Henderson woman mourns loss of pilot

Keith Paul

Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

Patty Jennings hopes to fly out of Las Vegas today, not because she is stranded here, but to comfort her sister back East whose husband was the co-pilot on a hijacked plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.

The Henderson woman watched in horror at the images from New York Tuesday morning. Then the horrific news became worse when she learned it was an American Airlines plane, where her brother-in-law, Tom McGuinness, 42, was a pilot.

"We didn't know immediately, but then I heard it was hijacked out of Boston and that's where Tom flew out of," Jennings said. "I just knew. He left that morning, kissed my sister, said 'See you in a couple of days,' and never came back. It's just so devastating."

For hours after the crash Jennings tried to reach her sister, Cheryl McGuinness, in New Hampshire, but couldn't get through. Finally Jennings reached American Airlines officials who confirmed for her Tom McGuinness was on the crew of Flight 11, the first of four hijacked planes to crash.

"They said, maybe he wasn't on the flight, maybe there was a schedule change, but I knew," she said. "They had the perfect marriage. He was Ward Cleaver and she was June. They were supposed to live happily ever after."

Tom McGuinness met Jennings' sister, Cheryl, when they were in high school. McGuinness was 18 and in Jennings' class and Cheryl was 16. The couple married in 1980 and have two teenage children.

"Tom was the first guy Cheryl ever dated and Cheryl was the first girl he ever dated," Jennings said. "He was a very devout Christian and so is she. We know that he is with Jesus now."

Jennings said explaining the death of McGuinness to her children was difficult.

"I just said, 'If it wasn't Tom, then it would have been someone else's father or uncle,' " she said. "I don't really have any anger because the Bible says to let God handle the punishment. So we'll let God do what he will do."

Jennings said she and two other sisters will stay with Cheryl McGuinness and help her and the children through the tragedy of losing Tom McGuinness.

Some passengers on the hijacked planes were able to get out cellular phone calls to loved ones before the crashes, but Jennings said her sister did not receive a call from her husband.

McGuinness was a former U.S. Navy pilot. After the military he had flown for American Airlines for about a decade.

Under his senior high school yearbook picture he listed his "suppressed desire" as "to travel the states."

"I don't believe Tom had any regrets in his life," Jennings said.