Former LA County Supervisor remembers tensions in LA on 9/11

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County honored those killed and remembered the devastation on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks Monday. 

In a ceremony hosted by the Los Angeles Fire Department, officials honored the occasion with bagpipes, the playing of Taps, and the ringing of a bell. At the podium, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said "the world forever changed on September 11, 2001." 

Officials gathered to remember the moments, 22 years later, when two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. They fell, and as they did there was a rippling fear across America, including for, Moore said, "what uncertainty laid ahead."

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In 2001, Don Knabe was a Los Angeles County Supervisor. On Monday, recalled where he was that day, including "one point I'll never forget." Knabe was at LAX, about to fly to New York. He was told of the attack, and that he was needed in downtown LA at the County's Emergency Operations Center. 

The Federal Aviation Administration had just cleared the skies of airplanes, and in downtown LA, at the EOC, Knabe said "the FBI and Secret Service called those of us who were [there] into this room and said ‘We have an issue. There is still one plane in the air.'" A Korean Airlines jet was still in the air, and according to Knabe, was heading toward Los Angeles.

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"We were all waiting to see if it was going to be shot out of the sky," Knabe said. "Whether it was coming our way. You could see the fear in everyone's eyes. Not one person talked."

When asked if officials really believed Los Angeles was the next target, Knabe said. "Yeah, because of Hollywood. You go after the World Trade Center, what's next? There's a big icon on the West Coast, it would be Hollywood. It put the fear of God into all of us."

While no threat ever materialized in LA County, the impacts of September 11, 2001, were felt worldwide.

Knabe said he remembered on that day with a "boom out of the sky," adding that "our lives changed forever and ever and ever."