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The attacks happened two days before Flight International's issue of 18 September 2001 closed for press. Our cover - a chilling, blurred image of United Airlines 175 banking steeply a second before it the second tower - carried the coverline TURNING POINT.
Our coverage focused on how the hijackings had happened and the longer-term implications for the industry. Flight International journalists, including, most notably, safety and operations editor David Learmount, who spent most of that day and the next in TV studios, were in constant demand in the wider media.
At the time, it was feared that as well as a worldwide tightening of aviation security, the attacks might send the industry into a slump. The impact on the industry was indeed dramatic, with passenger numbers and US business confidence generally plummeting over the following year. But worries about a long-term impact on the industry proved unfounded and, by 2003, aerospace was starting to soar to its 2007 peak, helped by easy credit and a War on Terror defence spending boom.
Source: Flight International
