Q: Tell me about being connected right to the control room.
MP: When I made the telephone call to Three Mile Island, thinking that there
was a fire on-site -- that's what I thought -- I was put through to the
control room, but I didn't find that out until later. I didn't know who I was
talking to. I asked for a public relations person. I identified myself, Mike
Pintek from WKBO, I'd like to speak to a public relations official. And this
man gets on the line, and there's commotion in the background, and he said, "I
can't talk now, we have a problem. I said, "Well, do you have a fire?" He
said, "No, we've got no fire equipment here. I can't talk now, we've got a
problem. Call Metropolitan Edison headquarters in Redding, Pennsylvania." I
said, "All right, thank you. " Now, you know, I could kick myself now for not
knowing that I was talking to the control room operator, but I didn't know. I
didn't find that out until later, till one of the president's commission
investigators told me that I had actually been put through to the control room.
Apparently they had tracked that down and determined that indeed I had been put
through to them.
back to Interview Transcripts | next
|
PBS Terms of Use Privacy Policy
Pledge Your Support
Stories to Go