Terrific piece on Ben Sliney, the FAA National Operations Manager on September 11, 2001.

On September the 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked four American commercial jets with the intention of crashing them into large, visible buildings in both Washington, D.C., and New York City. As we all know, the terrorists were successful in three of the four cases; the fourth plane’s assault on the United States Capitol — the presumed target — was thwarted by the heroic passengers on board. While we now believe that no other planes were targeted, at the time, each of the other 4,000-plus flights scheduled to be in American air space at the time were at risk. But Ben Sliney, the Federal Aviation Commission’s National Operations Manager on duty that morning, prevented future harm.

How? He made an unprecedented decision, making the call to ground every single commercial airplane in the country.

Read the piece to the end (it’s short). The last line is the payoff.