it didn't really sink in. And I think uhÉ a lot of people that are close to an event

like that, you know, you're kind of in a sort of a dream state for a little bit

and uh you kinda

try to figure out what happened and uh...

I finally started to piece it all together

uh... later on that evening. Megan: And when he finally did get a hold of me he just

kept saying "It wasn't me...

Don't worry; it wasn't me."

Well I've been with American Airlines since 1991, so we're coming up on my

twentieth anniversary

with American.

I have been a pilot a little bit longer than that. I was first

employed by the Navy; I flew P-3's

uh... out of Brunswick, Maine and uh... I was on active duty for eight years.

I got about 35 hundred hours of P-3 time in those eight years.

and then I got hired by American Airlines and currently I fly the boeing 757

and 767 airplanes.

It's interesting 'cause you don't know what's gonna happen September 11th

when you're living september 10th. And i just remember september 10th because

September in New England is beautiful.

It's not quite fall

but it's it's cooler then it would be other places and I'd taken them to the

library and I was sitting outside drinking a coffee while they were in the library

and for the first time really thanking the Lord because I felt safe I thought, "Wow,

we're all here and it's

safe and what in the world could ever happen

in Georgetown, Maine. Steve: September 10th is a date that means you know great deal to

me because

uh... i did what I normally do on September 10th.

The day before I become available to go flying.. And my flying is in blocks of days

of availability.

So I was available to go flying on September 11th.

So at about three o'clock in the afternoon on September 10th I

sat down at the computer and I logged in like I normally do... to check to see

if there was any unassigned flying for the next day.

And sure enough there was one trip that was available on September 11th it

was American Airlines..

uh flight 11 out of Boston's Logan Airport

to Los Angeles.

It was a two-day trip got back on the second day

left at I think about uhÉ 7:40, 7:45 in the morning

something around that timeframe.

And I looked at it and there was no uhÉ pilot assigned to it yet.

so the next thing that I do is I go and check and see

if there's any reserve pilots available. Now i know i'm available but there might

be some other guys available.

And it just so happened that on September 11th, 2001

uh... there was only one guy available to go flying on that day and that was me.

So i've been through this drill a lot of times over the years uh... I went and I...

in fact i told my wifeÉ I said,

"So i'm going to Los Angeles tomorrow."

I went out to the car, opened up the trunk I got my

my dirty luggage out of the trunk, and I threw it in the washing machine, and I packed my

bags with the new clean stuff and took it back out to the car and I said, "I'm going to LA."

And at three o'clock in the afternoon, in fact in those days uh... uh...

what's called crew scheduling at American Airlines would actually

assign

my name to that trip.

I ironed his shirt which I always do

put his epaulets on his shoulder and found the ID, and...

you know made sure he had everything packed he needed and we just prepare.

uh...

When you're a military family

you prepare in a certain way. When you're airline family it's the same thing. There's

just a routine

and kind of a checklist you go through to prepare for dad to leave on a trip.

The... the final assignment comes from via the phone call. So they make,

you know, positive contact communication with you. It's not just in the computer

they'll call and they'll say, "Hey, just wanna let you know you've been assigned

a trip."

Now I might know that already by looking into the computer. I could already

see that. But a real person will call you and say, "Scheibner, it's now your trip." And now

at that point once you have that phone conversation,

even if a line pilot wants to they can't bump you off that trip so

they've only got a 30 minute window of opportunity once that phone call gets

made it's a done deal.

I waited for the phone call.

And the phone never rang.

Which is not

completely unusual.

It's not the norm but it's not completely out of the question either. In fact, I

didn't even think about it for a while

uh... it was later on that evening I thought, " You know, they never assigned that trip to me." And I

really didn't give it another thought because, well, what that means is i still

get paid but I've got tomorrow off. I'm still available to go flying, but

you know they were finalized the assignment so I guess I can, you know, brush off my

ambitions to do something else that day.

What was taking place uh...

unaware...

I was unaware of

was the fact that a fellow by the name of Tom McGuinness

who was one of those line holding pilots little bit senior to me

uh... Tom was celebrating his birthday

on september 10th

with his wife and his children

and Tom did what i did that afternoon about three o'clock in the afternoon.

He went over to the computer

and he logged in and he looked and he saw that that flight was open but my name

had been

penciled in.

And he knew he was is still in that 30 minute window of opportunity.

uh... so Tom called down to American Airlines and said, "Hey you know I

just one check with you am I legal to take this trip. In other words can I

bump Scheibner off that trip."

and uh... they did what they do with the computer down there and they got back to

him and said, "Yep you're legal for that trip but you gotta give us a call back

in the next, you know,

20 minutes

uh... or else we're gonna finalize the assignment."

I assume that Tom had some sort of conversation with his wife

and he called back,

he called American Airlines and he said, "Yeah I'll take that trip."

So at that moment they erased my name off the trip,

they assigned it to Tom; I didn't know any different 'cause they never called,

and uh... Tom showed up for work that day on september 11th. As you recall

on the east coast it was a beautiful day that day.

They pushed back off the gate on time and

uh... they took off on time and they uh...

Tom was actually flying; it was his leg to Los Angeles that day

and uh... they flew up to about twenty three thousand feet and Tom engaged the

autopilot to take them the rest of the way to Los Angeles.

And at that moment uh...

all hell broke loose on the airplane.

I mean, there's not another way to

to express it.

I didn't have a TV on, I didn't have a radio on. We were just doing our schoolwork.

And um... and pretty soon

the head

contractor called me uh... his guys had called him

because they realized that Steve wasn't home. And he called me and said, "You know, where's Steve

today?"

And I said, "Well he's in at the Navy." He had gone to work for the Navy that day since he didn't get an

airline trip.

and itÉ the problem with the contractors was they were scared they thought he had

been on that flight they were gonna be dealing with this

distraught woman who had just lost her husband.

uh... It really

started to come home to me the emotional gravity of what happened when my

cellphone started to ring.

But uh...

a secretary at a school that I used to attend,

uh looked up my cell phone number and she was the first person to call.

And uh... I answered the phone

and Evie was on theÉ end of the phone.

and she heard my voice and she started crying.

And when she started crying I started crying

and uh...

so uh...

she was just happy to hear my voice, and it wasn't two minutes after I got off

with her that somebody else called,

friends of ours from down in Texas, And I thought, "I need to get ahead of this and make some phone calls.

I called home, and I called to different places.

I still didn't realize

that that was a flight that

I was supposed to be on.

You know, I'm watching on it on TV like everybody else.

And it didn't click with me.

I knew the flight number and everything; it still didn't click with me. When it

finally clicked with me was later on that evening I thought, "You know, I wonder

who was on that flight."

And I thought, "Well maybe I can go find out the names. 'cause the media wasn't gonna

give you the names for a few days.

but maybe there's a way through the login process through American to find out the

names.

And so I did. I did what I did the day before on September 10th. I logged in and when

the screen

came up in front of me

it looked exactly like it did the day before when it had that trip and it had

my name penciled in,

except this time it had this trip sequence,

my name wasn't there,

and it said these three words:

Sequence Failed

Continuity.

That's code

at the airlines for

'the trip never made it to its destination'.

Wow what an understatement.

Sequence Failed Continuity.

And at that moment when I got that visual look at the screen,

I was overwhelmed.

It uh...

I said, "You know what, I packed my bags to go on that trip."

And then I was even more curious,

who had bumped me.

But uhÉ Words can't describe

that moment

of realizing that you should have been some placeÉ

You asked me about guilt a little while ago.

Yeah, you do have a twinge guilt.

20 years ago

I wrote a life objective.

And my life objective goes like this:

It's to seek, trust, and glorify God

through humble service

and continual prayer.

To raise up qualified disciples as quickly as possible.

So someday I might hear

God say,

Well done my good and faithful servant.

The events of September 11th

took that life objective that I already had

and it intensified it for me.

The fire just keeps gettin' hotter

as I get older.

But someday I want to stand in the Lord's presence

and I want him to say, "Well done."

I would hate to get in God's presence

and have Him say, "Oh, yeah,

ScheibnerÉ I see you're name's down here. Well,

you know, have a seat.

I need to hear the Lord say, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

That's what's on my plate

and that's what's driving me these days.

uh... Why does God take one and leave another? It's not because uh... I'm a

better person,

or God wanted to do more with me that he wanted to with Tom.

I think in God's providence

uh... that's obviously His choice.

What has stuck with me all these years

is the fact that he did leave me behind.

Is that i need to act like I'm living on borrowed time

because i am.

I can look and see my smoking hole

and it was a national TV.

And I saw where

I should have died

but I didn't

and now

there's an obligation that comes with that.

I've gotta live my days

with a sense of urgency.