Andrew Feldman, Civil Air Patrol: Clermont, Florida man describes bird's eye view of Sept. 11 devastation

When terrorists attacked the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, people all over the world were shocked.

That included Andrew Feldman, a lieutenant colonel with the United States Marine Corps.

But Feldman had to set his feelings aside and do his job, which involved flying over the devastation as part of a three-man Civil Air Patrol crew and photographing the scene as it was happening. No other aircraft were allowed in the skies over Manhattan after the initial attacks.

Today, Feldman is still moved by what he saw from a perspective that only his crew and those in the F-15s flying alongside them as military escorts witnessed.

“It was chilling. It’s kind of hard to describe,” said Feldman of the things he saw and took pictures of from the inside of a Cessna 182. “(The scene) looked like a kid’s game of pick-up sticks. I could see emergency workers crawling over all the rubble. They looked like ants crawling over a fallen forest.”

“I come up with all sorts of euphemisms, but really, what we were seeing was just all kinds of devastation.”

In 2001, Feldman, now 69, was based in eastern Long Island. After the 9/11 attacks, he was notified that he was to document what had happened to lower Manhattan.

It took Feldman and two other crew members about one hour to get to the scene by plane. They took pictures for about 90 minutes before flying back to their base.

Feldman said the Cessna 182 was built to fly “low and slow” and was outfitted for photo reconnaissance.

“We got as low as 900 feet above the ground, so we had a very good view of everything. I couldn’t believe some of what we were seeing. But first of all, we were flying under order, so any type of emotions had to wait,” Feldman said. “Definitely, the emotions happened afterwards and are still lingering.”

In May (of 2014), Feldman and his wife Ilene, attended the grand opening of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum at Ground Zero, along with emergency service personnel and first responders. Some of Feldman’s pictures are permanently displayed in the museum.

Feldman, a consulting engineer, is still involved in the military after more than 25 years, as a reservist. Feldman lives with his wife at Kings Ridge in Clermont.

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