ERAU Professor Recalls The Fateful Morning Of 9/11

Dr. Mike McCormick was the FAA’s Air Traffic Manager of the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in the New York sector, referred to as New York Center, on September 11, 2001. His story is as harrowing as they come, on a day no American will soon forget.

Now a professor of Air Traffic Management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), McCormick recently described his recollections of that morning to Mike Cavaliere, Executive Director of News & Media Relations with ERAU. During his time with the FAA, McCormick was heading a large workforce in a very busy airspace but still clearly remembers the message he received at 8:42 a.m. on his Blackberry:

“Possible hijack. American 11. Boeing 767. Flight level 310. Albany, southbound.”

He knew it was going to enter his airspace. He listened to a colleague on his phone giving position reports. The plane was approaching fast and low into the city. At 8:46 a.m. he heard: “It just hit the north tower.” 

Without time to think, he almost immediately heard a controller say another flight had been hijacked. McCormick said, “We are under attack.” No one outside his office yet knew about the second plane. McCormick recalled, “I believe I am the first person in the world that said, ‘We are under attack.’”

At 9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower.

At that moment, McCormick declared New York Center airspace, extending from Philadelphia to Boston, as “ATC Zero” effectively closing the airspace. McCormick directed his people to close down the facility and escort visitors out. The rest of the nation’s airspace was closed at 9:35 a.m.

McCormick said, “I decided, we’re under attack. They’re using aircraft as weapons. The only way that I can work to stop it is to remove the weapons.”

At 9:37 a.m. American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. At 10:02 a.m., United Airlines flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville in southwestern Pennsylvania.

McCormick felt anger at those who violated our lives and livelihoods: “Anger that they would use something that I love – aviation – to attack our country.”

McCormick brought in clergy and healthcare workers to care for his colleagues. He had prior experience in making urgent decisions rapidly and then moving on to the next one. When the shock and chaos subsided a little, he realized the decision had become, “What do we do tomorrow?”

McCormick’s full interview is available at the link below.  (Photo credit ERAY/Bernard Wilchuski)

FMI:  news.erau.edu/