The evening of Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001, was mild and extremely humid. My wife and I were meeting about 10PM in "executive session" on the backyard deck of our rented duplex southwest of Austin, Texas, when we were surprised to see a small, low-flying helicopter trailing what I first took to be a contrail. The helicopter was only visible for a few seconds through a gap in the tall juniper trees that ringed our home, but it was so close I was able to make out the silhouettes of two persons in the cabin. I also noticed that it was not showing navigation lights. The white "contrail" appeared to originate from a nozzle under the helicopter that was illuminated by a floodlight mounted on the starboard runner. The chopper's path was roughly east to west, paralleling Lake Austin. We were startled because the helicopter was aloft in violation of the FAA's "lock down" of US airspace following the 9/11 attacks. It was the only thing in the sky.
The craft was quickly out of view but the "contrail" lingered, and then began to fall like a curtain. A little alarmed, I hustled my wife inside, slammed the sliding glass door, and turned off the air conditioner. I remember thinking it was a good thing there was a slight northwest drift to the nearly calm air, carrying whatever it was away from us (but toward the lake). I didn't notify authorities, believing many people must have seen and reported the singular appearance of what was apparently a crop-dusting helicopter over Lake Austin, part of the city's water-supply system, in defiance of the nationwide flight ban.
(Click to enlarge map)
The next morning, I was surprised to find no report of the event in the newspaper or on the local radio. So I called Travis County's 911 number to try to find out what had happened. But after describing the event to the dispatcher, she only laughed (nervously it seemed to me) and said that what I had seen was "just the media." Not sure what to make of this nonsensical answer, I hung up and pondered, then called the FBI office in Austin. After a brief, pro forma interrogation, the agent said he'd let me know what he found out. That was the last I heard from the FBI.
A few days later, the public was advised via the media to report any suspicious activity involving crop-dusters.
In November, I began to experience chronic flu-like symptoms --- muscle aches, lethargy and weakness, off and on fever and chills, headache --- as well as a persistent metallic taste in my mouth. I thought it might be a psychosomatic response to what I had come to suspect was a failed bioterror attack. Looking online, my symptoms pointed to fumonism (mold poisoning). After a couple of months of feeling lousy, I broke down and paid for a battery of blood tests --- the tests, however, failed to turn up anything.
That winter, two elderly people on our street who owned houses about a quarter-mile closer to the flight path, passed away.
It might prove fruitful to investigate whether there was a higher-than-normal incidence of deaths along the helicopter's flight path in late 2001.
