About a week before 9/11, I parked my car in our garage, came into the house, and heard a terrific bang. It turned out that the garage door spring did not have a safety wire. The spring snapped and would have killed anyone who was in the garage at the time. As it was, it had smashed into the side of my car, damaging it considerably.
I was scheduled to be in DC in the afternoon of 9/11 to lead the air cargo track of a FAA workshop. I was also scheduled to be part of a meeting that morning involving Continental Airlines, Union County and the Port Authority. I don't recall if the meeting was originally scheduled to be at the WTC or Elizabeth, but asked if the meeting could be shifted by about an hour so that I could drop my car at the body shop and then go to the meeting and then go to DC. It was agreed to start the meeting earlier and that it would be in Elizabeth.
The morning of 9/11, I got a call from someone from the airline telling me that a plane had hit Tower One. I replied that it wasn't funny and was told it was probably a small plane and not a big matter. I was dropping my car off at the body shop in Garwood, NJ where the TV was on and where we all saw the second plane hit.
The Port Authority staff who would have been in the WTC were in Elizabeth for this meeting. If the meeting had been held in the WTC, all of us would likely have been killed.
Yes, a garage door spring damaged my car. But, it is highly likely that the snapped spring saved our lives.
