On 9/11, the FAA grounded 3,949 planes that had been in the air that morning. This story below, from an "Angel Flight" command pilot, tells of one plane allowed to fly - his.
A 9/11 "ANGEL FLIGHT" STORY:
name: Robert A. Tucknot
airline/airport: HWD (Hayward, Calif)
story::My Angel Flight 911 Story
On the morning of September the 11th, 2001, most of the nation was riveted to their television sets watching the drama unfold before our eyes. Little did we know in the aviation community this would have major short term and long term effects on our flying. The skies over the United States and all airports were immediately closed. I had an Angel Flight mission that day to pick up a patient in Susanville and fly her to Palo Alto for a Children’s Hospital treatment. The flight was scheduled at 5 p.m. that evening. That flight was cancelled as well as 6 more flights that I had scheduled the following week, transporting patients from remote areas to urban areas to get the advanced treatment they needed for their specialized afflictions.
Little did I know that at 3 p.m. that day I would get a call from the Director of the Alameda/Contra Costa County blood bank requesting an emergency flight of blood samples to be tested for blood to be shipped to New York and Washington D.C. preparing for what they thought was a large number of survivors that needed blood. I gave an Angel Flight presentation to a Rotary Club some months prior and in the audience was the Director of the Alameda/Contra Costa County blood bank who remembered what we do. She called me at 3 p.m. and asked if I could fly the blood. I told her that the skies were closed, all of the airports were closed but I thought that was a special mission. I thought I could do it and told her to give me about 3 hours. I had to have the samples to San Diego by 11 p.m. that evening to get them tested, so they could send the blood on a C-5 cargo transport out of Travis Air Force Base back to New York and to Washington D.C. It took me 3 hours but I finally got through to the head of the FAA, explained the situation and I got special permission to fly this flight. I was given a discrete squawk code that was given to all of the controllers in my routing from Hayward to San Diego. I also called the various controlling agencies and let them know what I was flying, when and what my cargo was. I called my Daughter, Renee, who needed a community service project and said, “Meet me at the airport, 7 p.m. we are departing.” We picked up the blood samples in Oakland (photos attached) at 7 p.m.
This flight was very strange from any other flight I have ever flown because the airport had all of the codes changed and was locked down. I knew a secret way to get into Hayward airport. After I got in, I was immediately run down by the security personnel wanting to know what I was doing there; I explained the situation and told him to call the tower. The tower was aware of me and gave me the appropriate clearance. Leaving Hayward I was told to use any runway and was cleared whenever I wanted, absolutely no traffic in the sky. No sooner had I lifted off from 28R in Hayward then I was given the instruction to call Oakland, well outside of Oakland space. I called Oakland and they cleared me to land right then and there on any runway. What was the point of any delays there were no other traffic or expected traffic that night. I landed, went to Kaiser Air, picked up the blood samples and we were off to San Diego.
What an eerie flight that was, as we flew that evening, there was complete silence on the airways; we were the only one talking to controllers. The controllers were all still at their positions but there was no other air traffic. We were handed off to So-Cal approach, which normally you can’t get a word in edgewise, and it was equally, eerily quiet. When we checked on they were expecting us and started chatting with us about what was going on only because they were getting bored. I asked if there were any other airplanes in the air and they said there were a couple of F-14 fighter jets high above me but that was all they had for air traffic. It wasn’t until 2 years afterward I found out that those two F-14’s were actually escorting me to San Diego to make sure I was who I was and doing what I was doing. They had orders to take me out if I deviated off course. I was given a clearance to land 40 nautical miles out from Limburg Field in San Diego and since the winds were calm they told me to pick any runway I wanted and was cleared to land. We took the over the water approach which is very pretty at night with all of the lights and landed. The FBO we had picked was Jim’s Air and we notified them in advance. They kept a crew there waiting for us just to take care of my airplane and get the blood on a Red Cross truck for testing which was waiting there for us. It was about 10:30 at night and we made our envelope of time but I was too tired to fly back. So we spent the night and left the next morning using the same code and the same procedures we had going down to San Diego for our return flight to Hayward. It was just as quiet, although I started to pick up some police helicopter traffic that was now flying in the L.A. basin.
I hope we never again have a situation in the United States where all of the air space was my own. This situation was an extreme event that we hope we never see again. It was an experience of a lifetime and I’ll never forget that flight.
Robert A. Tucknott
Aircraft Command Pilot
Angel Flight West
