Nia Gilliam proclaimed she’d never fly again after 9/11.
The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, felt normal. The Atlantic Coast Airlines plane had no engine problems or mechanical issues. Passengers were seated. The 25-year-old co-pilot and her superior, Capt. Shye Gilad, were ready to depart Newark Liberty International Airport for Boston.
The bright blue skies turned dark when they noticed black smoke clouding the World Trade Center. The air traffic controller told them to hold their position. Moments later, she witnessed a plane head directly into the South Tower.
Still, air traffic control cleared their plane for takeoff.
“I was the first officer at the time. However, the captain I was flying with asked me, ‘Are you OK?’ At that moment, there was nothing wrong with the airplane. So how do you answer? Am I OK?” Gilliam reflected. “What do you do when you see something like that? We just did our job.”
Twenty years later, Gilliam is detailing her horrific experience of 9/11 on the 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S history. Thousands were injured, and nearly 3,000 people were killed after hijackers crashed two planes into the twin towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
She also goes beyond that day and shares how she overcame the tragedy in her memoir, Cleared for Takeoff, published by Storehouse Voices. In the two decades since, she built the courage to fly again out of necessity, not choice, to care for her son. She’s now a mother of two and her son is a pilot today.
“As much as I didn’t want to get back in an airplane, that is all I knew how to do was fly,” the Chicago native said.
She continued to excel beyond her childhood dreams. She left Atlantic Coast in 2005 for United Airlines, became a captain and helped launch an airline. She also pushed to build a more diverse pipeline of pilots and policies for moms.
Years ago, Gilliam was the only Black female pilot at her airline. Today, while there are fewer than 200 nationwide, she’s helping the next generation of Black women and girls in aviation through the nonprofit she co-founded, Sisters Of the Skies.
Gilliam’s journey hasn’t been without personal hurdles. She juggled being a pilot and mom, and was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. At 50, she said she’s handling the challenges with grace.
“I’m most proud of the comeback, the resilience part,” Gilliam said. “In life, it’s always gonna be something that’s gonna test you, try you, challenge you. At this big old age, I realize no one is exempt from a challenge.”
Capital B spoke with Captain Gilliam about her decision to still fly after seeing the Twin Towers collapse, her experience as a Black woman pilot, and how her courage to fly again led to Sisters of the Skies.
Below is an excerpt from the conversation between Gilliam and Capital B. It has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Capital B: You experienced one of the most traumatic experiences on Sept. 11, 2001. It took you a while before you truly talked about it. Why did you decide to share your story with the world? And why now?
Nia Gilliam: It’s not a story I was ready to just be vulnerable with and share it with everybody. In 2015, I was invited to participate in a documentary, The Women’s List. That was the first time I actually spoke of it. There was a question, “Did you have a day that you were flying that you were really scared?” Or something like that. It just came out. I was like, “Wow! I said it.” I actually admitted all this to strangers. Within the last few years, I was able to have the time away from work to actually just finish and finally get the story out there. I’m a breast cancer survivor and I was off work for about two years recovering, but it was like now’s the time. This is horrible. This is bad. But knowing in that moment when I was told you have cancer, thinking, “Wow, I could not be here … I could die, and the story would die with me.” Not to mention, or to mention, Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary, is upon us. This is the time. It’s a unique perspective. People don’t know the pilot’s side of the story. There’s first responders. There’s eyewitnesses. There’s people who actually were in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon. Having said all that, I also thought my book was just about Sept. 11, and it took a while to write it because I didn’t know how to just tell a whole story just about that day, right? It was one day, but I didn’t know how to tell more than just what happened that day. It’s so much more to my story than that tragic day.
In the book, you called 9/11 the worst day of your life. When you were cleared for takeoff, you still felt uneasy about the situation. You had just seen smoke and one of the towers down, but you and your co-pilot decided to fly anyway. Knowing what you know now, and the mental and physical challenges you endured after, would you still have made that decision?
Absolutely not. Now, to be clear, it is the captain’s final decision. In that moment, there was nothing wrong with the airplane. So how do you answer? Am I OK? Nothing is wrong with me physically, but I give myself grace because I was young at the time. That’s not something that anybody has ever processed or experienced. But in hindsight, it is always 20/20. There’s a lot of things I look back on in life that I could go back and say, “Oh, I would do it differently.” Having said that, everything happens the way it’s supposed to, and because of everything I’ve experienced, I’ve been able to evolve to the woman that I am today. So while it’s easy for me to sit here in hindsight and say, “Oh, definitely I wouldn’t do it.” I can tell you today, right now, I can say if something happens, I’m not taking off. I’m the captain right now. I get to make all the decisions anyway. With of course the input of my crew. And if my crew member says no, I’m not comfortable. OK, then we’re both not comfortable.
Capital B: But in a way, this dark time produced a blessing you didn’t expect: your son, who is now an airline pilot. What does it mean to see your son as a pilot?
I did try to discourage him from becoming a pilot because of all the trauma and the fear I experienced. I was projecting it on him, and because he’s wanted to do it since he was like 3, he always drew airplanes. That just was his passion on his own. Who am I to be that parent to not support him when I have parents to support me? Who better to be his mentor? No one in my family could guide me, could mentor me, or lead me. They did the best that they could to support me, but here I am. I had plenty of resources in terms of mentorship and people. Let me be the good parent and support my son. And here he is today. I’m only back flying because of my son. Oops, did I give it all away? It’s almost like my passion, my love from childhood was reborn through the birth of my son. Truly, had it not been for him, we wouldn’t have a book. I’d be still working at Barnes and Noble, probably managing a store or somewhere up in corporate.
You have been a trailblazer, and oftentimes, the first or only, in your field. From launching a new airline brand [the now-discontinued ACJet Airlines] to being the first pregnant woman at your airline — and not even having maternity leave – and now cultivating Black female pilots. How has the industry changed since you first started?
It’s so much different now. Back then, just something as simple as a maternity uniform at the airline that I worked for — it didn’t exist. They didn’t know how to help me, and they’re like, “Well, we’ve never had a pregnant pilot.” They directed me to the bigger airline, United Airlines, I didn’t work for them at the time. I was able to order maternity shirts. But part of our uniform is a blazer, and I just couldn’t wear a blazer because we didn’t have any at my company, and so I just wore my maternity shirt and went to work like that. There was no maternity leave policy. We had FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act], but that’s only for so long. You had sick leave, and I’d only been with the company a little less than two years. It was a struggle. It meant I couldn’t be off work that long, but you do what you have to do.
It was difficult at one point finding a mentor who looked like you. Fortunately, you met Stayce Harris and learned about other Black female pilots like the late Janet Harmon Bragg and Bessie Coleman. Despite that, you were still the only Black female pilot at your airline. Today, there’s fewer than 200. Did this lead you to creating Sisters of the Skies?
It was disheartening to me. It was 2016, so I’ve been in the airline business for 16 years, and a young lady reached out to me, and she was like, “Oh, I’ve never seen a Black woman flying wide-body aircraft.” It was Angel Hughes. She was at the Coast Guard and she’s now at UPS. But I was just like, OK, this is exactly what happened to me in 1993. Here in 2016, and we’re having the same interaction, fangirling because you haven’t seen someone who looks like you.
I’m like, we got to change this. There’s not that many of us. We need to help each other, encourage each other, and expose others to this job. Because I was tired of being the only one, it was lonely. It’s ridiculous at this point. We founded Sisters of the Skies. It’s currently being led by Diana Lugemwa, and she’s the president, and she’s a pilot at FedEx. There was a time that they had no black women at FedEx. They’ve given out over $1 million in scholarships. We have our youth outreach program.When I started the very first youth outreach program. I said, if we’re going to do this, it’s very important that the pilots look like the girls that we’re telling can be pilots. If we’re telling this little Black girl that she can fly an airplane, she needs to be in a plane with a Black woman. That’s how it began.
What advice would you give to young people — especially young Black women — who dream of becoming pilots?
Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Like my biggest advice, though, is if it’s something you want to do, like if you’re even thinking about being a pilot, go take a little introductory flight, because you’re either gonna love it or you’re not. Most people love it. It’s people like, ‘Oh, is it hard?’ Is it this? I don’t like saying it’s hard because that sets people up in their head. If it’s something that you want to do, if it’s something that’s in you to do it, just do it. Just keep pushing. Just keep going, because all of the reward, all of the goodness, all of that is on the other side.
As we mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, what do you wish more people understood about the pilot’s experience on that horrific day?
There’s no testimony without a test, right? I hope people find hope after reading my story, inspiration after reading my story, and understanding that stuff is gonna happen in life, but we can get through it. We can get over it with help, community, and love. What I remember about the day, other than all the trauma, is how people came together. Everybody just had a common theme of helping each other, and being there for each other, and supporting each other, and that was the beauty, if you will, in the tragedy. People actually put differences aside, just to come together and help. People should never forget that.
