talking about it. Within 2 more minutes, I'd found out about the Pentagon as well.

I became the link to the outside world for the next 15 minutes, with the flight attendants and passengers waiting for the 30 second email checks. I read them off as I got them.

The pilot came back on and said we were returning to the gate. We all sat down. In all the time I've been flying, that moment was the scariest time of my life. We barreled back to the gate faster than I've ever seen it before. Something in my mind just told me to get off the plane and turn in my ticket. At that point, the airport was still open.

We got outside of the gate, and that's when it hit me - I was looking at the skyline, and one of the towers was NOT THERE. That was the first time I realized the magnitude of what happened.

We waited at the outside of the terminal for about 3 hours - I wound up finding about 5 people, all of whom didn't know each other, but sort of came together as a group. My visor was overloaded at that point, and I couldn't get a signal. But my Motorola Timeport 2 way pager was still on, and I was able to send messages to my parents, finding out that they were both ok.

Finally, we found a bus that was able to take us to another terminal, where we waited... A guy in a van came by, and took me and my five new friends to the Marriott, still on airport property.

We hung out in their bar for about five hours, it was around 6pm by this time. Somehow, I managed to get a room at the hotel, and I grabbed my new friends, and we went and washed our faces for the first time in about 12 hours.

We went downstairs afterwards, and sat on the lawn, on the grass. It was surreal - the smell of the grass, a beautiful sunset, and in the background, smoke, soot, dust, and a hole where the world trade center used to be. Truly, truly surreal.

We went back upstairs, and just fell asleep. Totally exhausted. Left the television on, and six people, none of whom had ever met before, 2 of whom spoke Japanese and very little English, all fell asleep on a king size bed, all holding each other.

Woke up early this morning, and no cars were going in or out of Newark. We gathered our suitcases, and started walking. We walked out of the hotel, and out of the airport. We walked on the roads, on the ramps, until we got onto Route 9 North. A poultry truck stopped for us, and told us he could get us to right outside of downtown Newark. We thanked him, and climbed into the back of the truck. Once we got to downtown Newark, we walked a few more miles to the PATH train, which was running to 33rd St. We got on the train, and got to Penn Station.

I walked out of Penn Station, looked up 8th avenue, looked down 8th avenue, and started crying, as I started walking home to my apartment on 43rd St.

If I can help anyone in any way, please let me know - whatever I can do.

Stay safe, God Bless... We WILL get through this horrible act of senseless violence and terrorism, and we will be stronger from it.


Good luck to all,

-Peter Shankman

09/12/02

I'm fine, I was on the Runway at Newark