Workers at Boeing take jet attacks personally
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2001
By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
The jets may have crashed on the East Coast, but the explosions from Tuesday’s terrorist attacks echoed in the hearts of aerospace workers around Puget Sound.
"The first thing you think about is wow, I work on those things. I could have built it," said Rob Wells, an electrician who works on 767s at Everett.
"I’ve been there for six years, and I’ve been part of well over 300 or 400 airplanes. There’s a good chance I worked on that airplane," he said. "You know you didn’t do anything wrong on the plane. It’s just some psycho decided to use it as a weapon. It’s a very strange feeling."
The fact that Boeing planes — assembled in Everett and Renton —were involved doesn’t make horrible feelings any worse, Boeing employees said.
"It can’t be any worse," said David Swain, the Boeing Co.’s senior vice president and chief technology officer. He spoke as chairman of the international Aerospace Congress and Exhibition, which is being held in Seattle this week.
But it is a heartfelt blow, he added. Boeing workers have dedicated their lives to building planes to defend the United States and to tie the world’s people together. The terrorist attacks struck at both missions.
"That part’s really personal," Swain said.
"It’s just sickening to think of something that large smacking into a building," said Boeing Co. engineer Michael Hoag. "It’s closer for an aerospace guy. When you’re closer to the design, and you realize the size and the amount of damage it will do … just the amount of fuel on board an airplane like that."
The first shift was already on the job at Boeing’s Everett factory when the 767s that are built there crashed in New York.
Somebody heard the news on their radio, said machinist Tony Perry, who works on 767s. Then "everybody went running over to their computers" to get more news from the Internet.
The news was a shock, Perry said. "A lot of people are devastated."
Puget Sound operations continued under tightened security.
Boeing officials considered closing the factory, but about 9:30 a.m. they sent out e-mails saying work would continue as usual — not that there was much work going on.
"You’ve got every computer on in the world here, and all the TVs and radios," Perry said during his lunch break.
A number of people Wells works with clocked out and went home. Wells said he thought about it — Boeing is the nation’s largest exporter and the Everett factory is its largest building, so it conceivably could be a terrorist target.
Jerry Harrison of Lake Stevens, who has worked for Boeing for 13 years, said he was outraged that its assembly plants remained open after the attack.
"It’s a very scary feeling," he said. "When we hired in here they told us this was a vulnerable area."
Harrison said he was "appalled that the safety of our employees takes a backseat to building aircraft. At least they should have taken a day to sit back and evaluate the risk."
Boeing did close its new corporate headquarters in Chicago and its offices in Washington, D.C. The Chicago office was to reopen this morning, but there’s been no decision about the D.C.-area offices.
Boeing jets, including newly painted 757s and 767s in United and American airlines colors, glistened in the sun Tuesday at Paine Field, which was shut down.
Boeing had scheduled a number of test flights for those planes and others, airport director David Waggoner said. Those were all canceled when the Federal Aviation Administration shut down the skies over America.
At midday Tuesday, the FAA announced the national airspace will be closed until 9 this morning.
No planes were diverted to Paine Field when the FAA order came, Waggoner said. A little bit of work continued around the field as Boeing engineers conducted ground tests on the engines of a 777 being readied for Singapore Airlines.
The plane is ready to take its first flight, Waggoner said, but "its first flight won’t happen today."
The mood at the airport and elsewhere was "somber" and "sorrowful," Waggoner said. "People don’t want to say hi."
Swain and other officials decided to cancel today’s events at the Aerospace Congress, urging those in attendance to follow the news and contact their loved ones.
The convention will resume Wednesday morning in Seattle.
After, Hoag and colleague Wayne Bowles sat somberly with other conference-goers for a bus to take them back to their offices at Boeing Field.
"There’s been a travesty in New York, an attack in Washington, D.C.," said Swain, as he announced today’s events at the conference had been canceled. "This is a day that will be remembered in history, a day that will be imprinted on my conscience."
At the Jet Deck, a popular restaurant and bar at Paine Field, a sign near the door advertised the daily specials — grilled sourdough turkey sandwiches and steak and potato soup. It also asked patrons for "lots of prayers for our fellow Americans lost today and their families."
Business was slow. But those who were in lingered over their meals, watching the news unfold on TVs over the bar, said bar manager Megan Ashurst.
"It’s a terrible thing," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
