Security was tightened following the 9/11 attack while rescue operations continued in the hope to find more survivors. The 40th part of a series describing the unknown triumphs and travails of doing international business
AK Ramdas All the TV channels and newspapers carried details of the attacks and more and more information of how these happened began to emanate from various intelligence gathering organizations.
Since the hijackers had given warning to the passengers on the ill-fated aircraft to make personal calls, a lot of information from the victims was made available as the planes crashed into various sites. It was heart-rending and extremely sad. Living, as I did, not far from the Pentagon, I experienced the tremors of the attack when the plane crashed into the world’s largest building complex. There were speculations that this hijacked plane was intended to crash into Pentagon or the US Senate nearby. Or, was it really meant to hit the White House itself? It was more of a conjecture than the available evidence at that time.
Apparently, the twin towers were the intended victims of the first two hijacked planes. The fourth one, which actually crashed in Shanksville, Pensylvania, was presumably intended for a strike either at the Senate or the While House. In this case, as we all came to know later, there was heavy struggle between heroic attempts made by passengers against the hijackers, which resulted in the crash and prevented the aircraft flying further into the intended crash points.
Back at the hotel, there were more government officials and security related personnel occupying rooms now and the flow was smooth. A great number of guests who had stayed back due to the strikes had begun to move out and as the DCA (Reagan Airport) was open, we began to get a trickle. Only the very few who had most urgent jobs to attend to in Washington DC had come in and registered with us, as, hotels in DCwere mostly full.
Our staff, by now, had become more vigilant, in that, everyone was alert to ask for a photo ID when anyone approached the front desk for any kind of assistance, unless we happened the know the guest personally for some time. Many times, because of the tense situation, the guest would forget the key and leave it in the room, and may not even have a photo ID on them, if they had come down by breakfast. Even in such cases, we would not issue duplicate keys, but accompany the guest all the way to their rooms and verify the ID after opening their rooms. In one such case, when I had failed to do so, I was reprimanded by an FBI officer, who showed me his ID and warned me that it was not only in my immediate interest, but in national safety was involved, if we failed in our basic duty of checking at every stage. Even though I had checked him in earlier, it was his contention that I should insist on the laid down rule of photo IDs all the time!
Our courtesy coaches to and from the airport extended the complimentary service from the hotel to the Ronald Reagan airport only; we had guests arriving both at the Baltimore and Dulles international airports, both of which served the Washington DC metropolis. Because of the changed circumstances, for the time being, we reduced the frequency but madeavailable the coach at short notice.
For those travelling back by air, it became necessary for a longer security check to be gone through, and the lines at the security desks became time consuming. Now, everyone was willingly offering all kinds of co-operation at the airports so that they were safe and could travel in comfort.
The rescue operations continued in right earnest at the Twin Towers and as the debris were being removed, more and more victims were being dug out. It was not an easy task. Although the fire had been put out, I believe, a lot of metals were still extremely hot and there was dim hope for survivors. Yet, the work went on day in and day out and lot of experienced rescue personnel from other states joined to save as many lives as was possible.
In the next few days, more details of the hijackers were given out by FBI. Apparently there were 19 hijackers, 15 of whom came from Saudi Arabia; two from UAE, one each from Lebanon and Egypt. And the Egyptian Mohamed Atta was the ring leader, who boarded the flight from Boston!
In the hate crime attacks that followed, a Sikh from India, as he was wearing a turban, was mistaken as an Arab Muslim (because of the head-dress) and was killed.
Slowly, life was returning back to normalcy; schools were being reopened and almost everywhere, issues relating to security checks, precautions, first aid classes, etc, were being conducted, so that everyone was prepared in all the emergencies.
Because of these strikes, there was no doubt that the economy had a crippling blow and economists felt that it would take some time before a recovery was possible.
(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce and was associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts. From being the advisor to exporters, he took over the mantle of a trader, travelled far and wide, and switched over to setting up garment factories and then worked in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected].)
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