BOSTON — Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, Virginia Buckingham is struggling with an unforgiving past. Buckingham was the director of Massport on 9/11.
When two planes out of Logan Airport were hijacked and crashed into New York City’s Twin Towers, Buckingham soon became a public face of the missed opportunities to tighten airport security. Weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Buckingham resigned before she could be fired.
At a North Shore Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Buckingham spoke of the devastating toll it took on every aspect of her life.
“A seed of doubt had taken root in my soul. That maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I could have changed what happened that day. I let it fester and grow,” Buckingham said.
Buckingham insists, even as MassPort’s director, she could not have prevented the 9/11 attacks by herself and that, after 9/11, she pushed hard and advocated for tighter security at Logan. But little prepared her for the day the family of a 9/11 victim filed suit against her in federal court.
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“Losing my job shattered my career. A federal court being asked to hold me personally responsible for the death of a young father of two little boys shattered my heart and my soul,” Buckingham remembered.
Ultimately that lawsuit was dropped. Buckingham said federal court rulings and the 9/11 Commission report found security at Logan on 9/11 was no worse than other U.S. airports.
Recently, Virginia Buckingham published On My Watch, her side of a very public story. She said she is rebuilding her life, but she’s paid a very high price.
“I was broken by being blamed for 911,” Buckingham said. “Perhaps blaming me was a collective breath being exhaled by the body politic. My forced resignation, temporarily, perhaps eased the palpable sense of anger and fear in Boston following the attacks.”