This was on another list I belong to. It speaks for itself.
Joe


Folks,

I just arrived home at 10:30pm and feel like sharing a little of my
week.

I was to start three days of single day trips out of Syracuse on tuesday
morning.
I left my crash-pad in syracuse at 4:45 am Tuesday morning and looked up
at
the
heavens to see one of the absolute clearest skys that I have seen in the
northeast
in years. The stars were so bright that it really made an impression.
I drove to the airport and got ready for my 6:15 am departure for
Baltimore.
Since
I had been on vacation for 10 days I checked everything a least twice.
My
first
officer for the month, Paul Pryor, and I have flown togeather many times
before
and we joked about what we would to to keep us awake on such a beautiful
day.
I flew the first leg to Baltimore and joked with Paul that after my
flawless
landing
that he would get all the rest for the week as I didn't want to
jeprodize my
perfect
string.
We left for New York's LaGuardia at 8:15 am and proceeded up the coast
with
absolute
glee with the visability almost unlimited and air traffic control giving
us
every
short-cut available with out a single request from us.  We were 20 miles
south of
Robbinsville, NJ about 50 miles south of LaGuardia when I decidied to
get
the arrivial
information.  While I was copying the info Paul remarked that there was
a
large smoke
flume over the city.  I glanced at my dme and noted that we were 16.1
miles
from
Robbinsville and it was 8:55 am. I remarked to Paul that the smoke could
be
coming from
one of the aux generating plants that NYC has to provide power to the
city
in case of
a power loss or high demand days.  He got my attention when he said
"look
Bob the World
Trade Center seems to be on fire."  About that time approach control
told is
to desend to
four thousand feet and switch to the next approach frequency.  I
switched
and waited a
moment to call in when another aircraft asked, "approach, Whats going
on?"
the controller
responded "un-officially an aircraft has collided with the World Trade
Towers". Paul and
I looked at each other in shock because by now we were with-in 30 miles
of
Laguardia heading
straight at the towers and from the size of the smoke pflume we knew it
was
not a small
plane that had hit the tower.  We had tuned WABC into our ADF and were
listening to the
morning hosts say that there were reports of an aircraft hitting tower
#1.
when I caught a
reflection of light from the north side of the complex and then the
whole
side of tower #2
blew out as we passed alongside the southeast side of the building.  We
were
within a mile of
the tower and 3,000 feet above it when the second plane hit it.

I saw the second half of the attack on NY City.  I turned to Paul and
said "
Paul that was not
an accident.  That was a terriorist attack. I think we should consider
landing somewhere else.
You have the airplane and radio 1 while I call the company." As I called
the
company Paul
tapped my arm and told me we were being directed to land at LaGuardia.

With-in 5 min of our arrivial the airport was shut down and with-in 30
min
the terminal was
ordered evacuated.  Our director of operations asked me to gather up all
of
our crews
now numbering 7 and keep them togeather and to call my wife as he had
just
called her to see
if I had a cell phone.  I was able to call Cornelia and she answered on
the
first ring. I tried
several times later in the morning but couldn't get through so when my
First
officer's Dad called
him Paul asked that he call my family to tell them that I was allright
and
would call later to
let them know where we were going to be.We all walked over to the hotel
that
we stay in
when we overnight there hoping that they might still have some rooms.
They
did all 2 of them.
Six of us volunteered to travel into Manhatten to lend assistance in any
way
we could but were
thanked for our offer but told that even though they appreciated the
offer
they couldn't get us
there as all bridges and tunnels were shut down.  The police sargent who
was
talking to us was
crying as he had a brother who was on scene when the Towers collapsed.
About 2 in the afternoon
I was able to find a rental van and got permission from the company to
take
four of the crews
back to Syracuse.

Just thought I would share this with all of you, I'm not sure why, I
guess I
just need to talk
about it.  I was right there, saw it happen and couldn't do a damn thing
to
help. As we drove across
the Throgs Neck Bridge leaving Queens for the north side Long Island
Sound
we could see the large
hole that was carved out of the New York skyline.  I've spent the last
two
days sitting around
Syracuse waiting to go back down to pick-up out aircraft and have had a
lot
of time to watch
the TV coverage.  We should have seen this coming, the signs were all
there
but we just didn't
want to believe that it could happen to us.

I wish I could be part of the retrobution that is to come, but I'm too
old
now to be recalled,
but that dosen't damped my desire. The most terrible act I can imaging
has
be perpetrated on this
country and is only the first of what I fear is many more to come.

God bless us all.

Bob O
[email protected]