The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

by Garrett M. Graff

One of the most startling effects was that within about two orbits, all the contrails normally crisscrossing the United States had disappeared because they had grounded all the airplanes and there was nobody else flying in U.S. airspace except for one airplane that was leaving a contrail from the central U.S. toward Washington. That was Air Force One heading back to D.C. with President Bush.

One of

the firemen from Rescue 1 looked up and said, “We may not live through today.” We looked at him, and we looked at each other, and we said, “You’re right.” We took the time to shake each other’s hands and wish each other good luck and “Hope I’ll see you later,” which is especially poignant for me because we all had that acknowledgment that this might be our last day on earth and we went to work anyway.

Ultimately, 60 of the FDNY personnel killed on 9/11 were supposed to be off-duty that morning.

Sen. Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota), Senate Majority Leader: Sen. John Glenn, a dear friend, came by. I said, “Did you see that? A pilot flew into the World Trade Center.” He said, “Pilots don’t fly into buildings. That wasn’t a pilot.”

Bruno Dellinger: While I was walking down, they were going up to their deaths. And I was walking down to live. I will never forget this.

Frederick Terna, Holocaust survivor and Brooklyn resident: As ashes were falling, I was back in Auschwitz, with ashes coming down. In Auschwitz, I knew what the ashes were. Here, I assumed I knew what the ashes were—it was a building and human remains.

By the end of the day, they had collectively evacuated somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people from Manhattan—a maritime rescue larger than the World War II evacuation from Dunkirk.

The fires at Ground Zero would burn for another 99 days, until they were finally extinguished for good on December 19.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.”

“September 10 2001 Uno nunca muere la víspera.” It is a saying in Spanish. It’s impossible for you to die on the eve of your death. You only die when you have to die. You’re never close to death. You die or you’re alive.