MPR: Airport closed in wake of attacks

Airport closed in wake of attacks
By Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio
September 11, 2001

Northwest Airlines has suspended all flights in and out of the Twin Cities, at least for another day. This follows the FAA shutdown of Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. Passengers arriving in the Twin Cities Tuesday knew nothing of the New York and Washington attacks until they joined crowds of people gathered around airport television monitors.

Manny Villivasekis was on a flight from New York that landed in Minneapolis. "I have dozens and dozens of friends who work in the World Trade Center, at the Port Authority... all of my friends, the engineers there. I'm incredibly worried and concerned that they didn't make it," he said.
(MPR Photo/Elizabeth Stawicki)

"ETAN," FROM QUEENS was getting comfortable in his seat after leaving New York's JFK Airport for a non-stop flight to Vancouver when an announcement came over the airplane's intercom: There was a national alert and the plane had been diverted to Minneapolis.

"I had no idea what national alert meant. I thought something's going wrong, but I had no idea of what could've gone wrong. I thought of some disaster, but I didn't want to imagine," he told Minnesota Public Radio.

Manny Villivasekis was also on that flight and works in Manhattan. He learned of the horror right after he deplaned and saw airport television monitors showing the World Trade Center towers enveloped in black smoke.

"I have dozens and dozens of friends who work in the World Trade Center, at the Port Authority... all of my friends, the engineers there. I'm incredibly worried and concerned that they didn't make it," he said.

Villivasekis, a structural engineer who specializes in high-rise buildings, said he didn't think it possible for terrorists to take down an entire building. "I thought you would always damage a building partially or take off a piece of the building, but not the entire building. Whoever pulled this off, it's just an unbelievable thing, it's incredible. This is war," he said.

There were more questions than there were answers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport as staffers tried to keep up with the unfolding events.
(MPR Photo/Matt Thueson)

Airport Public Safety Director Jim Welna says within an hour of the World Trade Center attack, the Federal Aviation Administration put into effect Operation Groundstop. "What that meant was any aircraft at the gate or taxiing was called back; any aircraft that were in the air were diverted back to the airport or the nearest commercial airport that could safely handle them. Of course, this had to be coordinated with the FAA tower and all the traffic that this brought," he said.

Jean Gustafson and her husband, Richard, a retired couple from Zimmerman, Minnesota were waiting to board a flight to Seattle when an announcement came over the airport public-address system. Their flight was canceled. So they watched the events unfold on a television at one of the airport taverns. "It was amazing when we heard that it was a crash of the World Trade Center. And we've tried to keep on top of the news ever since. It's something that's so terrible it's almost impossible to believe."

When told of the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, several people ran to telephones.

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