A TWA pilot who narrowly avoided crashing a hijacked plane into the World Trade Center and the US Capitol on September 11, 2001, is being remembered 22 years later as an unsung hero.
The little-known incident is buried in the history of 9/11 when 2,977 people were killed in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in four planes controlled by Islamic terrorists.
The pilot of TWA flight 3 took “evasive action” twice before landing safely – first to avoid a collision with United Flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center, and then Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, according to the New York-based airline. the attendant who is in the crew.
“There were two near misses,” he told The Post.
The unmistakable pilot is never remembered, or even publicly identified, in the 9/11 Commission Report or other accounts.
But to the passengers on that ill-fated flight, he was unforgettable.
“He saved our lives, without a doubt,” said Lt. Retired FDNY Charlie Hubbard, who was one of them.
An unnamed TWA pilot, seen here in a screenshot from a television news interview, recalls how he “avoided” one of the doomed 9/11 flights. ABC News
A TWA Boeing 767 departs from JFK to St. Louis at 8:47 a.m. — almost exactly when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. — the first to strike the World Trade Center.
Presiding over the cockpit was “George,” said the flight attendant, who could only remember his first name.
As the TWA jet took off in the clear blue sky, passengers saw a shocking sight – the World Trade Center was on fire.
Minutes later, the jet collided with United 175 as it headed to NYC from Boston, the flight attendant said. “We clipped up and down,” he recalled, referring to the defensive maneuver.
Plumes of smoke from the crash site of Flight 93. Val McClatchey
“I thought we were going to crash,” one terrified TWA passenger told ABC News in a statement that has since surfaced. video clip.
The plane was “shaking” as it “went down and up again,” he said. “And then, you could just see, like the plane was passing us very close.”
After learning that United 175 had hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m., TWA flight attendants pushed a food cart to the cockpit door as a precaution against a possible hijacking.
The pilot warned the crew “he’ll be standing behind the door with an axe,” the New York attendant recalled.
Entering the cockpit to remove the pilot’s food tray, he remembered the dire warning over the loudspeaker: “This is a national emergency. At the behest of the federal government, any aircraft still in the sky within 20 minutes will be shot down by friendly fire.”
The pilot had originally planned to make an emergency landing in Indianapolis but was diverted to Dayton, Ohio.
Passengers who could call home “started yelling that the Pentagon had been hit,” the flight attendant recalled.
The terrorists on American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building at 9:37 am
Then a “proximity alarm” in the TWA cockpit warned of another plane flying within 1,000 feet.
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The pilot took another evasive action – to get away from Flight 93, out of Newark, bound for Washington, DC, the flight attendant said.
Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, PA, at 10:03 a.m. after brave passengers fought to wrest control from the hijackers.
After pilot George landed in Dayton, he confirmed, live, that he had avoided the plane that hit the WTC.
“Well, he was there when we came from New York. So what we had to do was — they (air traffic control) didn’t talk to him, and he changed his direction and altitude, so they cleared us to deviate however we had to stay away from him,” he told ABC World News Tonight, which did not name him.
“We’ve seen it — it’s a good day in New York. We’re out of the clouds, which helps a lot. We’re just, you know, avoiding him.”
The TWA crew arrived at the St. Louis two days later to applause, and knowing how close they were to the second jet taking off, the flight attendant said: “We missed their tail by 500 feet.”
“We’re lucky to be alive,” said Hubbard, who recently retired from Engine 5 on the Lower East Side and headed to Hawaii with his brother, James, a nurse, who died of cancer six years ago.
Lt. Retired FDNY Charlie Hubbard was on a flight with his brother, en route to Hawaii. Courtesy of Charlie Hubbard
Officials inspect the crater in Shanksville, Pa., created by the crash of Flight 93. AFP via Getty Images
After pilot George landed in Dayton, he confirmed, live, that he had avoided the plane that hit the WTC. AP
Hubbard recently told horrible experience at X, formerly Twitter.
The fact that no collision occurred helps explain why the near miss has been forgotten, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation and one of several lawyers who won $500 million in airline settlements for the families of those killed.
Any flight crew who took evasive action to avoid a collision should report it to their airline, which would then file a form with the Federal Aviation Administration, Schiavo said.
American Airlines, which absorbed TWA later in 2001, did not return messages.
An FAA spokesman, when asked for any reports of the 9/11 near-collision, did not provide any reports.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
