9/11 Airline Pilots

[Steve]

woke in the middle of the night, and just couldn't stop thinking about the events of the last year. I began to think about the pilots of the doomed airliners on September the 11th and realized that I knew nothing about them. With all of the news about the firefighters and police men, it seems that the Pilots of these planes have been overlooked. Does anyone know anything about these men? Maybe you flew with them, or serve this country with them at your side. I think everyone on the board would agree that they should never be forgotten.

 

[bigr]

heres a nice website set up as a memorial to Victor Saracini, Captain of the United Flight that hit the WTC. It contains links to his Co-pilots memorial website. there may be other web sites for the other pilots, try a google search.

http://www.victorsaracini.com

American Flight 11 Captain John Oganowski, First Officer Tom Mcguiness

The Captain's last name of the American flight that hit the pentagon was Burlingame.


United 93 Captain Jason Dahl, First officer Leroy Homer.

 

[flywithruss]

Rounding out the group is the FO of AA 93 (Pentagon), David Charlebois, who was a fellow Embry-Riddle alum. ERAU set up a scholarship fund in his memory.

I agree these eight pilots should never be forgotten. They showed up for work one day, just like every single one of us does, not knowing they'd become the victims of madmen possessed by a dangerously warped interpretation of faith.

It is my hope that my life, and my life's work, honors the sacrifice our fellow aviators made.


"The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." -- Abraham Lincoln

 

[SDdriver]

GODSPEED TO THOSE GUYS

Let them soar among the clouds forever....They will never be forgotten.

SD

 

[Delta3]

Captain Burlingame was an Eagle Scout and a memorial article was dedicated to him in the National Eagle Scout Magazine.

 

[bigD]

I'm not military, but those sites glassed my eyes over. Especially after reading the poems/essays from Captain Saracini's kids. D*amn.

They say time heals all wounds. Not this time.

 

[Timebuilder]

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

 

[nimtz]

I was in Boston on 9-11 and I will always remember a nice tidbit about Captain John Oganowski that came out from a press conference. He lived out on a farm not too far from Boston. It was the area he had lived his whole life and like alot of America developers were trying to buy up a bunch of the area land and build office space. Mr. Oganowski and the local residents were fighting this, because many of them wanted to keep their town's simple past. He was so serious about this that he bought up the land himself and had arranged for it to be left for the community, which shut out the developers. It is his legacy to the land where he spent his whole life.

You have to respect the man for his passion. I carry a picture I found from his memorial service in my flight bag. Godspeed...

 

[CaptBuzzard]

I just looked at the memorial sites of the pilots from United 175. That broke my heart seeing their families and reading about their past. It just still makes me sad and very angry that they are gone. Them along with the other 3000 people that should still be here today. Also, not to forget our military personel that are gone too. Anyway, those websites made me feel kind of sick to my stomach.

 

[Slim]

Here's a little more about Capt. Charles "Chic" Burlingame.

He was a graduate of the USNA and served on active duty and as a reservist. He retired from the Navy Reserve as a captain (O-6). While at the Academy, he acquired the nickname "Gramps" from fellow students and that later became his call sign.

I was part of his crew on several ocassions while a flight attendant for AA.

BTW, according to Fox News Network, there is legislation before Congress which proposes changes to eligibility for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Among the changes is improved eligibility for reservists who retire after 20 years, but have not turned 60. If approved, retired reservists who are not yet 60 will be eligible. Restrictions for other groups would be tightened to accomodate the change for reservists. The legislation, in part, is due to the difficulty the Burlingame family had obtaining a waiver for Capt. Burlingame's burial at ANC.

Fly safe!

 

[skydiverdriver]

Amazing.
So, why do you guys think the media has made such a big deal about firefighters and police officers, but said little or nothing about the airline crews that died that day? Flight attendants as well were brutally killed before the aircraft were crashed, and I think all of the flight crews were true heroes. I have nothing against firefighters and police officers, but they were doing their jobs that day, just like the flight crews. Why the disparity?

 

[Steve]

Not really sure why the flight crews have been so overlooked. Even the civilians who died in the WTC have not gotten as much press as the Firefighters and cops. The way I see it, the office employees were just as heroic as the firefighters and cops. At least the cops and firefighters knew what they are getting into. When they began there careers, they knew the professions they were choosing were dangerous and they made the decision to choose them. What about the quite guy who never wanted to be in the action, just go to his safe office job do his days work and go home to his family and live a normal life. The way I see it, that is where the real tragedy lies.

 

[Kaman]

Heroes of our time

Hello,
I too have found it surprising that most of the recognition for heroism has been bestowed upon police, fire and other rescue personnel. This is well deserved, because they made the ultimate sacrifice in the carrying out of their duties. However, the cockpit and cabin crews of the four aircraft on 9-11 are also heroes in my eyes. We will never know what the circumstances were that allowed the murderers to commandeer those aircraft, however, it would never have been without a fight.
Some of you have been flying for a long time, some for just a short time or perhaps even just dream of a life in the cockpit. Flying has been a way of life for me since I was the mere toddler son of a career USAF pilot. Flying is by it's very nature a dangerous business whether it's flying off the deck of a frigate on a moonless night, or flying a transport category aircraft across the Pacific. I don't know if I will ever feel the same as I did prior to 9-11, because whatever false sense of naivety I had was wiped out in an instant on that day.
At the end of the day, perhaps we can all keep the men and women in the cockpit and cabin in our prayers, try and do our jobs with just a little more diligence and keep the press on...I have no doubts that they would have wanted it that way.

Regards,

ex-Navy Rotorhead

Remember:

"There is nothing better than flying when it's pure and it's good"
(paraphrasing a quote from "Varsity Blues")