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Started By
Message
9/11 ticket agent is haunted by guilt
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:24 am
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:24 am
LINK
quote:
On Sept. 11, 2001, two men arrived at the ticket counter late for American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles International Airport. This was before the days of the Transportation Security Administration, when airport security was quite different from what it is today. At the time, the man working at the counter, Vaughn Allex, followed procedure and checked them through.
Those two men were among the five hijackers who crashed that flight into the Pentagon — killing 189 people, including themselves.
"I didn't know what I had done," Allex recalls, on a recent visit with StoryCorps, in Potomac Falls, Va. He didn't find out until the next day what had happened. "I came to work and people wouldn't look at me in the eye." Officials handed him the manifest for the flight. "I just stared at it for a second and then I looked up, I go, 'I did it, didn't I?' "
He had checked in a retiree's family on that flight. He had checked in a student group, their parents, their teachers.
"And they were gone. They were just all gone."
18
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:28 am to Jim Rockford
Why wouldn't people look him in the eye? I understand why he might feel some guilt but he did nothing wrong. How would he know?
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:32 am to Jim Rockford
No TSA a he simply did his job. I mean it does suck how it happened. I guess they felt bad for him. But he's not responsible for security. It was just his job.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:34 am to Jim Rockford
I would be too
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:44 am to KingBeingking
quote::kige:
No TSA a he simply did his job. I mean it does suck how it happened. I guess they felt bad for him. But he's not responsible for security. It was just his job
hey wtf kige don't work no more
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:47 am to Kafka
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:57 am to Jim Rockford
It's not his fault. People should remind him of that.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 1:57 am to Jim Rockford
And yet TSA still has a 90+% failure rate every year
Posted on 9/10/16 at 2:12 am to Jim Rockford
Back then anyone of us would have swiped those frickers through. The sad part about is people today would probably feel bad about not letting them through because of all the Profiling bullshite they would catch.
This post was edited on 9/10/16 at 2:16 am
Posted on 9/10/16 at 4:07 am to Jim Rockford
Well, he did his job so I don't know why his coworkers were dicks.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 7:32 am to OysterPoBoy
I think his overwhelming feelings of guilt made him THINK that people were blaming him when they actually were not.
Also, why was he at work the next day when all flights were cancelled?
Also, why was he at work the next day when all flights were cancelled?
Posted on 9/10/16 at 7:52 am to Jim Rockford
He had no idea what they were gonna do. It's not like he found a folder two weeks earlier with names, times, dates, or pertinent operational info. Hope the poor guy can find some peace.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 9:05 am to lsuwontonwrap
quote:
Well, he did his job so I don't know why his coworkers were dicks.
I remember when it happened, I think we all felt helpless, we all felt like we wanted to do something about what had happened , and I think we were all looking for someone to blame. I guess they found comfort in blaming him.
This post was edited on 9/10/16 at 9:08 am
Posted on 9/10/16 at 9:18 am to OysterPoBoy
quote:
Why wouldn't people look him in the eye? I understand why he might feel some guilt but he did nothing wrong. How would he know?
This.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 10:10 am to Jim Rockford
I still say there is no way I'm letting someone hijack a plane with a box cutter. Kill a few but you're never getting a plane again.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 10:56 am to Jim Rockford
Why would people look at him weird? Doesn't look to me like he did anything wrong, but I can understand the guilt.
Posted on 9/10/16 at 10:59 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
followed procedure and checked them through.
Well, he did his job as he was told to do it. He can't tell the future. Had he denied them access to the flight, he probably could have been fired. I understand feeling guilty, but he has to realize you cannot control human action. It's as unpredictable as Auburn football.
This post was edited on 9/10/16 at 11:01 am
Posted on 9/10/16 at 11:03 am to LSUBFA83
quote:
I think his overwhelming feelings of guilt made him THINK that people were blaming him when they actually were not.
Yeah, I highly doubt they were avoiding him out of anger or blame, they probably avoided eye contact out of pity for him, knowing it could have very easily been them that would carry the burden of guilt of being the last line of defense to a mass murder.
This post was edited on 9/10/16 at 11:04 am
Posted on 9/10/16 at 11:05 am to Jim Rockford
Seems like the person did their job. Just sucks
Posted on 9/10/16 at 11:14 am to Jim Rockford
Little less sad story connected to 9/11
My old boss a manager for an airline at the Jackson airport during 9/11. I had asked about how his job changed after and what not. He told me the story of the day.
A normal morning like we all had. They were in a meeting after the sending off the first round of planes. The red phone (oh shite phone) starts ringing. Doesn't example what is happening just gives him a list of flights that are coming to Jackson. A few dozen flights come his way. Each flight had to be searched close to 20 times (the feds would call every hour or so with new things to look for so they had re-search the planes over and over)
Anyway, this is where the humanity comes in. Normally people were pissy with any minor change in their flight plans. However, this time people were renting cars then going back into the terminal and screaming "Who is going to Atlanta?Who is going to Houston? Who is going to chicago?"
He said between people opening their homes to people and people sharing rides the airport was cleared within a few hours. Not one person complained. Everyone decided to be decent for a day.
My old boss a manager for an airline at the Jackson airport during 9/11. I had asked about how his job changed after and what not. He told me the story of the day.
A normal morning like we all had. They were in a meeting after the sending off the first round of planes. The red phone (oh shite phone) starts ringing. Doesn't example what is happening just gives him a list of flights that are coming to Jackson. A few dozen flights come his way. Each flight had to be searched close to 20 times (the feds would call every hour or so with new things to look for so they had re-search the planes over and over)
Anyway, this is where the humanity comes in. Normally people were pissy with any minor change in their flight plans. However, this time people were renting cars then going back into the terminal and screaming "Who is going to Atlanta?Who is going to Houston? Who is going to chicago?"
He said between people opening their homes to people and people sharing rides the airport was cleared within a few hours. Not one person complained. Everyone decided to be decent for a day.
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