September 11: An Aviation Memory That Still Stays With Us

For many Americans, September 11, 2001, is remembered not only through the images we all saw on television, but through the very specific details of where we were and what we were doing when the world suddenly changed.

For Abbie Jones, that morning began in a high-rise office building in Atlanta, located within the flight path of DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, commonly known as PDK.

Like so many others, she watched the events unfold in disbelief. She saw the second plane strike the World Trade Center live on television in the office breakroom.

Then came the evacuation.

Air travel across the United States was being shut down, buildings were being cleared, and no one yet knew the full extent of what was happening. Abbie had already transitioned to using a cell phone exclusively, but on September 11, she experienced something that had never happened before — she could not make a call.

Her parents eventually reached her by calling from a landline.

It is a small detail compared with the enormous loss of that day, but it is one of those details that captures how completely September 11 disrupted everyday life. Systems people relied upon suddenly did not work as expected. Airports went silent. Airspace emptied. Offices closed. Families struggled to reach one another.

For anyone working around aviation, the silence that followed was especially striking.

The next day, Abbie helped destroy outdated Department of Defense aviation plans associated with Andrews Air Force Base and other facilities. It was another reminder that the world of aviation, infrastructure, security, engineering, and planning had changed almost overnight.

In the years that followed, September 11 reshaped American aviation in ways that reached far beyond airport security checkpoints. It changed how airports, airfields, military installations, transportation systems, engineers, surveyors, planners, and countless others approached safety, access, documentation, infrastructure, and risk.

Today, aviation remains an important part of the work we do at Abbie Jones Consulting. Our experience includes surveying and engineering support at airports and aviation facilities, where accuracy, coordination, safety, and attention to detail are essential.

But on September 11, our focus is not on projects or accomplishments.

It is on remembrance.