Don Knabe was a Los Angeles County Supervisor on Sept. 11, 2001. He recalls the scene from inside the county's Emergency Operations Center on that day.
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."We were all waiting to see if it was going to be shot out of the sky," Knabe said.
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."