It's a flight he'll never forget.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, former US Airways Captain Tim Baker was flying passengers from Philadelphia to Orlando when the terrorist attacks began unfolding.
Reflecting on the experience this morning on the Big K Morning Show, Baker recalled several key thoughts and decisions that went through his mind while navigating the unfolding crisis from the air.
“I reached back, because every airplane has a crash ax to fight fires and I got the ax and I looked at my first officer and I said ‘Kathy, if anybody comes through that door, I’ll keep them off you as long as I can and your door is to get us on the ground . . . I never thought I’d ever say that in a cockpit,” said Baker.
To maintain calm and prevent panic inside the cabin while the plane was still airborne, Baker says he chose to wait until the aircraft safely landed in Florida before informing the passengers about the terrorist attacks.
Baker’s plane took off around the same time the first hijacked plane departed Boston.
He says he wasn’t concerned at first because he thought the situation was related to New York, until he heard about the Pentagon.
“Then, that is what told us, this is something that is bigger than New York . . . this could affect us,” Baker said.
Baker says he later learned about a pilot flying around Pittsburgh in a small aircraft that almost got shot down over the South Hills, with the military unable to contact him on the radio.
“He had no clue what was going on and thank God he called Pittsburgh approach, because these fighter jets, they were fully loaded with weapons,” said Baker. “If that pilot hadn’t called my friend at the control tower in Pittsburgh, we might be telling a very different story today than we are now.”
He says once the pilot was informed of what was happening at the time, he immediately landed his plane at Wheeling airport.
Tim Baker tells his story
Tim Baker tells his story
