Date: 5/6/2016 11:40:10 PM
To: Mark Sztanyo
Subject: Delta Air Lines and 911
Mark,
The attached article came from a retired Continental pilot friend
who thought it important for airline pilots to read. Written by a Delta pilot.
Do whatever you may think about using it!
Thanks to you and Dave for all you do for us.
Jim Salzmann Oct. 1995
P. S.…………made it to 80 last Sept., Dave……..am I ahead of the Delta
pilot life expectancy stats yet? What was the actual life expectancy of
an average Delta pilot? And what was the total number of pilots you kept track
of over the years? I did a full application of mine and it gave me about
12 more years at 50% chance to make it to 92. I am very lucky to have
everything working so far. How about you guys?
Subject: Pilot Report
A report that will give all aviation minded people pause for
thought.
Pilot Report--47 Days Before 9/11
(This is the response from a
retired Delta pilot in response to questions about whether he was planning to
see the movie "United 93.")
I haven't seen the movie,
yet, but I intend to when I get the chance.
Retirement has made me busier
than ever, and I haven't had the chance to see many movies lately.
As a Delta B-767
captain myself at the time of the attacks on 9/11 I was in crew rest in Orlando
that morning. I had just turned on the TV in my hotel room only to see the
World Trade Center tower on fire, then saw the second airplane hit the other
tower. My immediate reaction was "Terrorists. ..we' re at war",
followed by the realization that we airline crew-members had all dodged a
bullet; it could have been any one off lying those planes.
As soon as the news stations
flashed the first pictures of the terrorists I knew just how close and personal
the bullet I dodged was. There, on the screen for all to see, was a man who had
sat in my jump seat the previous July. His name was Mohammad Atta, the leader
of the terrorist hijackers.
Atta had boarded my
flight from Baltimore to Atlanta on July 26, 2001 wearing an American Airlines
first officer uniform. He had the corresponding AA company ID identifying him
as a pilot, not to mention the required FAA pilot license and medical
certificate that he was required to show me as proof of his aircrew status for
access to my jump seat.
An airline pilot riding
a cockpit jump seat is a long established protocol among the airlines of the
world, a courtesy extended by the management and captains of one airline to
pilots and flight attendants of other airlines in recognition of their aircrew
status. My admission of Mohammad Atta to my cockpit jump seat that day was
merely a routine exercise of this protocol.
Something seemed a bit
different about this jump seat rider, though, because in my usual course of
conversation with him as we reached cruise altitude he avoided all my questions
about his personal life and focused very intently upon the cockpit instruments
and our operation of the aircraft. I asked him what he flew at American and he
said, “These", but he asked
incessant questions about how we did this or why we did that. I said,
"This is a 767. They all operate the same way." But he said,
"No, we operate them
differently at American." That seemed very
strange, because I knew better. I asked him about his background, and he
admitted he was from Saudi Arabia. I asked him when he came over to this
country and he said "A couple of years ago.", to which I asked,
"Are you a US citizen? " He said no. I also found that very strange
because I know that in order to have an Airline Transport Pilot rating, the
rating required to be an airline captain, one has to be a US citizen, and
knowing the US airlines and their hiring processes as I do, I found it hard to believe that American
Airlines would hire a non-US citizen who couldn't upgrade to captain when the
time came He said, "The rules have changed." , which I also knew to
be untrue. Besides, he was just, shall I say, "Creepy" ? My copilot
and I were both glad to get rid of this guy when we got to Atlanta.
There was nothing to
indicate, though, that he was anything other than who or what he said he was,
because he had the documentation to prove who he was. In retrospect, we now
know his uniform was stolen and his documents were forged. Information later
came to light as to how this was done.
It seems that Mohammad
Atta and his cronies had possibly stolen pilot uniforms and credentials from
hotel rooms during the previous year. We had many security alerts at the
airline to watch out for our personal items in hotel rooms because these were
mysteriously disappearing, but nobody knew why. Atta and his men used these to
make dry runs prior to their actual hijackings on 9/11. How do I know? I called
the FBI as soon as I saw his face on the TV that day, and the agent on the
other end of the line took my
information and told me I'd hear back from them
when all the dust settled. A few weeks later I got a letter from the Bureau
saying that my call was one of at least half a dozen calls that day from other
pilots who had had the same experience. Flights were being selected at random
to make test runs for accessing the cockpit. It seems we had all dodged
bullets.
Over the years my
attitude towards the War Against Terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
have been known to be on the red neck, warmongering, rah-rah-shoot- em-up side
of things. I've been known to lose my patience with those who say the war in
Iraq or anywhere else in the Muslim world is wrong, or who say we shouldn't
become involved in that area of the world for political correctness reasons.
Maybe it's because I dodged the bullet so closely back in 2001 that I feel this
way. I have very little patience for political rhetoric or debate against this
war because for a couple of hours back in July 2001, when I
was engaged in conversation with a major perpetrator in this war, I came so close
to being one of its victims that I can think in no other terms.
I don't mind admitting
that one of the reasons I retired early from Delta last May, other than to
protect my disappearing company retirement, was because it became harder and
harder for me to go to work every day knowing that the war wasn't being
taken seriously by the general public.
The worst offenders were the Liberal detractors to the present administration,
and right or wrong, this administration is at least taking the bull by the
horns and fighting our enemies, which is something concrete that I can
appreciate.
Nobody was taking this war
seriously, and it seems everyone found fault with the US government rather than
with those who attacked us. I found that incomprehensible.
I also found myself
being scrutinized by TSA screeners more and more every day when I went to work,
and suffered the humiliating indignity of being identified about half the time
for body searches in front of the general flying public who looked at the
entire process as being ludicrous. "They don't even trust their own
pilots!" accompanied by an unbelieving snicker was the usual response.
Here I was, a retired USAF officer who had
been entrusted to fly nuclear weapons around the
world, who had been granted a Top Secret clearance and had been on missions
over the course of 21 years in the military that I still can't talk about
without fear of prosecution by the DOD, who was being scanned by a flunkie TSA
screener looking for any sign of a pen knife or nail file on my person.
It wasn't until six
months after my retirement when my wife and I flew to Key West, FL last
November that I was finally able to rid myself of the visage of Mohammad Atta
sitting behind me on my jump seat, watching my every action in the cockpit and
willing to slit my throat at the slightest provocation. I missed being a
headline by a mere 47 days, and could very well have been among the aircrew
casualties on 9/11 had one of my flights on my monthly schedule been a
transcontinental flight from Boston or New
York to the west coast on the 11th of September.
Very few people know that, while only
four airliners crashed that day, four more were
targeted, and two of them were Delta flights. The only reason these four
weren't involved is because they either had minor maintenance problems which
delayed them at the gate or they were scheduled to depart after the FAA decided
to ground all flights. Theirs are the pilots and flight attendants who REALLY
dodged the bullet that day, and my faith in a higher power is restored as a
result.
I will see United 93
when I get the chance, and I will probably enjoy the movie for its realness and
historical significance, but forgive me if I do not embrace the Muslim world
for the rest of my life. The Islamic world is no friend of the West, and
although we may be able to get along with their governments in the future, the
stated goal of Islam is world conquest through Jihad and it is the extremist
Jihadists, backed and funded by "friendly" Muslim governments, whom
we have to fear the most. We must have a presence in the Middle East, and we
must have friends in the Middle East, even if we have to fight wars to get
them. Only someone who has dodged a bullet can fully appreciate that fact.
Best to all,
Pat Gilmore
Editor's Note: For some reason which is
beyond me, some people do not want to believe this. Perhaps they do not want to
believe that Jihadist terrorism actually exists, because it someone doesn't
believe it yet, they never will.
Capt. Gilmore himself posted this comment, in
our comments below, but I will put it here for all to see:
I assure you this
letter is true. As to the fact that I wrote that a holder of an Airline
Transport Pilot rating (ATP) must be a US citizen, I admit that I was mistaken
here. I had always assumed so, because that's what I had heard, so I looked up
the requirements for an ATP just now. There is nothing that says that US
citizenship is required. Okay, I'll bite the bullet on that one. I received my
ATP back in 1975 and now that I think of it I do not remember having to prove
my citizenship. However, the rest of the story is true.
As for my airline
career, I worked for Western Airlines (who merged with Delta in 1987), Jet
America Airlines (who was bought by Alaska Airlines in 1988), and Delta
Airlines, as well as a few "fly by night" cargo airlines during my
furlough period from Western from 1981- 1985. I also flew in Vietnam as a
transport pilot and retired from the USAF Reserve in 1991 after the Gulf War. I
have 21,500+ flight hours in T-41, T-37, T-38, C-141/L-300, CE-500, CV-440,
MD-80/82, B-727, B-737, B-757, and B-767 aircraft, all logged between 1970 and
2005 when I retired from Delta.
Trust me, folks, this was
real. I must admit I am quite surprised that my letter made it this far on the
internet. The letter was nothing more than an innocent reply to a group of friends,
one of whom sent me a similar letter from another Delta pilot who had been
flying the morning of 9/11 and who had experienced the flying that day for
himself. His letter had detailed his thoughts as he viewed the movie
"United 93", and he also told in detail how he had been diverted to
Knoxville when the FAA shut down the airspace.
My
friend had asked me if I had known of any other similar experiences, so I wrote
him what I had encountered myself a few months before. This was my letter to
him.
Another retired Delta
captain contacted me yesterday after reading this blog and related an
experience his wife had on a flight from Portland, OR to Atlanta in August
2001, just a week or so after my experience with Atta. She was riding on a
company pass and seated in First Class A person of "Middle Eastern"
descent had sought permission to sit on the cockpit jump seat, but was denied
access by the captain because he did not have an FAA Medical certificate. She
said he ranted and raved because he couldn't ride the cockpit jump seat, even
though there were three empty seats in First Class, which the captain offered
him. What pilot in his right mind would refuse a First Class seat over a
cramped cockpit jump seat? He stormed off the aircraft
and they left him a t the gate. You see, mine
wasn't the only experience leading up to 9/11.
Delta Airlines
Corporate Security even contacted me a few days ago to ask if I had, indeed
written this letter. I wrote them back that I had. They were worried that someone
was using my name without my knowledge. I assured them I was the author.
Keep the faith, and don't let
the bastards get you down. People had better start taking this stuff seriously!
It will happen again!
Pat Gilmore
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