‘We felt the impact of the plane flying into the Pentagon’

• USA’s Chargé d’Affaires to Malta was less than a mile away, recounts her personal experience

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the tragic, horrific events that unfolded on September

11, 2001.

What happened on that day changed the world. Most people who were alive at the time remember exactly where they were when the news broke that the first hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, in New York City, at 8.46am. A second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, was crashed by hijackers into the South Tower 17 minutes later.

“9/11 has served as the motivation, the drive of the last 20 years of my career, and is why national security has been at the forefront of every job that I have taken” – USA’s Chargé d’Affaires to Malta Gwendolyn “Wendy” Green

Around half an hour after that, another hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon. The world fell silent.

A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, saw crew and passengers try to retake the plane from hijackers, but tragically crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania.

The Malta Independent on Sunday sat down with the USA’s Chargé d’Affaires to Malta Gwendolyn “Wendy” Green, who was just under a mile away from the Pentagon when Flight 77 crashed into it.

Before becoming a U.S. diplomat, Green worked for both United Airlines and American Airlines. She lost dear friends and former colleagues in the September 11 attacks.

“I was in Arlington Virginia, about 3/4ths of a mile away from the Pentagon, taking a course in preparation for an assignment in South Africa.”

“I remember walking through a hallway, seeing people gathered around a TV. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. At that moment I thought that it must have been a small plane.”

Then another plane hit. “I questioned: ‘is air traffic control down?’ I was trying to make sense of it in my head, as I think we all were.”

“Soon after, we heard a plane fly overhead in a weird flight pattern. There are basically two ways into the national airport in Washington DC, yet this plane seemed to be off. Nobody thought much about it, until we felt the impact of the plane flying into the Pentagon.”

“There were floor-to-ceiling windows in the building I was in, and I remember them literally sway in and out as the impact wave came across. It was loud, strong.” They began being evacuated.

“It was a bit chaotic. Everyone was trying to leave. Reports came in that there was a car bomb at the State Department. Of course these ended up being proven false later, but we didn’t know that at the time. We were all trying to figure out what to do.”

“The area I was in was, at the time, the alternate command centre for the Department of State and so we began setting up for the movement of principles to that location, away from Washington DC, so that they could run operations from there.”

“At that point, when that was set up, I walked to a friend’s apartment. I didn’t particularly want to be alone, I don’t think anybody did. We still didn’t know what was happening. We had heard about Flight United 93 that had crashed in Pennsylvania. I stayed with my friends, tried to get a hold of my family to let them know that I was ok. Cell communications were down. Everybody was moving by foot, you couldn’t drive anywhere. I was just outside of Washington DC, on the other side of the river.”

She later went home. “I lived in an apartment building which was around 16-storeys tall, and there was a community room on top. I went there. We watched as the Pentagon burned. Everybody watched the President’s speech together. There was a lot of humanity that day, everyone leaning on each other.”

Prior to becoming a diplomat, Green worked for United Airlines. Before United Airlines, she worked for American Airlines. Flights from both were hijacked that day.

“I was desperately trying to get the crew manifests, to find out who was on those planes. At the time, my then husband worked for American Airlines. I was trying to get a phone line out to find out where people were. He wasn’t with me in Washington, DC.”

“They were some of the longest hours of my life,” she said. “I confirmed that he was ok. Eventually I began to receive calls from friends of mine, who let me know that my former roommate, Kathryn LaBorie, was on the second plane to hit the World Trade Centre. She was the flight attendant in charge of the aircraft.”

“I’ve come to learn years later that she was probably murdered, or at least severely injured so that the attackers could get into the cockpit and take over the aircraft.”

“One of the most frequently used and iconic images of that day is the second plane hitting the World Trade Centre. For me, that is the real-time death of my friend, my former roommate and other colleagues,” she said, looking away.

20 years have passed since that horrendous day. For many people like Green, it is a day that brings back painful memories, and is a day that changed the course of people’s lives.

“9/11 has served as the motivation, the drive of the last 20 years of my career, and is why national security has been at the forefront of every job that I have taken,” she said.

Green wants Kathryn, as well as all those who tragically lost their lives on 9/11, to be remembered, never forgotten.