I’ve told the story before, but I’ll tell it again....
I used to work as an airport shuttle driver around Sea-Tac Airport. My first pickup that morning was two older couples, going off to a two-week vacation in the Caribbean. As I drove along, I had a local all-news channel playing in the van, mostly for traffic reports. The news of the first plane came over the radio, and we all said “What a shame”. About 5 minutes from the airport, the radio gave the news about the second plane, and one of the gentlemen in the back said “That’s no accident”.
After I dropped them off at the airport, I was waiting for my next run to be sent to me, when on the van’s two-way radio another driver said “I heard they’re closing the airport”. Another driver asked “Which airport?”, and the dispatcher chimed in “ALL of them!”.
I headed north into Seattle towards my next run, and I was just inside the city limits when word came about the Pentagon. I drove for another 5 minutes before I decided I needed to call my wife. She told me she’d already heard and not to worry about her. I continued on to the area where the pickups were, but before I could pick anyone up, the two-way came to life...”All vans...if you have guests aboard inbound (to the airport), turn around and take them back home. We doubt there will be any more flights today. All vans that are clear (no guests aboard), return to the airport to get guests to take them home”.
As I drove back to the airport, I noticed how beautiful the skies were. Not a cloud in the sky. As I saw the skyline of Seattle, I wondered if in the next moment that skyline would disappear in a nuclear fireball.
I got off work and went home. I sat with my wife, our little boy, and our month-old baby girl, and watched the news for the rest of the day. We didn’t say much...there wasn’t anything to say.
I was scheduled to work the next day, but didn’t return to work until two days later. The company darn near went belly-up, but they managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth, and they are still running today.
I’m glad the company survived. Must have been quite a shock when they told you that every airport was shutting down.