The Freedom Tower

Midwest Airlines pilot Gerald Earwood was flying about 100 miles west of New York when he first noticed what seemed like wisps of smoke coming off the World Trade Center, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.
“Roughly 15 minutes later, Earwood and co-pilot Eric Fjelstad were frantically maneuvering their DC-9 jet to avoid colliding with United Airlines Flight 175, the second airplane to hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Their work, following orders from air traffic controllers, saved the lives of about 30 passengers and five crew members of Midwest Flight 7.

A minute or so later, United 175 - which also came close to colliding with other planes that morning - struck the south tower of the World Trade Center.

A collision between United 175, flying out of Boston, and the Midwest jet, flying from Milwaukee to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, “would have changed history,” Earwood said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, his first newspaper interview about the incident.

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it numerous times,” Earwood said. “But I never knew, and to this day I still don’t know, how close we came.”

The near collision is among several stories told in the new book, “Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11,” by Lynn Spencer. The book, published by Simon & Schuster, tells how airline pilots, air traffic controllers and military pilots reacted to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Spencer, a commercial pilot and Milwaukee-area native, interviewed controllers, Federal Aviation Administration officials, military pilots and civilian pilots, including Earwood.

The story of Midwest Flight 7 is among the most compelling in the book, which also features one other story of a Midwest jet that was diverted from Newark, N.J., to Pittsburgh during the chaos of that morning.”