Williams hotline helped relatives of 9/11 victims. 25 years later, she can still remember the calls. 

What traders in Tulsa expected to be ordinary business calls with New York City colleagues took a tragic turn 25 years ago, today. 

Inside downtown’s One Williams Center, employees scribbled down the last words of their counterparts at Cantor Fitzgerald, trapped in the World Trade Center’s North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. A terrorist’s plane hit directly beneath their section of the tower, and many were begging for help and rescue.

Susan Tyler, then working as a senior administrative assistant for multiple Williams departments, created a hotline and call center alongside coworkers from other departments. They relayed information to relatives of the New York financial services company about whether their loved ones had made it out alive.

“We were talking to employees, HR, trying to get a head count as to who made it out because they were up on a higher level,” Tyler said. “It was just heartbreaking.”

Several employees at Williams, including Tyler, volunteered to work night shifts so phones could be manned around the clock. They gathered information about the whereabouts of Cantor Fitzgerald employees and whether they had been in the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks, then followed up with relatives for updates.

“There were so many volunteers,” Tyler said. “People wanted to help in any way that they could, and this was a way that people could do that.”

Tyler said several relatives of Cantor Fitzgerald employees called to provide names of those who had not been found.

“It was like reaching in and ripping your heart out,” she said. “I would just pray with them over the phone to do whatever I could to bring them some kind of peace, solace and hope that they would hear something.” 

According to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, 658 of the firm’s 960 New York employees died during the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the Sept. 11 attacks in total.

“So many people had folks that they spoke with on a daily basis that were just not there anymore,” Tyler said.

Williams Company provided $1 million to the United Way of Oklahoma on the day of the attacks, which marked the first corporate gift of what would become the September 11 Fund. Former Williams CEO Keith Bailey visited the World Trade Center the day before the attacks, according to a 2011 article from the New York Times — in which Tyler was quoted.

Tyler and her counterparts aren’t the only people in the Tulsa-area memorializing those who perished in the attacks. 

Tulsa’s fire and police departments pay homage to the more than 400 first responders who died through an annual memorial stair climb. Participants will attempt climbing 110 flights of stairs at First Place Tower beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

For Abraham Montes, who has been with the Tulsa Fire Department for 13 years, the event is about paying respect to those who paid the “ultimate price” climbing the crumbling World Trade Center.

“Every one of those men and women, they’re not at home with their families. That was it for them,” Montes said. “We still get to go home. They’re the brave ones.”

Tyler: ‘We lost our innocence’

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Tyler says climbing the One Williams Center — then the tallest in the state — was never the same. Over the 33 years she worked for the company, she split time between the 38th and 45th floor of the downtown building, which later became the Bank of Oklahoma Tower. 

The One Williams Center, a half-height blueprint of the North Tower and was designed by the same architect Minoru Yamasaki, created an eerie feeling after the attacks, Tyler said.

“You’d look up and think, ‘OK. It’s still there.’ And you think, ‘OK, I’m going up to 38 or 45 — whatever it was,” she said. “Getting up the elevator, sometimes when it would jerk or something: ‘What was that? Why is it doing that?’”

Looking south onto the BOK Tower from the fourth floor balcony of 101 E. Archer St. on Wednesday morning, Tyler said their conference room was on the northeast corner of the building facing Tulsa International Airport.

“It was a direct line from the airport,” Tyler said. “It was just unsettling to think about.”

Changes were made at One Williams Center soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. Tyler said concrete barriers and ID cards were soon introduced.

“Nobody could get into the building past a certain point,” Tyler said. “We never had to do that before.”

Employees came up with elaborate exit plans in the case of a terrorist attack.

“I know this sounds silly, but we talked about exit plans a lot for a long time,” Tyler said. “You know, maybe we could get a zipline to cross to another building or something.” 

Changes at Tulsa International Airport

Beyond the One Williams Center, significant changes were also made at Tulsa International Airport. Prior to the attacks, airport security across the country was typically handled by private companies. The Tulsa International Airport was served by Huntleigh USA.

In November 2001, Congress passed legislation that created the Transportation Security Administration, effectively shifting security management at airports from private companies to the federal government. The law expanded screenings on checked bags and directed the implementation of explosive detection technology.

This led to Tulsa International Airport adopting an in-line, checked-baggage system and creating a centralized security checkpoint. The airport previously had separate security checkpoints for each concourse.

Non-traveling members used to be able to access the gate area without going through the screening process to say goodbye to their loved ones. For Tyler, this was the biggest change at the airport. 

“We couldn’t walk anybody to their gate anymore and see them off,” Tyler said. “We were trusting people before then, and now you can’t.”

That restriction has recently shifted. The Tulsa airport in 2023 launched the TUL Visitor Pass Program to allow the non-traveling public to get past the security gate on the passenger terminal. This year, the airport has averaged about 900 visitor passes per month, said airport spokesperson Kim Kuehler. Visitors can now access similar privileges nationally through TSA’s recently expanded Gateside by TSA Precheck program. 

Looking back on the tragedy, Tyler, now 73, said she takes nothing for granted.

“When you leave the house, go to a job, take your kids to school, whatever the situation is — don’t take it for granted. You are never promised the next day. You are never promised the rest of the day,” Tyler said. “Live in the moment and do what you can to help others.”

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