#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE

Kay Kratky
Member Lufthansa German Airlines Board,
Chief of Frankfurt and Flight Operations Division

     On September 11, 2001 I had met a friend for lunch at the Lufthansa Canteen in Frankfurt and we were sitting at the table with our meal in front of us as the news came in.
     Someone said:
     “Have you heard? An airplane crashed into the World Trade Center towers!”
     I looked at my friend and said right away. That cannot be true. I thought the guy was mistaken and just could not believe that had happened. So we just continued with eating our lunch.
     But a few minutes later came a phone call from my crises center (Jade Cargo) to report in right away and we knew it was true.
     As realization of this tragedy started to sink in then came an uneasy feeling like I was standing on a high bridge without a safety net looking down.
     I could not identify from the early reports exactly what was going on but I had a damn bad unsettling feeling for some hours after the news.
     In all my hours piloting aircraft I had never had this feeling before.
     Of course we moved into immediate action to secure all aspects of Jade Cargo.
     Now a decade later that infamous bright September day lives on in almost everything we do, impacting the airline business and air cargo every day.
     The entire industry now moves slower and costs have skyrocked connected to security, as everything including simple procedures are much more complicated.
     Maybe worse is the constant underlying concern and even fear that something bad might happen again.
     One thing for certain is that the world we once knew in commercial aviation is gone forever.
     Ahead lies more spending on enhanced security by the industry in both cargo and the passenger business.