Aviation insiders recall the trauma of 9/11

Airline industry insiders and civil servants recall the shock of 9/11 as a cataclysmic attack shook the world, North American airspace shut down and, days later, sputtered back to life. Here are some select quotes from interviews with those who worked in the transportation sector at the time.

Robert Milton, then-CEO of Air Canada

“It was so foreign, it was so outrageous, it was so draconian, tumultuous that no thought escapes one’s imagination. Would the industry ever function again? Would there be an industry? As time went on, it became clearer that there would … but at that moment, you were wondering, were there going to be further events around the world?”

Calin Rovinescu, then-executive vice-president at Air Canada

“All of a sudden I see on the TV screen there’s one of these breaking news stories that’s interrupting the sports event that they’re showing with images of the World Trade Center and the aircraft going into it. That visual, as I’m holding one finger in one ear so I can block out the noise and listen to the effective shutdown of Air Canada from this café in Barcelona, across the street from the Picasso museum, would be the image that stays with me.”

Margaret Bloodworth, then-deputy minister of transport

“It’s hard to go back to how little we knew at the time. We knew two planes, two large planes with a lot of people on them … had hit two major towers in New York. But who it was, how many more there were, what caused it — we didn’t know any of that.

“We certainly had no game plan … If somebody had said a week before 9/11, ‘We should have a contingency plan for landing all the planes in North America,’ I don’t think they would have got much of a reception at all.”

Marie-Hélène Lévesque, then-special assistant to the transport minister

“There was a feed from Nav Canada to the ‘Situation Centre’ (at Transport Canada) of all the flights that were coming in. And then you start seeing the flights that are reverting back either to Asia or to Europe — the ones that could. And then you see all the flights that start to land in little areas like Gander and Stephenville and Halifax. And then you see the screen just immobile: there’s no more flights in the air.”

Benoit Gauthier, then-pilot at Air Canada

“Right after 9/11, they would search our bag and then they would see our razors and give us a hard time … Our nail clippers were taken away at security gates. I guess they were afraid we would clip someone to death on the planes.”

Jeanette Bellrichard, flight attendant at Air Canada

“Before, the (cockpit) door was unlocked and in some cases open. We would walk in and chat for a minute or two. After 9/11, a flight attendant was designated to be the one to enter the cockpit and was briefed before each flight. Our relationship with the guys was different because they were always behind the locked door. We used to bring kids up to see the captain.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2026.