PILOTS

N.E. mourns veteran fliers

By Caroline Louise Cole, Globe Correspondent, and Scott S. Greenberger Globe Staff, 9/12/2001

JOHN OGANOWSKI Had three daughters. (AP Photo)

he captain and copilot of the American Airlines 767 that slammed into the World Trade Center's north tower were New Englanders, one a Dracut farmer and the other a Portsmouth, N.H., man who was active in his church.

John Ogonowski, 50, and Thomas McGuinness, 42, both veteran pilots, were scheduled to be at the controls of American Airlines Flight 11, which departed Boston en route to Los Angeles with 92 people on board. Instead, at around 8:45 a.m., the jet plowed into the World Trade Center - the first in a series of terrorist attacks.

Ogonowski met his wife, Margaret, at American, where she worked as a flight attendant. They have three daughters - Laura, 16, Caroline, 14, and Mary, 11.

Friends and family described Ogonowski as a fourth-generation farm boy who never forgot his roots. He grew hay, corn, blueberries, and peaches on his family's 150 acres in Dracut.

Ogonowski also was committed to helping others stay connected to the land: Three years ago, when the federal government asked farmers to donate land to Asian immigrants who wanted to farm, he was the first in the region to volunteer.

''I used to tease him that he was a man of such contradiction, that he was a farmer on one hand and he flew jets on the other,'' said his neighbor and friend Jack Ditillio.

''The truth was that he loved flying, he loved his community, and he loved his family in equal measure.''

Ditillio said his friend could not have been alive at the time his plane hit the tower.

''He never would have driven that plane into that building knowing what that would have meant,'' he said. ''He struggled with whomever was trying to take over his plane, and I am sure he died trying to stop what he saw happening.''

Close to 400 people attended a memorial Mass for Ogonowski and other victims of terrorism at St. Francis Catholic Church in Dracut last night. The Rev. Brian Kiely eulogized Ogonowski saying: ''Today, the world experienced a tragedy. We experienced a tragedy because our brother died. We do not wish to exploit what happened today, we gather here tonight simply to pray.''

Earlier in the day, family and friends gathered at the Ogonowski farm on Marsh Hill Road in shock when they learned that the man they knew was the captain of Flight 11.

''I keep looking out at the cornfield and expecting my brother to walk out,'' said his younger brother Jim Ogonowski. He said his brother was an Air Force veteran who served briefly in Vietnam.

''We're in shock, we're in denial.''

McGuinness, his wife, Cheryl, and their 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter moved into a house in Portsmouth about a year ago. McGuinness was active in Bethany Church in Greenland, according to friends and neighbors.

Outside the church last night, Pastor Fred Cheney, who said he had been appointed the McGuinness family spokesman, said Tom McGuinness ''was a wonderful father, a great husband, a loving family man, a member of Bethany Church, and now he's an American hero. He's a believer in Jesus Christ, and he's with Him now.''

He asked the media to respect the family's privacy in their grief, to ''pray for all lives lost,'' and for God to comfort the country.

Rick DeKoven, an administrator at Bethany, described McGuinness as ''a devoted family man.''

''He was active in his community and church. I just think he set an example for all of us, and we're going to sorely miss him.''

DeKoven said pastors were with Cheryl McGuinness when she heard of her husband's death.

Neighbor Chris Murphy, a member of McGuinness's church, said he was a ''faith-based man.''

''As my son gets older if someone were to tell him he's a lot like Tom, I'd consider that a proud statement.''

Kimberly Blanton of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondents Kathleen Burge and Clare Kittredge contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.

This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 9/12/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.