Remembering 9/11 in Charlotte, from halting flights at the airport to evacuating the banks

Today, we remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks, during which nearly 3,000 people were killed and 6,000 were injured. What did the scene in Charlotte look like, that day? We pulled two headlines from the Charlotte Observer archives posted on Sept. 11, 2001, to offer a glimpse, in remembrance.

Airports closed in wake of attacks, all planes grounded nationwide; exodus from Douglas

Reporting from staff and wires

Airports in Charlotte and nationwide abruptly halted all services today after a terrorist attack in New York.

Two planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart in what the President Bush said was an apparent terrorist attack, blasting fiery, gaping holes in the 110-story buildings. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries. Immediately airports began halting flights.

In Charlotte, there was a mass exodus away from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. Lines for rental cars were more than 100 people long.

A US Airways spokesman said all of the airline’s planes were accounted for. At 10:45 a.m., twenty-four planes were still in the air and had been instructed to land at the nearest airport, except that no planes were landing in Pittsburgh “as a security precaution.”

The 10:30 a.m. bank of flights is one of US Airways’ busiest, with about three dozen departures. Passengers on one US Airways flight from La Guardia Airport had watched the World Trade Center burning as they left New York.

Inside the terminals at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, people crowded into bars and were glued to the news stations, watching the coverage, some with tears in their eyes.

Hundreds of people had to leave gates. Others had to leave their baggage on planes. Some were allowed to take carry on luggage with them.

Some passengers found out about the bombings after they had landed in Charlotte. Tiffany Franklin of Newport News, Va., had stopped in Charlotte on her way to Sunset Beach. She was told about the bombing as she moved toward the baggage area.

“Oh, My God,” she said. “Oh, my God. We just got off the plane.”

Some found out because they were stuck here on their way to other destinations.

Tommy Manion of Boca Raton, Fla., was headed from Ft. Lauderdale to Birmingham on business. He was getting on the second leg of his journey from Charlotte to Birmingham and had watched the news on a TV monitor.

“I was about to board when I heard the announcement. I was relieved,” he said. “Who would have known that this would happen on a Tuesday. It could have been any day.”

Martha Wolfe of Charlotte was on her way to Costa Rica. Her husband Darryl had brought her to the airport.

“It’s kind of shocking,” Darryl Wolfe said. “It really makes you angry that people could do that to other people, that anybody could do that to another person is disgusting. A lot of innocent people dead.

All Charlotte passengers were told to go home. Some car rental agencies had sold out 10 minutes after the announced grounding.

Shock, disgust reel through Piedmont, Uptown banks close; Muslim leader condemns attacks as ‘evil’

Reporting from staff reports

Charlotte’s major banks shut down main offices today, as fears of terrorism swept through the Carolinas.

In Raleigh, state troopers were posted around the capitol, and other precautions were taken, but N.C. state government was not shut down.

In Charlotte, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief and other city officials met to discuss how the city should respond to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They’re especially concerned because of the major banks headquartered here, and the city’s place in the nation’s financial markets, City Council member Patrick Cannon said.

By 10 a.m. workers in the 60-story Bank of America Corporate Center, Charlotte’s tallest building, began pouring through exits, saying they were told to go home.

“We were told to get out of the building,” said investment banker Weston Andress, who works on the 11th floor. “To think 10 to 20 people – I don’t how many people planned this thing. This is going to shake up the whole world for a long time.”

A crowd gathered at WBTV’s uptown studio to watch a bank of televisions, flashing grim scenes of burning buildings.

“This is just awful,” said Richard Harris, who works at Bank of America. “America got caught off-guard. I don’t know how we could be ready for it. Anybody in America who works in a high-rise building should feel uneasy today.

“Anybody in America today should be concerned, whether you’re in government or in corporate America. This threat is going to be felt by everybody. It’s very scary.”

Charlotte transportation officials added extra buses to take people home from uptown.

Like all Americans, Piedmont residents were horrified by the news of the planes crashing into both World Trade Center towers, in what was apparently a terrorist attack.

The impact of the tragedy quickly hit home for Marcia Solomon, a bookkeeper with the Charlotte law firm of Lesesne & Connette. Her son, David Craig, is a director with A&E Television Networks in New York and lives about 25 blocks from the World Trade Center.

She frantically dialed his work number, but couldn’t reach him. Relief didn’t come until her son, Brett, reached David on his cell phone. David had been standing on the top of his high-rise apartment building, photographing the smoke pluming upward from the World Trade Center.

“He said it’s like a movie, but it’s real,” Solomon said. “It’s absolutely horrible. He said you’re watching it but you don’t believe what you’re seeing.

“I’m so rattled I can’t think straight,” she said. “I’m so upset about this. This is terrible.”

At Butler High School in Matthews, students learned the news as second period began.

At first, only social studies classes were told they could turn on the TV. As events progressed all classes stopped to watch. But the school was very calm and quiet.

Assistant principal Byron Bowers said: “Everybody now is just engrossed with this. The teachers have goose pimples. It’s history in the making. The students can say we saw the tower collapse. It’s worth taking the time for them to experience.”

In Stephen Lloyd’s social studies class, students discussed terrorist motivation and previous bombings.

Erin Barksdale, an 11th grader, said: “I just don’t get what’s going through your mind to think, ‘I’ll go kill innocent people to get my point across.’ ”

In a computer science class a group stood close to the television set. “Sick,” one student muttered. “Sick.”

“There were people on that plane, man,” another student said softly.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokeswoman Nora Carr said the district had counselors on alert this morning. “This type of incident just rocks the sense of safety that children and young people normally feel they can count on,” she said.

At Rama Road Elementary School in east Charlotte, principal Susie Johnson and several office staff members huddled around a television set, in shock.

“We haven’t told the children,” Johnson said. “It’s just too horrible.”

In Fort Mill, S.C., barber Jess Ferrell got a call from his wife about 9 a.m. “Turn on the TV,” she said.

“It hasn’t been quiet ever since,” he said.

Ferrell said watching the morning’s events was sobering. He was cutting the close-cropped hair of a young man who identified himself as a U.S. Marine. “If I’m not back in a week,” the man said, “you’ll know where I am.”

Khalil Akbar, the imam at Charlotte’s Masjid Ash-Shaheed, an Islamic center on Tuckaseegee Road, condemned the attacks, saying he was “horrified. It’s really a disgusting kind of situation.”

Akbar said Islam condemns such acts of terrorism. “If the people who did this are Muslims, they aren’t representatives of true Islam. Our religion certainly does not advocate this. For anybody to do this for political reasons, I believe it is evil.”

The Rev. Tom Tate of Plaza Presbyterian planned to pray for the victims of the disaster at a noontime luncheon of the Clergy Association of Charlotte/Mecklenburg at Myers Park Baptist Church.

“We’re all affected in this,” said Tate, who worked on his prayer Tuesday morning. For the regular 12:10 p.m. Mass at St. Peter Catholic uptown, which draws lunch-hour workers, the Rev. Robert Paquet planned to pray for the victims.

This story was originally published September 11, 2018 at 2:00 AM.