[Dadhawk]

I was working at Delta Air Lines and happened to be involved with the IT side of Situation Management. Just by happenstance I was the one that reported the second tower being hit to the Situation Room as it was being set up, having seen it on a newsfeed.

At that point we didn't know if it was one of our planes or not. It was a very stressful day.

I worked at the Delta Atlanta offices in what is known as the Reliability Center (their data center) which is in full view of the Atlanta runways. I was in a conference room when, after several days of no activity at the airport (9/14 as I recall), the first plane came in for a landing. The meeting stopped and we all just watched it land, then broke into applause and tears. it was more emotional than I ever thought it could be.

Oddly enough, the date 9/11 has other significance for me, just not the same year. It's the date that I got my pilot's license in 1994, and was my start date with Delta in 1996. My Father also passed away the week of 9/11/2001 (on that Friday). He had a heart attack while napping in his recliner after having come in from changing the starter on his truck.