09/03/2026
At 25, Nia Gilliam was sitting on the runway at Newark when she watched Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center. Minutes later, air traffic control cleared her for takeoff anyway. She landed safely in Boston and vowed to never fly again. It took a positive pregnancy test, and the dream she'd held onto since she was 10 years old, to bring her back. Now, at 50, Captain Gilliam is finally telling the full story, including the guilt she carried and the fear she didn't have language for, in her new memoir, "Cleared for Takeoff." As an African American woman in a field still overwhelmingly white and male, she almost didn't think her story belonged in the history of that day. Her decision to share it now is a reminder that history isn't only made in the moment — sometimes it's made in the courage to finally speak about it.
