#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE

Oliver Neerfeld
Head Of Competence Centers
Traxon Europe

     I arrived on the 10th of September 2001 in EWR; my plan was to have a meeting with a potential customer the next day in NYC, Long Island (at this time I was still with Lufthansa Systems).
     On 9/11 around 9:00 am everybody from our side was ready for the scheduled meeting, but our fellow American side came in a few minutes after nine telling us about rumors of a Cessna having hit one of the twin towers. I immediately looked on the internet and found different sorts of news/rumors, but not a clear picture. Everybody in the meeting room had a strange feeling and the apprehension that this might be more than just an accident.
     Around 9:45 the MD of our potential customer entered the meeting room, calling for me to tell me that my father was on the phone (my family knew that I was in NYC, but did not know the name of the company we were visiting). I went to the phone and my father asked me whether I was fine and if I had heard the news about the terrorist attack. I mumbled something like "not really" and he gave me the fatherly advice to call my wife (she at that time was at home with our daughter Sarah Johanna, 1.5 years old, and pregnant with our son Ben David, born in October 2001).
     After the call with my Dad I tried to get a telephone line to get through to Germany, which was quite difficult, but it somehow worked. When I heard my wife’s voice, it was the moment I realized that something fearful and unthinkable must have happened. My wife roughly told me about the pictures she had already seen on TV; I just said that I was ok and that we were about 30 miles away from NYC, then the line cut out. We talked again later in the evening.
     Back in the meeting room everybody was more or less aware of the critical situation and we decided to cancel the meeting for the day. My colleague and I drove back to the hotel where a huge croud of people were in the bar, watching the pictures on TV—for me it was the moment of truth, but also the moment of seeing the incomprehensible...I then realized that this act of cowardice would change the political word, the airline/cargo business I was working in, and also my personal attitude.
     Nevertheless, the next day we started our business meetings, but I assumed that everybody was still mired in thoughts of what happened – even in Long Island, we could see the smoke of the collapsed twin towers… there were moments when I thought of going to ground zero to have a voyeuristic view of the tragedy, but my respect for the victims and families kept me away. I collected all the newspapers from those days and still have them at home… around 9/11 every year, my son Ben David asks for those newspapers and remembers very well that at that time his mother had a hard time not showing anxiety.
     On Saturday, September 15th, 2001 I took one of the first flights back to Germany—it was the saddest and most silent flight I have ever experienced. Some of the flight attendants had stayed in a hotel where during their breakfast on 9/11, they saw the second airplane flying into the twin towers.
     Today, when I am on my regular business trips I sometimes get impatient about all that security stuff, BUT then again, I remember that this process is to protect my fellow travelers and me.