Sept. 11, 2026, will mark the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever to happen on American soil. In the days leading up to the somber anniversary of the attack, many people have been sharing their stories and memories from that day.
And while most of these retellings involve stories that have already been shared, there are a few smaller stories that may have been overlooked because of the gravity of what happened that day. Take, for example, the story of the only non-military plane allowed to fly in the days following the attacks on the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the plane that was intentionally crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
The Washington Post reports that the flight took off less than 24 hours after all planes were grounded, allowing a jet to fly from California to Florida. The reason? A Florida snake handler named Lawrence Van Sertima had been bitten by a taipan, an animal that is considered to have some of the most toxic venom there is.
When Van Sertima began to hemorrhage internally, officials decided to allow an aircraft to fly from Fort Lauderdale, to San Diego, and then back to Miami to deliver critical antivenom. Now, the story has its own lore, including whether it really was the first flight to fly in post-9/11 airspace or if it was one of three documented flights that took place the day after the attacks.
The Anti-Venom Was Said to Be Delivered on September 12
TIL The only plane permitted to fly on 9/11 after the attacks was a plane flying from San Diego to Miami to deliver anti-venom to a man bitten by a highly poisonous snake; it was escorted by two fighter jets
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NDTV World reports that Van Sertima’s medical team begged the FAA to approve the flight after he was bitten on Sept. 11, 2001. According to the reporting, the venom had made him so sick that doctors were afraid he would die without the antivenom, and he was already bleeding from his mouth, eyes, and ears.
Captain Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue had already exhausted his own antivenom supplies trying to help Van Sertima. However, what he had wasn’t specific to a taipan bite, and he needed the more specific dose to keep Van Sertima alive.
Cruz spent more than six hours on the phone trying to get help, and eventually found what he needed in New York City and the San Diego Zoo. Knowing it would be a long shot to get any planes to fly out of New York, he reached out to California officials to try and get the medicine transported.
Johnny Delgado Was the Air Ambulance Service Supervisor
The FAA eventually approved the life-saving flight, and Delgado worked to get a pilot in the air as soon as the sun rose on Sept. 12, 2001. He arrived in San Diego, where airport crews refueled his plane, and a member of the San Diego Harbor Police delivered a red cooler with the antivenom.
Delgado says the pilot flew back to Miami, where a helicopter transported the cooler to the hospital. “They literally handed over this little red Igloo cooler,” Delgado recalled of the conversation he had with the pilot. “I remember it clear as day.” Van Sertima was treated about 45 minutes later, and eventually went on to make a full recovery.
Snopes Investigated the Story
A post about the flight went viral on Reddit, and Snopes eventually looked into the tale in September 2024. According to the website’s investigation, the story is mostly true, with the flights from the plane and helicopter being mostly documented.
That being said, the website says it can’t verify (even though it remains unlikely) that there were truly no other non-military aircraft flying in the days after 9/11. Whether there were any other unknown aircraft in the sky that day remains to be seen, but for now it seems pretty clear that the work Delgado and Cruz did to get that flight into the air that day saved a man’s life during a time when there was already so much death and destruction.