This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Retired Minooka Teacher, Son, Reflect on 9/11

Peg Francisco of Minooka worried about her airline pilot son during 9/11.

Retired Minooka District 201 teacher Peg Francisco remembers 9/11 like it was yesterday.

She was teaching at Minooka Junior High School at the time. Her concern was for her son, Paul, who is a pilot for United Airlines. He was 29 at the time.

Relief coursed through her when she heard his voice on the phone in the afternoon. He was on a layover in Amsterdam. He had not been in the air during the conflagration. He confirmed he was okay. He couldn’t talk long, but he figured he’d be in Amsterdam longer than planned.

Find out what's happening in Channahon-Minookawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

His 26-hour layover, turned into six days.                     

Peg said, “Even though I knew he was okay, I was a nervous wreck.”

Find out what's happening in Channahon-Minookawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On her subsequent visits to Ground Zero in New York in 2006, Peg was amazed at one thing.

“You couldn’t hear a human voice there (at Ground Zero), she said. "It was so quiet. That really impressed me.”

Told by a Friend

Paul Francisco did not even know his mother was worried about him because he did not immediately know what was going on.

“I landed in Amsterdam three or four hours before everything started going down here," he said. "Usually, upon arrival (from an overseas flight) it’s time to take a nap.  I had made plans with childhood friend from Minooka, Shawn Marie Hill Lehman, to meet with her and her husband. (Lehman and her husband had been living temporally in Amsterdam.)

I overslept and when I called Shawn, she was puzzled.

‘What are you doing here?’

I told her there had been some bad weather, but that the flight was uneventful.

She said, ‘Paul, turn on your T.V.’

“I hung up with her just as they were replaying the airplane flying into the second tower.  I hung up and called my mom and dad.  Then I called my home answering machine and rerecorded the message to tell anyone wondering that I was okay.  I didn’t tell anyone where I was though."

His very specific procedure was a result of something he had learned in training.

"We had been briefed since the time I was hired, that there’d be people out there looking for us (Americans). Since they’d (the hijackers) had used the airlines, and hijacked United. And we didn’t know at the time how they gotten into the cockpits-  had they stolen uniforms?  We (he and the other crew members) were not going to tell anyone who we worked for, and we were just here in Amsterdam as tourists.”

When he did meet Lehman and her husband for supper, he told them not to talk about the airlines. He didn’t want anyone to know what his connection was.

Paul has seen major changes in the airline industry and his profession stemming from what he believes was the aftermath of 9/11.

“I knew the whole industry was going to change,” he said.

He said regulations and taxes put new burdens on the airlines. Those sanctions coupled with other economic factors, caused the airlines to lay off employees, as well as reduce employee salaries and benefits, like his.

He now has added a second job to his work as an airline pilot.  He is an independent coach for Team BeachBody.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Channahon-Minooka