Much like the weather in New York, on that morning the skies over northern Ohio were crystal clear, a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.
I was working in Valley City, Ohio at a machine shop. When the first plane hit the first tower there was a general consensus among the employees gathered around that it was a terrible accident. Unfortunately it wasn’t long after that the entire nation was transformed in a fiery explosion when the second plane hit the second tower. It was a terrible, heartbreaking scene… but I don’t need to tell you that.
Valley City is situated just south of the Cleveland airport. The skies over Cleveland are always traffic laden with jets coming and going non-stop.
When news came that all planes were being grounded I went outside with another employee to watch the skies over Cleveland. It was amazing how fast the skies emptied. It was also very strange looking up at a normally congested Cleveland airspace and seeing nothing but blue sky.
After a few minutes we saw a plane coming towards Cleveland from the east. There were a few things that drew our attention to this plane, the first being it was the only one in the sky. The next strange thing was how low it was on the horizon to be still so far out from the airport.
Watching the plane get closer it was apparent something wasn’t right with it. The plane was coming in too low and it wasn’t in line with what would have been the usual traffic lanes.
Over Cleveland it did something I have never saw a plane do before, it made a U-turn. Right over Cleveland the plane banked into a hard left turn and was damn near over Valley City when it completed it’s turn heading back in a east-southeast direction.
After the plane got out of sight we go back to watch more news and not long afterwards Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Watching further revealed the planes flight path and it was confirmed, the plane my friend and I witnessed was Flight 93 making its fated and final turn over Cleveland, Ohio. I still think about the chaos that had to be going on in that plane while we stood there watching. I’ll never forget.
Photos best viewed in high definition!!
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When one tugs at a single thing in nature; he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
