I was booked on United Flight 93 on 9/11, 2001, flying nonstop from Newark NJ to San Francisco CA. Around midnight the night before, a coworker called me urging me to change my flight to fly into San Jose instead. This meant I had to give up my 1st class seat and move to a flight that left 20 minutes later (from the same gate) with a stopover in Denver. I was very reluctant but I did it.

When I got to the airport, I watched people boarding flight 93 and I was upset that I was not leaving earlier, in my 1st class seat on a direct flight. I didn’t notice or care about the people as they were boarding, only myself.

When I finally boarded my plane, we were 7 planes behind flight 93. When we were 3 plans away from we taking off, the pilot told us to look out the right side of the plane because it appeared the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane. I thought it might have been a small Cessna until I saw the second plane strike the other tower.

We were grounded just before taking off. I changed that day. I now take every opportunity to get watch and if possible, get to know the people I’m boarding a plane with. I never hesitate to give up my seat for a later flight if requested. I’ve had two children since 9/11 and went to multiple mission trips to war torn countries. Every day I wake up breathing is another gift from God.

Never forget

The reason my coworker told me to change my flight was she took the same flight on 9/10 and the commute from San Francisco to Mountain View would make me late for my meeting whereas traveling from San Jose to Mountain View would be faster in the morning.