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Thursday evening a portion of the
Lincoln Heritage Museum remembrance event for those lost on Sept.
11, 2001, included a presentation from Vicki Selvaggio of
Springfield.
Selvaggio in 2001 was a flight attendant working for American
Airlines. On Sept. 11, she found herself in New York City, just a
short distance from the World Trade Center.
In her talk she described the events of the day, days after and the
long-term effects it has had on her personally.
For Selvaggio the events of Sept. 11 began the day before, when she
and her best friend, another American Airlines flight attendant,
boarded their flight for New York. They were excited about the trip
because it was going to include a long layover in the city, and they
were looking forward to getting out and seeing the sights.
At 1 a.m. on Sept. 11 they checked into their hotel, went out to
eat, and by 3 a.m. they were in their rooms sleeping.
Selvaggio recalled hearing sirens as she slept but not giving it a
lot of thought. She relayed that in a city like New York, you hear
sirens, they wake you up, you go back to sleep; it's just part of
the process.
The reality of what was happening in New York was brought to her
attention by her phone ringing that morning and her friend telling
her to turn on the television.
"When I did, I asked, 'What country is this?' My friend responded,
'This is just down the street from us,'" Selvaggio said.
For Selvaggio, that was the beginning of real fear as she processed
what was going on around her. She realized there was a possibility
her life could end that day.
A portion of the safety precautions issued on Sept. 11 included the
grounding of all flights. Across the United States, all airplanes
were left on their tarmacs.
For Selvaggio and her fellow crew members, they were grounded
indefinitely, with orders from the airline to stay put in the hotel
so that when flights resumed, there would be crews available.
One of Selvaggio's greatest concerns was that she wasn't able to get
through to her family in Illinois. Her husband, Andy, was a
Springfield police officer, and she knew he was on duty. Her
2-year-old daughter would be with her mother-in-law for the day, as
that was the normal routine for the family.
As Selvaggio tried to call home, she found that her cellphone
wouldn't work because she had Verizon, and the Verizon tower had
been atop the World Trade Center. Using land lines was practically
impossible as they were jammed with literally thousands of calls,
with people trying to find loved ones, and loved ones like Selvaggio
calling home.
What Selvaggio didn't know at the time was that there was a terrible
turmoil in Springfield.
When the news made it to her husband that an American Airlines plane
had hit the World Trade Center, he left work and went home to check
his wife's flight schedule. However, when he found her schedule, he
misread it and believed that she had boarded a flight at 7:32 a.m.
bound for Chicago.
At that moment he believed that his wife was among the lives lost in
the first crash.
When Selvaggio was finally able to make a phone call, she called her
mother-in-law first, not realizing what the family was going through
and believing her husband would be at work.
By that time, Selvaggio's husband was at home with his brother, who
had walked away from his shift also as a Springfield police officer
when his supervisor told him that he could not leave.
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Vicki Selvaggio, center left, is accompanied by her mother-in-law,
Anita Selvaggio, far left, and daughter Anna and her mother, Eloise
Cherry, far right. In the background is the American Airlines flight
attendant suit Selvaggio donated to the Heritage Museum at Lincoln
College. As a flight attendant, she was in New York City on layover
on Sept. 11, 2001. Thursday evening she recounted the events from
her viewpoint to an audience of about 30 who gathered at the museum
in remembrance of that fateful day.
Selvaggio's sister-in-law was with her
mother-in-law and baby, and Selvaggio's own parents could not be
reached by phone because they were hearing-impaired.
When her mother-in-law answered the phone, the shock of Selvaggio's
voice caused her to black out. The sister-in-law grabbed the phone
and kept saying, "Call Andy, call Andy."
After hours of grief and uncertainty, the Springfield Selvaggio’s
learned that their loved one had survived the terrible ordeal in New
York.
For Selvaggio herself, it was days of torture as she was trapped
with no way to get home. She described living for days in the same
clothing and the happiness she felt when her husband agreed that she
needed to go shopping.
She remembered the day the airline crew decided they had to do
something to help and offered to give blood, only to be told there
was no need as there had been no survivors.
She remembered the dirt and dust and the smell of burning electrical
wires, a smell that still haunts her.
And she remembers a strong determination to reach Illinois before
her daughter's 2nd birthday, which she did.
After several days, her best friend's husband arrived in New York by
car, and Selvaggio rode back to Ohio with them. They drove straight
through, but on that day, she looked up and saw planes in the air.
She took a flight to Chicago, where her car was parked, and drove
home to Springfield.
For months after that, Selvaggio suffered from post-traumatic
stress, she experienced anxiety attacks, and in general had a hard
time recovering from what had been a near miss with death.
Three months after 9/11, she boarded her first flight as an American
Airlines flight attendant. Selvaggio recalled walking through the
boarding tunnel in tears, shaking in fear. She went straight to the
pilot and expressed to him that she needed some kind of reassurance
if she was going to be able to go through with the flight.
"He put his hands on either side of my face, and said to me, 'Vicki,
there are three air marshals on this plane,' and that was good
enough."
However, Selvaggio did not stay in her profession. Within two years,
she would leave her career of flying.
As she concluded her presentation, Selvaggio said, "I don't know
what your 9/11 moment is, but when I have mine, I draw from a higher
power and remember to just breathe."
During questions and answers, Selvaggio was asked how she reacted at
the news that Osama bin Laden had been captured and killed.
She responded, "I wanted to crack open a bottle of champagne."
She went on to say that she appreciated greatly all the effort that
the U.S. military went through, and that in the end the death of bin
Laden was something that needed to happen. In the audience around
her Thursday night, some whispered in agreement and several nodded
their heads.
[Nila Smith] |
