Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"You'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to see what is happening to America at the moment. Obviously; TV reports will be updating this matter second by second but at the moment it appears that at least two air carrier class aircraft have been involved in what certainly appears to be a deliberate attack on the World Trade Center.

One of those aircraft has been reported to be an American Airlines 767 out of Boston which impacted one of the WTC Towers.

The attacks have apparently lead to the collapse of both towers, with what must be an incredible loss of life as the normal population of both towers is reported to in the neighborhood of 50,000 people.

A Reuters report says that the aircraft was a hijacked American Airlines' Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, according to Lori Bassani, the spokesperson for American's flight attendants union. Bassani, who said she was in a meeting with American officials in Fort Worth, Texas, American's headquarters, said if full, the flight on the Boeing 767 would carry 158 passengers. That would include two pilots and nine or 10 flight attendants, she said. She reported she did not know how many people were on board (some reports now put the POBs as 90 people). We have no idea what aircraft made the first impact but various reports indicate that it was on the order of a Boeing 737/757/767, with some reports now indicating that this was a hijacked United Airlines aircraft out of Dulles.

Additional reports indicate that a large attack has taken place on the Pentagon, also currently attributed to an aircraft (now reported as a Boeing). The FAA has ordered the grounding of all commercial aircraft and commercial airports all across the country are being shut down as fast as they can get the aircraft landed. The White House and most Federal Buildings in the District of Columbia (where a car bomb has now been reported to have exploded outside the State Department) have been ordered evacuated. Other reports of hijacked aircraft and aircraft crashes are coming in as we write this. Our ability to get data to the site, via the overloaded Internet has been slowed considerably, and we will report what seems appropriate as we can... but one thing is now assured, all of our lives have now changed in ways that we can only begin to imagine. "

Source: ANN Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell, in ANN's early morning coverage on September 11th, 2001, starting just minutes after the attack and after both towers collapsed...

FMI: www.aero-news.net