the real football

So, there I was, sitting in our break room, dumbfounded, not believing what I had just heard. Had we just suffered an attack on our own soil?

I got up off the couch, my co-workers watching my dazed and crazed walk to my computer. This is how I got a measure on how zoned out I was – I went to the web to try to find some information that would either confirm or clear up what I thought I had heard. Of course, the internet was not quite as quick then as it is today, and most of the likely news sites were already fairly bogged down. No luck there.

Still sitting there in a bit of a cloud of confusion, a couple of co-workers convinced me to head down the the cafeteria to check out the news. There it was confirmed – an airliner had hit the world trade center. Wow. No doubt this was a shock to everyone.

Here I was, sitting with other air traffic controllers, wondering just how the hell this could have happened. We all discounted almost immediately any of the “mistake” conjecture which suggested that either the pilot had made a mistake and couldn’t miss that really big building on a clear day, or that somehow a controller had made a dreadful mistake. Yes, we make mistakes, but NO, we do not make that kind of mistake.

Just as we were coming to the conclusion that something strange had happened in that first aircraft, we witnessed the horror of the second aircraft repeating the first; the second tower was hit. As was occurring across the country, our hearts sank.

After a moment, our own reality began to hit. We were working in an air traffic facility. While we were not instantly certain what was about to happen, there was no doubt that today would not be just another day at the office.