9:45am on 9/11: White House Evacuated
The Twin Towers had been attacked an hour earlier … Pan Am Flight 77 had flown into the Pentagon … and now United Airlines Flight 93 was being followed on radar flying after making a turn from its flight path to fly toward Washington, D.C. No one was aware of the struggle going on inside that aircraft as passengers, aware of terrorism attacks earlier that morning, vowed to storm the cockpit and avoid whatever disaster the terrorist pilots had in mind.
9:45am … the White House was evacuated. Employees were urgently directed by Secret Service to leave the building and, as the evacuation was under way, it was stepped up as shouts told them to get away from the White House and Old Executive Office Building as fast as they could. Women took off their shoes and ran in their bare feet away from the White House grounds and onto the street and down the sidewalk. One of them was my sister.
United Airlines Flight 93 would go down at 10:06 a.m., taking the brave souls who prevented further national tragedy.
We can never forget the heroism of those on Flight 93.