Danielle O'Brien, air traffic controller in Dulles. September 11th, 2001 ~8:18 AM: Airport air traffic controller Danielle O'Brien (Dulles) handled the routine, on-time departure of American Flight 77:
"I slid over to the controller on my left, Tom Howell, and I asked him, 'Do you see an unidentified plane near southwest of Dulles? she remembered. "And his response was, 'Yes. Oh, my gosh, yes, look how fast he is.'" In the room, it was almost a sense of relief," O'Brien said. "This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president." O'Brien had already handed Flight 77 off to a different air traffic control center. "And we waited. And we waited," O'Brien recalled. "And your heart is just beating out of your chest. And then the Washington National Airport controllers came over our speakers in our room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic. The Pentagon's been hit. 9:06 AM"
