My 9/11 story starts with me waking up at 5:00AM in the Royal Park Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. I had been in Asia for the last 12 days on a business trip. During that trip I has also spent a few days in Bangkok, Thailand researching potential partners for my company's' expected Asian expansion. During that time there was a typhoon in the region and the plane trip from Bangkok to Tokyo was especially rough. So rough that the flight attendants were no allowed to serve us for the majority of the flight and had to sit safely buckled in their own seats.
I needed to return to Japan to meet with some clients at Honda and the Nissan Tech Center in Tochigi. I met with Honda on Monday the 10th and was scheduled to meet with Nissan on the 11th. On the morning of the 9/11 the typhoon that I had flown through on my plane trip from Thailand had now reached Japan and the rain and wind was unlike anything that I had ever seen. The rain was coming sideways and it hurt when it hit you. My colligue Kenichi met me at 6:00AM in the lobby of the Royal Park and we headed to the Tokyo Train Station to begin our trip to Nissan.
When we reached the city of Tochigi, where Nissan is located, we found out that the thyohoon had taken out one of the main bridges in town and that the city was effectively cut in half. Fortunately we were on the same side of the city as the Nissan Tech Center, unfortunateley the only way to get there was by taxi and the taxi stand was uncovered. Also, because the bridge was out it meant that only half of the taxi cabs that would normally service the riders were available as the other half were stuck on the other side of the bridge. So Kenichi and I had to wait in-line outside in the rain until a taxi was available. I remember that the winds were so strong that it folded up my light-weight travel umbrella and made it useless within seconds. I draped it over my head like a hood to try to remain as dry as possible. Needless to say Kenichi and I were soaked to the skin before a taxi was avaible. I believe that took about one half hour until we were picked up. In true Japanese fashion we were shown some kindness by the men waiting in front of us. The four guys in front of us were also going to Nissan and they allowed Kenichi and I to squeeze into their cab for the ride. (Keep in mind that there were 6 grown men and the driver in a taxi was the size of a Nissan Sentra). When we got to Nissan I remember going to the men's rooms and wringing out my tie like a sponge and standing in front of the hand dryer trying to get rid of some of the water in my clothes. (It didn't work) We had our meetings in our wet clothing and headed back to Tokyo so that I could catch my 2:00 flight back to Detroit.
Before I left for the trip to Nissan I had stored my luggage in the hotel's storage unit. When I got back to Tokyo I needed to change into dry clothes for the plane trip home. Since I did not have a room, the manager of the hotel was nice enough to let me change in his office. I did not have enough room on the wet/dry sealed compartment in my suitcase so I stuffed my wet clothes in with my remaining clean dry clothes thinking that I would sort them out when I got home in 12-13 hours.
I had my usual Tokyo pre-departure meal in the Nariita Airport at the Big Boy restaurant; double decker hamburger with fries and a Coke. Because of the typhoon my flight was delayed until an opening in the storm was available. About 3:30 we were allowed to board the plane. I was flying business class so we boarded first and I remember that there was a young mother with an infant child in a stroller who was in our section and a foreign speaking black man who was wearing, of all things, what appeared to be a 'Cat in the Hat' purple and white striped top hat. I also sat next to a gentleman who was on his way back to South Carolina to sell all of his belongings and move back to retire in Thailand. He was a consultant working as an advisor for the Thai Air Force and he and a partner were going to start a business in Thailand chaufering golfers between the many world-class golf courses near Bangkok.
The flight was one of the worst flights that I had ever been on. The typhoon shook the plane and the turbulance made the air so unstable that the plane would drop unexpectantly. Like the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, the flight attendants were not allowed to serve us and my fellow passengers were earilly quiet as the flight progressed. The pilot continually told people not to leave their seats for any reason because it was too dangerous. You could hear the masive plane groaning and twisting in the storm and the constant sound of the luggage shifting in the overhead bins. The baby in our section began crying at some point and I could hear the mother trying to comfort the it. It was impossible to sleep. I tried to put on the headphones and watch a movie but it was too hard concentrate. At one point John turned to me and said that this was the worst flight conditions that he had ever been in and that he was surprised that we were allowed to take off at all.
It was impossible to sleep on the plane the turbulence was constatnt for 2-3 hours. I remember thinking that although I had been on rough flights before, I had never thought this I may not make it safely to the ground until now. I felt compelled to open my planner, retreive the pictures of my family and share them with John. My wife Sally, my 7 year old daughter Megan, and my 1 year old daughter Ruth. John showed me the pictures of his grown children and his new wife waiting for him in Thailand.
After about 3 hours the turbulence subsided and the flight took on it's normal pace. Dinner was served, and soon I was trying to get some sleep in order to try to prevent the jet-lag that I knew was waiting for me when I landed in Detroit. My sleep was soon interrupted as the captain was on the intercom. "If there is a doctor on plane, please identify yourself to a flight attendant." I heard his say. Apparently all of the turbulence had taken its toll and a fellow passenger had had a heart attack. Later we were told by the flight attendant that the passenger had been stabilized.
On the Northwest planes in business class each seat had its own television monitor. One of the options one these units is to track the progress of the flight of the plane on a GPS unit which I always like to do. About this time I noticed that instead of going over the Aleutian Islands and over Alaska and Northern Canada we were heading on a straight line for the Washington/Vancouver area of the west coast.
About the same time that it was obvious to most people on the plane that we were not following the usual route back to Detroit. A few people pointed it out to the flight attendants. After a while the captan came back on the intercom. "Some of you may have noticed that we are not taking the normal route to Detroit. The reason for this is that we need touchdown as soon as possible to get medical attention for the passenger who had medical issues earlier in the flight. We will touchdown and evacuate the passenger to an ambulance and then be back on our way. We will be landing at the Vancouver Airport. There will be no layover and no one else will be allowed disembark the airplane."
As we approached the Vancouver Airport nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the person lying on the gurney by the exit door. When we landed and taxied to the gate I could see dozens of planes parked in places that I would not expect to see planes and there were Canadian military vehicles everywhere and armed soldiers also. As we reached the gate the pilot came back on the intercom with the following cryptic announcement "I am sorry that I had to lie to you earlier. We will not be taking off and you will need to disembark from the airplane.There has been a lot of activity that has happened in the United States since we left Tokyo. While I am not at liberty to elaborate on these events, it is an understatement to say that you will always remember where you were on September 11th." With this we grabbed our carry-on luggage and disembarked the plane into the Vancouver Airport.
As were waiting to get off the plane people began to power-up their long dormant cell phones and listen to their voicemails. People began to recount outloud the messages that they were listening too.
"The U.S. in under attack."
"The World Trade Center has been hit by bombs."
"Washington D.C. has been bombed."
"A plane had been shot down over Pennsylvania."
"The U.S. was a war. but with who?"
The rumors spread like wildfire from one end of the plane to the other, but there was no real sense that these rumors were believable, or that we wanted to believe them.
The plane landed at approximately 9:00AM west coast time or about 12:00 eastern standard time. Although we did not know it, both of the World Trade Towers had already fallen, the Pentagon had been attacked, and Flight 93 had already crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Once in the airport we had to pass through customs, where no one actually told us why we had to get off the plane or what the actual events of 9/11 were. We trudged from customs to the open body of the terminal. The first thing I saw was the heavily armed presence of the Canadian Army, or National Guard and the fact that every television monitor in the airport was dark. There was also a recorded message that played through the terminal P.A. system. "The Vancouver Airport is closed until further notice due to the events in the United States.' I heard this announcement every few minutes for the next few hours.
Once in the terminal we were met by a Northwest Airlines representative. We were told that our luggage was going to be inspected and then released to us. After that we were to get on marked buses that would take us to the Seattle Airport where we would be put on flights home. But again, no confirmation of what had taken place in the United States while were in the air.
Keeping in mind that I had been up since 5:00AM that day and that to my body it now about 3:00AM the next morning and I had very little sleep and one hell of a plane ride. I needed to stay awake to get my luggage so that I could get on the first available bus to Seattle.
We waited for hours for our luggage. Every time one of the luggage carousels would groan and began to spin, dozens of people ran to it to see if their luggage was on it. There was no announcement of what flight it was, you would just hear a carousel begin to turn. I saw some great acts of kindness during these carousel fire drills. Many a times the younger stronger people would help older people who were struggling to get their luggage from the moving pile of baggage. I saw one old man being pulled off of his feet and dragged by the carousel while he tried to free his bag from under a pile of heavier luggage. A group of us ran over and started pulling the other bags off of his until his bag, and the man were free.
I had two simple goals at in the Vancouver Airport:
1. Phone my wife to let her know where I was.
2. Get my bag as quickly as possible and get on the first available bus to Seattle.
Did I reach my two goals, you'll find out in Part 2 of My 9/11 Story.
After about three hours my bag finally made its way down one of the carousels.
