Pewaukee Pilot Watched Twin Towers Collapse From Above

Chuck Savall, a 66-year-old retired pilot from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, had one of the most remarkable experiences on Sept. 11, 2001.

Savall was flying Midwest Express Flight 73 from Milwaukee to Newark, New Jersey, when he witnessed the second plane crash into the World Trade Center. A few minutes later, his plane ended up in the path of United Flight 93, the plane that eventually crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“As we descended into Newark, we were put in a holding pattern by the air traffic controllers,” said Savall. “It was the first time I’ve ever had an air traffic controller not able to tell me why.”

Air traffic controllers control all the civilian and military aircraft. When they realized that there was an attack on the country, they went into full military mode.

“They went into protect the nation mode and basically said to hell with airliners,” said Savall, who agreed to speak about his experiences for a story relating to the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. He’s told his story in a few forums, such as on C-Span and in the book “Touching History,” but it’s received little local media attention.

Living through the terrorist attacks has affected Savall’s opinions on the Afghanistan withdrawal. He sharply criticized President Joe Biden, saying America promised to stop global terrorism, but hasn’t.

“Every single airliner in the sky, including me, became an enemy to the country,” he said.

A few minutes later another pilot jumped on the radio and said, “We just heard that an airplane hit the World Trade Center.”

“I’m like, well wait a minute, I’m right above the World Trade Center,” said Savall. “I looked out the window and I saw the first tower with a big plume of smoke off of it. And as I am looking out the window, the second airplane hit, and I instantly knew that our nation was under attack.”

Savall knew that he had to reroute the plane to get the passengers to safety. He told the air traffic controller that he was rerouting to Cleveland. He made an announcement to the passengers after the flight attendants made sure no one on the plane looked suspicious.

“Our nation was under attack, and we do not know what awaits us on the ground, because we may land at an airport where they could be taking over aircraft,” Savall said to the passengers.

Savall and his co-pilot discussed landing at a small business airport in Cleveland to hide from everything going on. However, before they came to a decision, Savall was told to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh.

“We dove the airplane and scared the s*** out of the passengers as we landed in Pittsburgh,” Savall said. “It turned out we were in the way of United 93, which was the flight that crashed near Pittsburgh. That plane was headed right at us, and they had military fighters chasing it.”

Pittsburgh International Airport was completely shut down as they descended towards it.

“The tower’s closed, the airport’s evacuated, you’re on your own,” an air traffic controller said to Savall.

The few people remaining at the airport were military personnel. As Savall landed the plane, two tanker aircraft took off right next to them to refuel the fighter jets. United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania minutes after they landed.

When asked how he would describe Sept. 11, 2001 in one word, he said, “Unexpected, of course it was a tragedy and everything else, but it was so unexpected.”

Fast forwarding to present day 20 years later, Savall has strong feelings about how the United States has handled the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

“The fact that we haven’t really done anything to stop global terrorism in the world that we swore off at the nation that we would, and we would never forget,” said Savall. “Well now we have politicians and a lot of citizens that have completely forgotten.”

With the recent Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Savall believes the U.S. Government poorly handled the situation and made a big mistake leaving U.S. troops behind.

“I truly think our President should be impeached and in jail,” he said. “It’s that bad. One of the covenants of this country, not just military, but its people is no man left behind. He left thousands of people behind.”