On the morning of September 11, 2001, “At 9:25, [Federal Aviation Administration’s head Jane] Garvey, in an historic and admirable step, and almost certainly after getting an okay from the White House, initiated a national ground stop, which forbids takeoffs and requires planes in the air to get down as soon as reasonable. The order, which has never been implemented since flying was invented in 1903, applied to virtually every single kind of machine that can takeoff–civilian, military, or law enforcement.”
– Sally Donnelly, “The Day the FAA Stopped the World,” Time, Sep. 14, 2001