The man who grounded 4,000 planes on 9/11 was on first day of his job

On September 11, 2001, four commercial planes were hijacked by foreign terrorists. All other commercial flights were grounded that day, which ended up being a great and potentially life-saving decision. No other planes were able to be hijacked.

Amazingly, the man who ordered the grounding of over 4,000 commercial flights in the United States was on his first day on the job when he made the call. Ben Sliney, the Federal Aviation Administration's National Operations Manager made this unprecedented call. He had no input from the President of the United States or the bureaucracy above him.

However, it's not like Sliney was totally new to the profession. Before signing on as the FAA's National Operations Manager, he held a leadership position at New York's TRACON, which was responsible for all the air traffic in the New York City area. His call was still a heroic one though. So much so that he was asked to portray himself in Universal Pictures' film "United 93."

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