Claim:
The only plane permitted to fly on Sept. 11, 2001, following the U.S. terrorist attacks, was a plane delivering an antivenom to a snake-bite victim.
Rating:
Mixture ( About this rating? )
What's True:
An aircraft was indeed granted special permission to transport an antivenom from San Diego to Miami during a nationwide grounding that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks. However ...
What's False:
The flight took place on Sept. 12, 2001. At least three other flights occurred that day, one of which was the return transit of the antivenom aircraft and a second flight that is believed to have been a military helicopter, possibly transferring the bitten man.
What's Undetermined:
It’s unknown, though unlikely, that any non-military aircraft flew on Sept. 11, 2001, after the attacks.
Lawrence Van Sertima was a snake handler in Florida who, after suffering a bite from the lethally venomous taipan snake, was responsible for what's said to have been the only non-military flight immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks.
It's said that Van Sertima required a rare antivenom that was only available in certain parts of Florida and California at the time of his bite. To transport the antivenom from San Diego to Miami, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is said to have made a special flight allowance, allowing for the antivenom to be delivered in enough time to save Van Sertima's life.
Van Sertima's story has recirculated in the decades following the attacks and has been featured in blog posts and social media platforms including Instagram , Facebook , TikTok , and in numerous Reddit posts ( here , here and here , for example) garnering tens of thousands of upvotes.
One such post ( archive ) shared on Sept. 9, 2024, had received more than 82,000 upvotes at the time of this publication, which claimed that the antivenom-carrying aircraft was the only non-military flight "permitted to fly on 9/11 after the attacks."
TIL The only plane permitted to fly on 9/11 after the attacks was a plane flying from San Diego to Miami to deliver anti-venom to a man bitten by a highly poisonous snake; it was escorted by two fighter jets
by u/nazopo in todayilearned
Snopes spoke with a responding paramedic at the time and, along with newspaper archives, was able to verify that it is true an anti-venom was transported by plane from San Diego to Miami during a multi-day nationwide aircraft grounding that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks.
However, the flight took place on Sept. 12, 2001, and was one of three documented flights that took place that day.
Given these nuances, we have rated this assertion as a mixture of truths and inaccuracies.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked and intentionally crashed – two at the World Trade Center, one at the Pentagon, and a fourth at a field in Pennsylvania – in a terrorist event that would make American aviation history.
The FAA History Office reports that by 9:45 a.m. EST, roughly an hour after the first attack, the agency had grounded all planes in U.S. airspace and shut down the national airspace. Airports and commercial flights began to reopen two days later on Sept. 13, 2001. (General aviation, which includes all civilian flights except for scheduled passenger flights, took even longer to resume.)
Snopes reached out to the nonprofit aviation group, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association ( AOPA ), which published a version of the story on Sept. 1, 2021.
Christopher Freeze is an aviation historian who works under the FAA Flight Service Station to provide pilots with weather briefings and assist in flight plans. Freeze is also a pilot and flight instructor. Freeze, along with AOPA writer Julie Walker , sent Snopes a scanned version of The Associated Press (AP) article that ran on Sept. 14, 2001:
(AP article courtesy of Christopher Freeze)
However, the article above, also published and available online by the Tampa Bay Times , does not specify that the antivenom aircraft was the only one to fly right after the attacks.
Freeze also sent Snopes some flight-tracking data he received from Flight Aware in 2021, which showed at least two other flights took place on Sept. 12, 2001:
(Flight Aware data courtesy of Christopher Freeze)
In the article, a man identified as "Capt. Al Cruz, a paramedic with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom 1," was said to have treated Van Sertima.
Cruz confirmed to Snopes in a phone interview that the events depicted in The Associated Press and AOPA articles were factual. He recalled sitting by Van Sertima's bedside for "30 hours" while he recovered. AOPA writes:
After more than six hours of discussion, Cruz said, permission was granted at 3 a.m. The Chrysler Aviation flight piloted by John Rapis left San Diego at 9 a.m., traveling across the country to arrive in Florida and save Van Sertima with an additional five vials. Van Sertima is still alive and lives in North Carolina. He no longer handles deadly snakes, but his wife reportedly keeps a couple of king snakes in cages in their bedroom.
At the time, AOPA reported that the man was bitten by a snake on Sept. 11, 2001, and was administered antivenom available in Florida at the time. He was then administered an additional dose of antivenom that was transported by plane from San Diego. The flight was accompanied by "two fighter jets and landed at Miami's Kendall-Tamiami Airport (now Miami Executive) at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday" on Sept. 12.
In fact, the AOPA also notes that Van Sertima was also "taken by helicopter to Baptist Main Hospital in Miami where the antivenom was administered."
The director of the hospital where Van Sertima was treated is credited in the AP article with saying that the flight was "the only nonmilitary plane over North America today."
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force notes that another civilian flight took place on Sept. 12, 2001, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk that conducted aerial surveys of the damage . The museum writes:
Following the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, this Skyhawk, tail number N9344L, was the only civilian aircraft authorized to fly in and around New York City on September 12, 2001.
To evaluate the damage caused by the destruction of the World Trade Center, the governor of New York and the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested aerial photography of the area. Approved by the national command authority in the White House, a crew of three Civil Air Patrol (CAP) officers took to the skies.
CAP Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Heinrich and Captains Andrew Feldman and Warren Ratis made four orbits over New York City. Feldman and Ratis, using traditional film Nikon cameras, took more than forty photos of the devastation. Following the mission, government agencies analyzed the photos.
The Federal Aviation Administration referred Snopes to the U.S. Department of Defense, which declined to comment on the claim.
The National Archives, meanwhile, referred Snopes to its 9/11 FAA Finding Aid , which hosts some – but not all – records related to the terrorist attacks. We did not find a relevant document to support the fact that the aircraft was the only one to fly.
Snopes has debunked other claims related to 9/11, including a photo that supposedly showed cars in a commuter lot at Giants Stadium that victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks owned and another said to show a young woman seated on a building ledge and watching one of the Twin Towers burn during the attacks.
Sources:
"9/11 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Finding Aid." National Archives, 3 Nov. 2016, https://www.archives.gov/research/foia/faa-finding-aid .
"Articles | Christopher Freeze - Aviation Writer." Christopher Freeze, https://www.christopherfreeze.com/articles . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKATOWakeUP%2Fphotos%2Fthe-only-non-military-plane-permitted-to-fly-on-911-after-the-attacks-was-a-plan%2F1029785892474061%2F . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/challenge/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fhistoryfunn%2Fp%2FC_0YySTS_Qz%2F%3F__coig_challenged%3D1 . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Introduction: Health Effects of 9/11 - WTC Health Program. https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/exhibition/introduction.html#:~:text=On%20September%2011%2C%202001%2C%20terrorists,attack%20against%20the%20United%20States . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Julie Summers Walker. 19 Feb. 2016, https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/articles-by-author/julie-summers-walker .
"Only One Plane Was Allowed to Fly After Flights Grounded on Sept 11th 2001." Broken Secrets, 8 Sept. 2011, https://brokensecrets.com/2011/09/08/only-one-plane-was-allowed-to-fly-after-all-flights-grounded-on-sept-11th-2001/ .
"Panama City News Herald Archives, Sep 14, 2001, p. 14." NewspaperArchive.Com, 14 Sept. 2001, https://newspaperarchive.com/panama-city-news-herald-sep-14-2001-p-14/ .
"Snakebite Remedy Gets Okay for Flight." Tampa Bay Times, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/09/14/snakebite-remedy-gets-okay-for-flight/ . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
The Day Aviation Stood Still. 9 Jan. 2021, https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/september/pilot/the-day-aviation-stood-still .
TikTok - Make Your Day. https://www.tiktok.com/@/video/7413386703609580846 . Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Your Freedom to Fly. 3 Nov. 2024, https://aopa.org/.
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