United We Stand


“Someone said the World Trade Center was on fire and we all ran outside to take a look. We saw one of the towers on fire. Huge amounts of smoke ÐÐ you could see some orange flames licking around the edges, but mostly just these huge columns of smoke floating out over the water. 'Oh, my God! All those poor people!' I thought.

“We had gotten a call that a plane had crashed into the tower and we're all wondering How could an accident like that happen? How could someone be so off course to be in the vicinity of the towers?”

“Then we saw this other airplane bearing down on the World Trade Center ÐÐ low, real low. As he got closer you could hear the sound of the engines whining like he was throttling up and he made a little turn and ÐÐ BOOM! ÐÐ he crashed right into it. We saw it go right in. And right then we knew: This was no accident. We were all so miserable. 

“I'm still so sad over this. It is so horrible a thing that it's hard for me to believe it even happened, even though I saw it happen with my own eyes.”

Robert Conigliaro, Local 434 
Machinist at the New York Daily News 
 


“My son Walter Weaver is a New York City police officer, a member of the Emergency Service Unit, the SWAT Team. Their truck was one of the first to arrive at the Twin Towers, and they ran inside to help the people get out. There were 17 of them who went in, just before the building collapsed. I'm hoping and praying to hear from my son that he is OK. 

“I love my British Airways family. I love my IAM union. All I'm asking now is a little thing back, just to hear my son talk to me one more time.

“I'm not a violent man, but we can't let this go. We need to find the people who did this and take them out, once and for all. This has to be stopped.” 

Bill Weaver, Local 2656 
31-year employee of British Airways in New York (retired). 
 


“We heard a rumbling-the loudest noise I’ve ever heard; a thunderous rumble that shook everybody and everything. Even the barge we were standing on began to tremble. Then the whole building came straight down.”

”That’s when people started screaming for help. ‘Get me out of here! Please, get me out of here!’ All we could do was try to calm the people. ‘Just hang with us, and we’ll get everyone home safely. We’ve got enough boats, and we’ll take care of you.’”

”I’ve seen doctors, EMTs, police officers, fire fighters-ordinary citizens-risking their lives for people they don’t even know. New Yorkers are tough people, and we are going to bounce back from this. We are going to be OK.”

James Silecchia, Local 447
Mechanic with APA Transport, New York Waterway ferries.



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