As Hijacked Plane Neared, Roddey Faced City Evacuation

PITTSBURGH -- Rural Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed last Sept. 11, is roughly a one-hour drive from Pittsburgh, but the trip is only a couple of minutes by plane.

As Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey learned that a hijacked airliner was over Pittsburgh airspace that morning, he was asked whether he wanted to evacuate the city. The following is a transcript of Roddey's description of those tense moments, as told by Roddey to WTAE-TV Action News.

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On Sept. 11, I was in a meeting in the courthouse. It started about 8:45 in the morning. About 10 minutes into the meeting, someone brought me a message that two airplanes had been intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center.

Obviously, I adjourned the meeting right away and I went to the television. I sat there going through a whole range of emotions. I was saddened, I was horrified, and I was angry.

Then, I got a telephone call saying that there was an airplane in Pittsburgh airspace, 10 minutes out of Pittsburgh. The plane was flying at an unauthorized altitude, and it was flying erratically, not responding to any radio messages, and we assumed that it has been hijacked.

And then the message was this: Now, Mr. Roddey, will you please decide whether or not you want to evacuate the city of Pittsburgh?

I was stunned. I must admit, I was not prepared for that moment. I had a business career, made a lot of tough decisions, was in the Marine Corps, but I was not prepared for that.

I looked at the county's emergency operations plan. I had glanced through it when I was first elected, just to be sure that if anybody asked, 'Have you looked at the emergency plan?,' I could say, 'Yes.' I can assure you that I have read it very carefully now.

I looked out of my window and looked at the USX Tower, and realized that it was the highest structure anywhere in the country between New York and Chicago.

I made a decision not to evacuate. I knew it was just a few minutes (before the plane could reach Pittsburgh), and we would cause more chaos than we would really do any good.

There were 25 planes in the United States that were unaccounted for. They just simply could not be identified. The FAA had ordered every plane to land, so that they could sort out if there were any planes in the air that could still be a danger.

One of those planes was over New Castle, one was over West Virginia, and one was over Butler. They finally begin to identify these planes, get them on the ground, and then we heard there was a crash in Somerset County, and we realized that was the plane that had been very near Pittsburgh.

So, can I say to the people of Allegheny County that they are safe? I think we can say that they are as safe as we can possibly make them. However, we are still vulnerable because we never know what kind of event might take place.

I don't think there is a day that has gone by that something hasn't triggered that memory -- whether it's someone talking about it, reading about it, we continue to see the reports about New York or Somerset, every time there is a sporting event and firemen or EMS are honored. That day always comes back, and I guess it always will.

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