395 NYPD Pilot Ken Solosky on 9/11 — Listen Now on the Rotary Wing Show
Aviation News Talk podcast
Glass Cockpit Publishing
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ken Solosky was the NYPD's Chief Pilot on 9/11, responsible for coordinating helicopter operations during the most devastating day in modern American history. In this short teaser, you'll hear a preview of our in-depth interview with Ken, including why rooftop rescues at the World Trade Center weren't attempted and how the team coped with confusion, misinformation, and tragic loss.
The full episode is available now on our new podcast: Rotary Wing Show.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | And finally, you know, the brain catches up to reality and I said, wow, you know, we are absolutely positively under attack here. |
| 0:11.5 | Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Norque airports abandoned their towers because there were reports that they were going to try to hit those facilities. |
| 0:20.0 | So as you could imagine, |
| 0:21.7 | it was it was absolutely overwhelming. New York City Police Department lost 23 police officers, |
| 0:30.2 | Port Authority lost 37 police officers, and the New York City Fire Department lost 343 firefighters. |
| 0:37.1 | In my 23 police officers, I probably knew 10 of |
| 0:42.0 | them as friends, you know, both on and off duty. On September 11, 2001, Ken Siloski was NYPD's |
| 0:51.2 | chief pilot. While he wasn't in the air during the initial attacks, |
| 0:55.6 | he was in charge of coordinating New York's aerial response from the ground, |
| 1:00.3 | and what he saw and experienced changed his life forever. |
| 1:03.8 | In an extraordinary interview, Ken shares why rooftop rescues weren't possible on 9-11, |
| 1:10.1 | how misinformation spread, including reports |
| 1:13.0 | of enemy fighters over Manhattan, and he shares some behind-the-scenes aviation stories from |
| 1:18.5 | NYPD. He explains why some helicopters, which arrived from neighboring agencies, were unable to help. |
| 1:25.9 | He also talks about the aftermath, the long-term toll on pilots, |
| 1:30.6 | friends lost to 9-11 cancer, and how the NYPD Aviation Unit evolved in the years that followed. |
| 1:37.1 | This was one of the most moving interviews I've ever done, and I want to thank Ken Siloski, |
| 1:41.4 | who, by the way, is one of our Patreon mega-supporters |
| 1:44.4 | for sharing his story with us. |
| 1:46.7 | And because it fits so well with our new podcast, Rotary Wing Show, I've released the full |
| 1:51.8 | episode there. |
| 1:52.7 | So to hear this 9-11 episode now, here's what you need to do. |
... |
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