A Message from a Would-Be Sept. 11 Pilot

On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, my then 9- and 12-year-old sons were getting ready for school.  My older son came into my room and said to come look at the t.v. in the living room, that something had happened to the World Trade Center.  I ran out there and stood transfixed, unable to speak or believe what I was seeing. 

My husband was getting ready for work and stole glances at the t.v. as he could.  As the second plane came into view of the screen, careening toward the second tower, all I could do was point.  I did the same thing as the first tower crumbled into a huge, horrifying heap. And with the rest of the country and the world I sat in the days afterward, with tears, watching in disbelief at the after effects of this national tragedy. 

Every chance I get I watch programs on t.v. that tell many of the personal stories of that day.  I feel it's the least I can do to honor the memory of those who died that day at the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon and on Flight 93 that crashed into the earth in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  There are countless stories of heroism that day, stories of men and women putting others before themselves, of laying down their own lives for the life of someone else.  They are an example to all of us.

This is the story of a man who should have been on one of those planes.  He was scheduled to pilot American Airlines Flight 11 that Tuesday morning.  But he wasn't on that flight. And he has a message.

Please watch the video on YouTube here.

"And, brothers, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and in which you stand; by which you also are being kept safe, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried,

and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;"

1 Cor. 15:1-3