Aside from the shock that day and the following days, one of the most memorable things that stands out ten years later is the utter quiet in the skies. Almost immediately, the noise of the take-offs and landings at Dulles that had become so commonplace disappeared. The silence was deafening. The impact of just that lack of noise that you had become so accustomed to hit you very hard and made you realize the seriousness of the situation. The reports on television and radio could be turned off, but the silence in the skies was what made it all so real.