Flight attendant who was working on 9/11 remembers fear: "I thank God every day it wasn't my plane"
It's a 9/11 perspective on working in what were once considered the friendly skies. It's also a story close to the CBS Philadelphia family.
Our Joe Holden spoke with Maureen Potkay, his first cousin and a retired American Airlines flight attendant who was flying on Sept. 11, 2001.
"I thank God every day it wasn't my plane," Potkay said. "It was a terrible day."
Potkay was working on Flight 43, which she says was immediately behind United Airlines Flight 93, which later crashed in Pennsylvania's Somerset County.
"They were in front of us, United 93," Potkay recalled.
The day was an ordinary Tuesday — crystal clear, cool, with a beautiful blue sky.
"My job was to check the catering," Potkay said. "In those days, we served omelets and pancakes. We were on our way to Los Angeles."
Potkay keeps a treasure trove of airline things. She kept a catering rundown from the morning of 9/11. She remembers the pilot first sharing privately that the country was under a "sabotage threat," and that they would be landing in Cincinnati.
"I think they hit when we took off. Everything was happening. They must have just hit and we took off. When we were in the air, that's when the captain saw the smoke and then he got word someone hit the World Trade Center," she said.
Meanwhile, Potkay's husband Doug was at home in Yardley. The couple's three children were in school, unaware of the panic unfolding.
Doug was also not aware until a neighbor called and told him to turn on the TV.
"I'm seeing American Airlines flew into the tower. And that's when Maureen took off," he said.
"My sister-in-law Wendy called my mother and said, 'Is Maureen working today?' and she said yes," Maureen Potkay recalled. "And she said, 'Mary, she could be on one of those planes.'"
"It was a tough day," Doug Potkay said, his voice breaking up. "It still affects me."
Flight 43 landed safely in Cincinnati.
Maureen called home, and Doug went to the schools their three children attended to let them know their mother was safe.
"I literally sat down and I kind of cried, thinking the worst happened," he said.
Maureen Potkay was stranded there for three days. She eventually flew home, landing at Philadelphia International Airport. There, she reunited with family.
"On Sunday, we all went to Mass as we always did and I got into church, and it finally hit me," she said. "I couldn't stop crying. And I didn't have a tissue. No one had a tissue. And it hit me how close we came to losing our lives that day."
