It was premeditated mass murder, almost flawlessly executed, and civil aircraft were the weapons of choice. A civil airplane was also the battlefield for the first retaliatory strike, when the passengers of a United 757 most likely aimed at a Washington landmark took matters into their own hands and fought back, causing the Boeing to fall short of its intended target. The events on that bright, sunny and hellish dark day could turn out to be the beginning of World War III, and a hideous perversion of peaceful aviation was the delivery system for four opening shots not only heard ’round the world, but also watched time after time on every broadcast news network on the globe.
This opening segment of our annual Newsmakers special report by the editors of AIN pays tribute to those who unwittingly found themselves on the front line on that dazzlingly clear, post-frontal late summer morning, and those who labored diligently to get business aviation back in the air in the aftermath.
