This is what it was like to be on Air Force One on 9/11

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 9 September 2016

Fifteen years ago Sunday, America and the world changed forever when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on a clear September morning in New York City. Soon, nearly all airplanes across the nation were grounded except for the one that harbored George W. Bush from the unknown and unfolding threat.

Preparing to possibly spend days in the air, Air Force One was loaded with 40 gallons of coffee, 70 box lunches, 25 pounds of bananas, 65 passengers, crew, and press, and the 43rd president of the United States. While what happened aboard has been photographed and recounted, never has it been told to the extent that it is in the white-knuckle oral history published at Politico on Friday. Drawing from over 40 hours of interviews with everyone from Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to Chief of Staff Andy Card to an F-16 pilot tasked with escorting Air Force One, the story recounts the uncertainty, chaos, grief, and brief moments of humor from aboard the plane:

Ellen Eckert [stenographer]: The plane is like the Twilight Zone [...] I saw one of the agents was standing in the hallway, and I went up to him, "So this is the safest place to be? This is Air Force One, right?" He said, "Well, listen, don't mention this, but we might as well have a big red X on the bottom of this plane. We're the only plane in the sky." That was scary. I went into the bathroom and used one of those Air Force One notepads to write a letter to my family — six siblings and two parents. They're never going to see this, it's going to burn up in a fiery inferno. One of the flight attendants opened the door and comforted me and gave me a washcloth to wipe. "We've got this. We're all together." [...]Ari Fleischer: Out of the front left of the chopper, the president had a clear view of the Pentagon. The president said to nobody and everybody, "The mightiest building in the world is on fire. This is the face of war in the 21st century." [Politico]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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