By Town Crier Staff Report
When Town Crier employee Janice Fabella saw the World Trade Center collapse, she was in a small beach resort near Lisbon, Portugal, preparing for her return home the next day.
The terrorist attacks Sept. 11, which used commercial planes as weapons to destroy the World Trade Center and a portion of the Pentagon, shut down all American airports. Fabella was left stranded in Europe for four days.
Fabella was on the first Swiss Air flight allowed to land at San Francisco International Airport at 1 a.m., Sunday. Fabella said the 11-hour flight is one she won’t forget soon.
“We all clapped when the plane hit the runway,” Fabella said.
Fabella saw her first images of the falling towers on her hotel television. All broadcasts were in foreign languages, Fabella said. She and her three travel mates had to use their high school Spanish, French and German to piece together what was happening.
Fabella said she was one of few American tourists trying to leave Portugal. Airport personnel were told to temporarily hold airline tickets from tourists flying to America, even to connecting flights to other European countries, Fabella said. She had to argue with the airline management to get onto a connecting flight into Zurich, Switzerland.
“If I could get to Zurich, I would be one step closer to home,” Fabella said. She was able to get through to her family, though it was difficult.
Once in Zurich, the airlines loaded American travelers into four shuttles headed to various hotels to wait for clearance.
After a three-day stay, Fabella was scheduled to fly out.
Airport security was definitely stricter, Fabella said.
Passengers needed to check-in four hours before departure. Airport security segregated American travelers, where they were patted down. All luggage required a security tag. Passengers had to identify their bags on the runway before boarding.
Fabella said she tried not to think about hijackers and crashes during the long flight.
“I’m more worried about being here than being stranded there. It’s really scary. I felt a lot safer in Europe,” Fabella said.
