Flight 11 - American Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Boston Logan Airport to Los Angeles

Flight 175 - United Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Boston Logan Airport to Los Angeles

Flight 77 - American Airlines Boeing 757 flying from Washington D.C. Dulles Airport to Los Angeles

Flight 93 - United Airlines Boeing 757 flying from Newark Airport to San Francisco

Timeline based on the 9/11 Commission Report [local]

Departs

Scheduled depart

Departs

Takeoff

Scheduled depart

Departs

Departs

Scheduled depart

Last radio contact,

Hijack begins

Takeoff

Flight attendant notifies AA of hijacking

Takeoff

Transponder is turned off

AA attempts to contact cockpit

Boston Center aware of hijacking

Boston Center notifies NEADS of hijacking

Last radio contact,

Likely hijack

Takeoff

NEADS scrambles Otis fighter jets in search of AA 11

AA 11 crashes into 1 WTC (North Tower)

Transponder code changes

Last routine radio communication, Likely takeover

Flight attendant notifies UA of hijacking

Otis fighter jets airborne

Flight 77 makes unauthorized turn to south

New York Center suspects hijacking

Transponder is turned off

Flight 175 crashes into 2 WTC (South Tower)

AA headquarters aware that Flight 77 is hijacked

New York Center advises NEADS that UA 175 was the second aircraft crashed into WTC

AA headquarters aware that Flight 11 has crashed into WTC

UA headquarters aware that Flight 175 had crashed into WTC

Boston Center advises NEADS that AA 11 is airborne heading for Washington

NEADS scrambles Langley fighter jets in search of AA 11

Flight 93 receives warning from UA about possible cockpit intrusion

Herndon Command Center orders nationwide ground stop

Last routine radio communication

Likely takeover

Dulles tower observes radar of fast-moving aircraft (later identified as AA 77)

FAA advises NEADS that AA 77 is missing

Herndon Command Center advises FAA headquarters that UA 93 is hijacked

Flight attendant notifies UA of hijacking; UA attempts to contact the cockpit

AA 77 crashes into the Pentagon

Transponder is turned off

Passenger revolt begins

Flight 93 crashes in field in Shanksville, PA (officially)

Crash based on seismic study

Cleveland Center advises NEADS of UA 93 hijacking

UA headquarters aware that Flight 93 has crashed in PA; Washington Center advises NEADS that Flight 93 has crashed in PA

AA headquarters confirms Flight 77 crash into Pentagon

See also:   Complete 911 Timeline - Cooperative Research

Crash Stats

Sources:  9/11 Commission [local]; FEMA WTC Study: Ch 2 (PDF); NTSB [local]; NTSB AA77 & UA93 study;  Pentagon Building Performance Report [local]; USA Today.  *Averages.  One pound of jet fuel = 6.84 pounds per gallon.

NORAD'S Response Times, Sept. 11, 2001

[Expired:  NORAD; Archived:  Wayback Machine]

(Note:  On October 27, 2004, NORAD took this timeline off their website with no explanation as to why.)

(September 18, 2001 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

PETERSON AFB, Colo. --The following timelines show NORAD’s response to the airliner hijackings on September 11, 2001.
* All times are Eastern Daylight Time; NEADS = North East Air Defense Sector, NORAD
** Scramble = Order to get an aircraft airborne as soon as possible
***Estimated = loss of radar contact
**** Flight times are calculated at 9 miles per minute or .9 Mach
***** The FAA and NEADS established a line of open communication discussing AA Flt 77 and UA Flt 93

Passenger Loads

Seating Charts

Flight 11

Flight 175

Flight 77

Flight 93

BBC

N/A

BBC

N/A

NYT, Boston Globe and SH

Boston Globe

11 Passenger list -CNN

175 Passenger list -CNN

77 Passenger list -CNN

93 Passenger list -CNN

Click photos for hi-res.

Aircraft Registry & Stats

AA Flight 11  •  AA Flight 77  •  UA Flight 175  •  UA Flight 93

Deregistered Aircraft - An aircraft that has been removed from the U.S. Civil Aircraft Register at the owner's request. Aircraft are generally removed for the following reasons: exported, destroyed, salvaged, dismantled, or permanently retired from service.

N-Number - The nationality and registration markings of U.S. registered aircraft.

Reserved N-Number - An N-Number reserved by the party shown for use on an aircraft at a later date. Or, if shown in conjunction with a pending N-Number Change, the new N-Number authorized for use on the aircraft.

American Airlines Flight 11

American Airlines Flight 77

See also:  Research on 911 Planes

United Airlines Flight 175

United Airlines Flight 93

(Note:  Click on Flight Attendant's and Passenger's names to see sources below.)

airphone /

cell phone

airphone /

cell phone

airphone /

cell phone

*Times listed in EST and are when passengers reportedly first made a phone call.

Flight Attendants and Passengers who made phone calls from the planes.

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin, Betty Ong and Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, tell us most of what we know about how the hijacking happened.

We do not know exactly how the hijackers gained access to the cockpit... Ong speculated that they had "jammed their way" in.

About five minutes after the hijacking began, Betty Ong contacted the American Airlines Southeastern Reservations Office in Cary, North Carolina, via an AT&T airphone to report an emergency aboard the flight. This was the first of several occasions on 9/11 when flight attendants took action outside the scope of their training, which emphasized that in a hijacking, they were to communicate with the cockpit crew. The emergency call lasted approximately 25 minutes, as Ong calmly and professionally relayed information about events taking place aboard the airplane to authorities on the ground.
At 8:19, Ong reported: "The cockpit is not answering, somebody's stabbed in business class-and I think there's Mace-that we can't breathe-I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked." She then told of the stabbings of the two flight attendants.
At 8:21, one of the American employees receiving Ong's call in North Carolina, Nydia Gonzalez, alerted the American Airlines operations center in Fort Worth, Texas, reaching Craig Marquis, the manager on duty.

At 8:26, Ong reported that the plane was "flying erratically."

At 8:38, Ong told Gonzalez that the plane was flying erratically again.

At 8:44, Gonzalez reported losing phone contact with Ong." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Public Hearing, Tuesday, January 27, 2004

MR. KEAN: We will now hear the recordings from the two phone calls. The first phone call was placed from Betty Ong aboard the Flight 11 to Ms. Gonzalez. We'll hear the entire four and a half minutes that was recorded on that call. The second phone call was placed by Nydia Gonzalez to the American Airlines operations center to report the call from Mrs. Ong and to relay the Center information Mrs. Ong was providing.
You may hear a momentary blank on the tape. The Commission edited a very small portion in order to protect one family member from unnecessary pain. The second phone call we will hear was approximately 20 minutes in duration. Due to time constraints the Commission has selected four minutes from that particular call.
(Phone calls played.) 

BETTY ONG: Number 3 in the back. The cockpit's not answering. Somebody's stabbed in business class and . . . I think there's mace . . . that we can't breathe. I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked.
MALE VOICE: Which flight are you on?
BETTY ONG: Flight 12.
OPERATOR: And what seat are you in? . . . Ma'am, are you there? . . .
BETTY ONG: Yes.
MALE VOICE: What seat are you in?
FEMALE VOICE: Ma'am, what seat are you in?
BETTY ONG: We're . . . just left Boston, we're up in the air.
FEMALE VOICE: I know, what . . .
BETTY ONG: We're supposed to go to LA and the cockpit's not answering their phone.
FEMALE VOICE: Okay, but what seat are you sitting in? What's the number of your seat?
BETTY ONG: Okay, I'm in my jump seat right now.
FEMALE VOICE: Okay.
BETTY ONG: At 3R.

FEMALE VOICE: Okay.

MALE VOICE: Okay, you're the flight attendant? I'm sorry, did you say you're the flight attendant?
BETTY ONG: Hello?
FEMALE VOICE: Yes, hello.
MALE VOICE: What is your name?
BETTY ONG: Hi, you're going to have to speak up, I can't hear you.
MALE VOICE: Sure. What is your name?
BETTY ONG: Okay, my name is Betty Ong. I'm number 3 on Flight 11.
MALE VOICE: Okay.
BETTY ONG: And the cockpit is not answering their phone. And there's somebody stabbed in business class. And there's . . . we can't breathe in business class. Somebody's got mace or something.
MALE VOICE: Can you describe the person that you said -someone is what in business class?
BETTY ONG: I'm sitting in the back. Somebody's coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second, they're coming back.
BETTY ONG: Okay. Our number 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who is stabbed who, and we can't even get up to business class right now cause nobody can breathe. Our number 1 is stabbed right now. And who else is . . .
MALE VOICE: Okay, and do we . . .
BETTY ONG: and our number 5 -- our first class passengers are -- galley flight attendant and our purser has been stabbed. And we can't get into the cockpit, the door won't open. Hello?
MALE VOICE: Yeah, I'm taking it down. All the information. We're also, you know, of course, recording this. At this point . . .
FEMALE VOICE: This is Operations. What flight number are we talking about?
MALE VOICE: Flight 12.
FEMALE VOICE: Flight 12? Okay. I'm getting . . .

BETTY ONG: No. We're on Flight 11 right now. This is Flight 11.

MALE VOICE: It's Flight 11, I'm sorry Nydia.

BETTY ONG: Boston to Los Angeles.

MALE VOICE: Yes.
BETTY ONG: Our number 1 has been stabbed and our 5 has been stabbed. Can anybody get up to the cockpit? Can anybody get up to the cockpit? Okay. We can't even get into the cockpit. We don't know who's up there.
MALE VOICE: Well, if they were shrewd they would keep the door closed and -

BETTY ONG: I'm sorry?

MALE VOICE: Would they not maintain a sterile cockpit?
BETTY ONG: I think the guys are up there. They might have gone there -- jammed the way up there, or something. Nobody can call the cockpit. We can't even get inside. Is anybody still there?
MALE VOICE: Yes, we're still here.

FEMALE VOICE: Okay.

BETTY ONG: I'm staying on the line as well.

MALE VOICE: Okay.

NYDIA GONZALEZ: Hi, who is calling reservations? Is this one of the flight attendants, or who? Who are you, hun?

MALE VOICE: She gave her name as Betty Ong.
BETTY ONG: Yeah, I'm number 3. I'm number 3 on this flight - And we're the first . . .
NYDIA GONZALEZ: You're number 3 on this flight?
BETTY ONG: Yes and I have. . .
NYDIA GONZALEZ: And this is Flight 11? From where to where?
BETTY ONG: Flight 11.
NYDIA GONZALEZ: Have you guys called anyone else?
BETTY ONG: No. Somebody's calling medical and we can't get a doc -- (Beep)" - 9/11 Commission Report (01/27/04)

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin, Betty Ong and Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, tell us most of what we know about how the hijacking happened.

Also at 8:25, and again at 8:29, Amy Sweeney got through to the American Flight Services Office in Boston but was cut off after she reported someone was hurt aboard the flight. Three minutes later, Sweeney was reconnected to the office and began relaying updates to the manager, Michael Woodward.

American also began getting identifications of the hijackers, as Ong and then Sweeney passed on some of the seat numbers of those who had gained unauthorized access to the cockpit.

Sweeney calmly reported on her line that the plane had been hijacked; a man in first class had his throat slashed; two flight attendants had been stabbed-one was seriously hurt and was on oxygen while the other's wounds seemed minor; a doctor had been requested; the flight attendants were unable to contact the cockpit; and there was a bomb in the cockpit. Sweeney told Woodward that she and Ong were trying to relay as much information as they could to people on the ground.

At 8:41, Sweeney told Woodward that passengers in coach were under the impression that there was a routine medical emergency in first class.

At 8:44, Gonzalez reported losing phone contact with Ong. About this same time Sweeney reported to Woodward, "Something is wrong. We are in a rapid descent . . . we are all over the place." Woodward asked Sweeney to look out the window to see if she could determine where they were. Sweeney responded: "We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low." Seconds later she said, "Oh my God we are way too low." The phone call ended." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Flight attendant made calm call to report hijacking

"The Times' story attributes the account to an investigative document compiled by the FBI and taken from a phone call Madeline Amy Sweeney made to a ground manager at Logan International Airport in Boston. American Airlines officials told The Times that phone calls are not typically recorded, meaning the conversation was likely reconstructed by the FBI from interviews with Michael Woodward, the manager who took the phone call.
"This plane has been hijacked," Sweeney said, according to the FBI report, in a call that came shortly after the Flight 11 was commandeered.
Two flight attendants had already been stabbed, she said, while identifying her coworkers by their crew numbers. "A hijacker also cut the throat of a business-class passenger, and he appears to be dead," she said.
The Times reported officials at American Airlines said information about the phone call was turned over to the FBI. "The FBI has told us not to discuss anything," said airline spokesman John Hotard." - CNN (09/20/01)

► Stewardess ID'd Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show
"But commissioners were unaware of the crucial information given in an even more revealing phone call, made by another heroic flight attendant on the same plane, Madeline (Amy) Sweeney. They were unaware because their chief of staff, Philip Zelikow, chooses which evidence and witnesses to bring to their attention. Mr. Zelikow, as a former adviser to the pre-9/11 Bush administration, has a blatant conflict.
"How do you know it's a bomb?" asked her phone contact.
"Because the hijackers showed me a bomb," Sweeney said, describing its yellow and red wires.
Sweeney's first call from the plane was at 7:11 a.m. on Sept. 11 -- the only call in which she displayed emotional upset. Flight 11 was delayed, and she seized the few moments to call home in hopes of talking to her 5-year-old daughter, Anna, to say how sorry she was not to be there to put her on the bus to kindergarten.
Sweeney slid into a passenger seat in the next-to-last row of coach and used an Airfone to call American Airlines Flight Service at Boston's Logan airport. "This is Amy Sweeney," she reported. "I'm on Flight 11 -- this plane has been hijacked." She was disconnected. She called back: "Listen to me, and listen to me very carefully." Within seconds, her befuddled respondent was replaced by a voice she knew.
"Amy, this is Michael Woodward." The American Airlines flight service manager had been friends with Sweeney for a decade, so he didnt have to waste any time verifying that this wasn't a hoax. "Michael, this plane has been hijacked," Ms. Sweeney repeated. Calmly, she gave him the seat locations of three of the hijackers: 9D, 9G and 10B. She said they were all of Middle Eastern descent, and one spoke English very well.
Mr. Woodward ordered a colleague to punch up those seat locations on the computer. At least 20 minutes before the plane crashed, the airline had the names, addresses, phone numbers and credit cards of three of the five hijackers. They knew that 9G was Abdulaziz al-Omari, 10B was Satam al-Suqami, and 9D was Mohamed Atta -- the ringleader of the 9/11 terrorists.
Mr. Woodward was simultaneously passing on Sweeney's information to American's headquarters in Dallas-Fort Worth. There was no taping facility in his office... So Mr. Woodward was furiously taking notes.
Amy Sweeney's account alerted the airline that something extraordinary was occurring. She told Mr. Woodward she didn't believe the pilots were flying the plane any longer. She couldn't contact the cockpit. Sweeney may have ventured forward to business class, because she relayed the alarming news to Betty Ong, who was sitting in the rear jump-seat. In professional lingo, she said: "Our No. 1 has been stabbed," referring to a violent attack on the plane's purser, "also No. 5," another flight attendant. She also reported that the passenger in 9B had had his throat slit by the hijacker sitting behind him and appeared to be dead.
Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney also reported that the hijackers had used mace or pepper spray and that passengers in business class were unable to breathe.
Ms. Sweeney told her ground contact that the plane had radically changed direction; it was flying erratically and was in rapid descent. Mr. Woodward asked her to look out the window -- what did she see?
"I see water. I see buildings. We're flying low, we're flying way too low," Sweeney replied, according to the notes taken by Mr. Woodward. Sweeney then took a deep breath and gasped, "Oh, my God." - New York Observer (02/16/04) [Reprinted at:  Ratville Times]

► Widow: 9/11 passengers planned to resist

"The independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks disclosed in a January staff statement that Sweeney was one of three people aboard Flight 175 who made phone calls. Fellow passenger Peter Burton Hanson and flight attendant Robert Fangman were the others."- CNN (03/10/04)

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"Also at 8:52, a male flight attendant called a United office in San Francisco, reaching Marc Policastro. The flight attendant reported that the flight had been hijacked, both pilots had been killed, a flight attendant had been stabbed, and the hijackers were probably flying the plane. The call lasted about two minutes, after which Policastro and a colleague tried unsuccessfully to contact the flight." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► 'We Have Some Planes'

At 8:52, in Easton, Connecticut, a man named Lee Hanson received a phone call from his son Peter, a passenger on United 175. His son told him: "I think they've taken over the cockpit-An attendant has been stabbed- and someone else up front may have been killed. The plane is making strange moves. Call United Airlines-Tell them it's Flight 175, Boston to LA."

At 9:00, Lee Hanson received a second call from his son Peter:
'It's getting bad, Dad-A stewardess was stabbed-They seem to have knives and Mace-They said they have a bomb-It's getting very bad on the plane-Passengers are throwing up and getting sick-The plane is making jerky movements-I don't think the pilot is flying the plane-I think we are going down-I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building-Don't worry, Dad- If it happens, it'll be very fast-My God, my God.'" - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Experts, U.S. suspect Osama bin Laden, accused architect of world's worst terrorist attacks

"Separately, a businessman, his wife and young child aboard a United flight that left Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center twice called his father in Connecticut as his plane was being hijacked, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the victim's father told the FBI his son made two calls, and both times the phone cut off. In the first call, the businessman said a stewardess had been stabbed. In the second call, the son said his plane was going down.
The man was identified as former Easton, Conn., resident Peter Hanson. A minister confirmed the cell phone call to his father, Lee Hanson, an official in Easton, a small town near Bridgeport." - SFGate (09/11/01)

► Last words

"On Flight 175 out of Boston, Peter Hanson, sitting with his wife, Sue, and 2-year-old daughter Christine, dialed his father. ''Something's wrong with the plane,'' he is reported to have said. ''Oh, my god! They just stabbed the airline hostess!'' Then minutes before the plane hit the World Trade Center tower: ''Don't worry about us. It's going to be quick.'' - Boston Globe (09/16/01)

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"At 8:59, Flight 175 passenger Brian David Sweeney tried to call his wife, Julie. He left a message on their home answering machine that the plane had been hijacked. He then called his mother, Louise Sweeney, told her the flight had been hijacked, and added that the passengers were thinking about storming the cockpit to take control of the plane away from the hijackers." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Widow: 9/11 passengers planned to resist

"About three-and-a-half minutes before the doomed United Airlines Flight 175 struck the trade center's south tower, Brian David Sweeney, a 38-year-old former U.S. Navy pilot from Barnstable, Massachusetts, made two phone calls.
Sweeney left a message for his wife, Julie, on his home answering machine, then he called his mom.
"We assume he was calling from the back of the plane, because he said, 'They might come back here. I might have to go. We are going to try to do something about this,' " Julie recalled.
The message Brian Sweeney left his wife on their answering machine was a farewell, she said.
"If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I want you to know I absolutely love you," Julie Sweeney recalled him saying.
Julie Sweeney said she thinks the main reason Brian made the calls was to "let us know where he was, what was happening, and to give us his final love and wishes for our lives, because he knew he was on a doomed flight," she said
The Sweeneys described the two phone calls to FBI agents who visited them the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Sweeney, who flew an F-14 in the Persian Gulf War and was a U.S. Navy flight instructor for the Navy in Miramar, California, was working for a Defense Department contractor, Brandes Associates.
"Reports from Flight 175 included one passenger predicting the hijackers intended to fly an aircraft into a building," the commission staff statement said. "Another said the passengers were considering storming the cockpit."
The statement did not indicate who made the calls. There is no mention of such calls in Congress' report of its investigation into the attacks." - CNN (03/10/04)

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"At 9:12, Renee May called her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas. She said her flight was being hijacked by six individuals who had moved them to the rear of the plane. She asked her mother to alert American Airlines. Nancy May and her husband promptly did so." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Flight attendant made call on cell phone to mom in Las Vegas

"Renee May, a flight attendant who a source said made a call on a cell phone from the hijacked American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon, left behind a mother in Las Vegas.
The mother, according to the source, received a phone call Tuesday from her daughter after 6 a.m. Renee May asked her mother to call American Airlines to let them know Flight 77 had been hijacked. Her mother called the airline, the source said.
"She told her mother they were all told to move to the back of the plane," said the source, who declined to share other personal details about the phone call." - Las Vegas Review-Journal (09/13/01)

► 'We Have Some Planes'

"Unlike the earlier flights, the Flight 77 hijackers were reported by a passenger to have box cutters.

At some point between 9:16 and 9:26, Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson, the solicitor general of the United States. She reported that the flight had been hijacked, and the hijackers had knives and box cutters. She further indicated that the hijackers were not aware of her phone call, and that they had put all the passengers in the back of the plane. About a minute into the conversation, the call was cut off. Solicitor General Olson tried unsuccessfully to reach Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Shortly after the first call, Barbara Olson reached her husband again. She reported that the pilot had announced that the flight had been hijacked, and she asked her husband what she should tell the captain to do. Ted Olson asked for her location and she replied that the aircraft was then flying over houses. Another passenger told her they were traveling northeast. The Solicitor General then informed his wife of the two previous hijackings and crashes. She did not display signs of panic and did not indicate any awareness of an impending crash. At that point, the second call was cut off." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► Wife of Solicitor General alerted him of hijacking from plane

"Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN.
A short time later the plane crashed into the Pentagon. Barbara Olson is presumed to have died in the crash.
Her husband said she called him twice on a cell phone from American Airlines Flight 77, which was en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles.
Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters.
She felt nobody was in charge and asked her husband to tell the pilot what to do.
Ted Olson notified the Justice Department command center immediately.
He told CNN that his wife had originally been booked on a flight Monday, but delayed her departure because Tuesday was his birthday and she wanted to be with him in the morning.
Barbara Olson was a former federal prosecutor and served as Chief Investigative Counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight during its probe into the Clinton Administration "Travelgate" scandal." - CNN (09/12/01)

► ‘I Can’t Just Sit Back’
"Then the phone rang. It was Barbara calling collect. “My first reaction was, ‘Thank God, you’re OK’,” he recalled.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT—how Barbara Olson, the feisty conservative author and TV pundit, informed her husband that her plane too was being hijacked—has become one of the multitude of harrowing stories that surround the events of Sept. 11. As Olson related to NEWSWEEK, Barbara was calm and collected as she told him how hijackers had used boxcutters and knifes to take control of the plane and had herded the passengers and crew to the back. “Ted, what can I do?” she asked him. “What can I tell the pilot?” Then, inexplicably, she got cut off. Olson frantically called Attorney General John Ashcroft’s private line—and got no answer. Olson then called the Justice Department command center: “I want you to know there’s another plane that’s been hijacked,” he told them. “My wife is on it.” Barbara called back—and gave still more information: how the plane was circling around and then appeared to be heading in a northeasterly direction. Finally, the line went dead moments before American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon." - MSNBC (12/29/01)

► Calls indicate Flight 93 passengers went down fighting

"Todd Beamer apparently was one of those male passengers who voted to attack. He used an air-phone to call a GTE supervisor who patched him through to the FBI.
Beamer told the FBI that one hijacker positioned in the rear of the plane claimed to have a bomb strapped to his body and that he -- Beamer -- and others were going to jump him.
He had the GTE supervisor promise to call his wife, Lisa, who was due with their third child in January. After Beamer put the phone down, the supervisor overheard him say, "Let's roll." - CNN (09/19/01)

► The phone line from Flight 93 was still open when a GTE operator heard Todd Beamer say: 'Are you guys ready? Let's roll'

"That's Todd," his wife, Lisa, said yesterday of the "Let's roll!" command, which he made over the plane's in-flight telephone. A GTE supervisor talked with him for about 13 minutes before the plane crashed.

"My boys even say that. When we're getting ready to go somewhere, we say, 'C'mon guys, let's roll.' My little one says, 'C'mon, Mom, let's roll.' That's something they picked up from Todd."

Beamer, 32, told the GTE supervisor, Lisa D. Jefferson, that he and others on the plane had decided they would not be pawns in the hijackers' suicidal plot.
Jefferson told him about the other hijackings and Beamer made her promise to call his wife and their two boys, David, 3, and Andrew, 1.
Beamer's call connected at 9:45 a.m. He told Jefferson there were three hijackers, armed with knives. He did not know their nationalities or their intentions.
One of the men had what appeared to be a bomb tied to his midsection with a red belt.
Beamer said he could account for 37 of the plane's 38 passengers. The hijackers had forced 27 of them into the first-class compartment near the front.
He did not know the whereabouts of the pilot, copilot and the remaining passenger. He said a flight attendant had told him the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.
Two of the hijackers were in the cockpit with the door locked behind them. The man with the bomb stayed in the back of the plane, near Beamer's group.
With him were others who placed cell-phone calls from the plane, Jeffery Glick, 31, a sales manager for a technology firm, Thomas Burnett Jr., 38, a California businessman, and Mark Bingham, 31, a former college rugby player from California. Beamer mentioned Glick by his first name in the call to Jefferson, Lisa Beamer said.
Toward the end of his conversation with Jefferson, Beamer said the plane appeared to have changed directions a few times. Later, it would be determined that it had flown west from Newark to near Cleveland, then turned back to the southeast toward Pittsburgh.
"Oh! We're going down!" he shouted at one point.
He paused, then said in a calmer voice, "No, we're OK. I think we're turning around."
Beamer then told Jefferson that he and the others had decided to "jump on" the hijacker wearing the bomb.
Jefferson could hear shouts and commotion and then Beamer asked her to pray with him. They recited the 23rd Psalm.
He got Jefferson to promise that she would call his family, then dropped the phone, leaving the line open.
That's when Jefferson heard what Lisa Beamer believes were her husband's last words: "Let's roll."
Then there was silence. Jefferson hung up at 10 a.m. EST, realizing that the plane had gone down. Officials said it crashed at 9:58 a.m.
"When the plane started to fly erratically, he said he knew he wouldn't make it out of there," said Lisa Beamer, who is expecting their third child in January.
Lisa Beamer said reports of her husband's heroic role had "made my life worth living again." Jefferson kept her promise and called Lisa Beamer at 8 p.m. Friday.
Jefferson, reached by telephone yesterday, declined comment. She said GTE's parent company, Verizon, may issue a statement tomorrow about Beamer's call.
Lisa Beamer said the call she received from Jefferson had lifted her family's spirits." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/16/01)

► The Final Moments of United Flight 93

"From the back of the plane, Todd Beamer tries to use his credit card on an Airfone installed in one of the seatbacks, but cannot get authorization. His call is automatically routed to the Verizon customer-service center in Oakbrook, Ill. Although operators are used to crank calls from seatback phones, it is clear to the operator that Beamer’s report of a hijacking is genuine. His call is immediately sent to Verizon supervisor Lisa Jefferson who alerts the FBI. When Jefferson gets on the line at 9:45 a.m., she immediately begins interviewing Beamer. “What is your flight number? What is the situation? Where are the crew members?”
Beamer tells Jefferson that one passenger is dead. He doesn’t know about the pilots. One hijacker is in the rear of the plane, claiming to have a bomb strapped to his body.

At around the same time, Todd Beamer is telling the operator that the men plan “to jump” the hijacker in the back, claiming to have a bomb. “We’re going to do something,” Beamer tells operator Lisa Jefferson. “I know I’m not going to get out of this.” He asks Jefferson to recite the Lord’s Prayer with him. The last words Jefferson hears are “Are you ready guys? Let’s roll.” - MSNBC (09/22/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Todd Beamer was near the rear of the plane, trying to use his company's Airfone account. For some reason, he couldn't get authorization for the call. Finally, he was routed to a Verizon customer service center in Oakbrook, Ill.
He told the operator his airliner had been hijacked. He was patched through immediately to Lisa Jefferson, a Verizon supervisor.
It was 9:45 a.m.
Somewhere outside Cleveland, United Flight 93 had made a sharp turn and began flying east, toward Washington, D.C.
Beamer told Jefferson he was sitting next to a flight attendant. He could see three hijackers, armed with knives. One insisted he had a bomb. Twenty-seven of the passengers had been herded to the rear of the plane, where the hijacker with the bomb was guarding them, he said. Two hijackers were in the cockpit. A fourth was in first class.
He asked Jefferson to promise to call his wife, and their two sons, David, 4, and Drew, 2.
"Oh! We're going down!" Beamer shouted. There was a pause. Then, calmly: "No, we're OK. I think we're turning around."
Still on his own phone call, Todd Beamer was pouring out his heart to his family through Lisa Jefferson, the Verizon supervisor he'd reached on his Airfone.
They prayed the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the still waters ...
When he had finished talking with Lisa Jefferson, finished relaying his love for his family, finished praying the Psalm that asked for green pastures and still waters, Todd Beamer put down the phone, still connected with the outside world.
"Are you guys ready? Let's roll," he said." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► Calls tell of heroics on board Flight 93

"Kathy Hoglan of Los Gatos, California says her nephew, Mark Bingham, 31, did not specifically mention a plan to tackle the hijackers in his cell phone call to her at 9:44 a.m. Eastern time.
Bingham managed only to tell his aunt and mother, Alice Hoglan, that the plane had been hijacked and that he loved them before the phone "went dead," Kathy Hoglan said. But the six-foot-five-inch former University of California rugby player undoubtedly would have joined any such effort, she said.
"He was calm but scared, as if he knew something was going to happen," Hoglan said. "There's no doubt he wouldn't have let them get away with it.

The fourth member of the passenger revolt -- and there may have been others -- was Mark Bingham -- a 6-foot-5 rugby player. He was sitting in the first-class section of the plane with Tom Burnett and, it turns out, two of the hijackers.
Bingham called his mother to say goodbye.
"He said, 'I want you to know I love you very much, and I'm calling you from the plane. We've been taken over. There are three men who say they've got a bomb,' " said Alice Hoglan." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/13/01)

► Gay Co-Pilot Killed in Pentagon Attack; Gay Man Possible Hero in Pa. Crash

"Also among the terrorists' victims this week was gay public relations executive and rugby enthusiast Mark Bingham of San Francisco, who contacted
his mother by cell phone minutes before the United Airlines jet he was taking from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco crashed in the countryside in western Pennsylvania.

The story of Bingham's possible heroics became the subject of national television and newspaper reports this week when his mother, Alice Hoglan, a United Airlines flight attendant, told of how Bingham called her on his cell phone to say his plane had been hijacked." - PRNewswire/Washington Blade (09/13/01)

► The Final Moments of United Flight 93

"Mark Bingham uses an Airfone to call his mother, Alice Hoglan, who is still asleep at her brother’s home in Saratoga, Calif., having been up late the night before caring for triplets. “Mom, this is Mark Bingham,” he tells her, so rattled he uses his last name. Bingham describes the situation for his mother, a United Airlines flight attendant. The call lasts about three minutes. Twice during the call, says Alice, “Mark was distracted. There was a five-second pause. I heard people speaking. There was murmuring, nothing loud.” She theorizes that Mark was talking to the other men, and planning to fight back." - MSNBC (09/22/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Alice Hoglan was visiting her sister-in-law, Kathy Hoglan, in Saratoga, Calif., when the phone rang. It was 9:42 Eastern time. Kathy's nephew, Mark Bingham was on the line.
"Alice, talk to Mark," Kathy said, handing her the phone. "He's been hijacked."
"Mom? This is Mark Bingham," the voice said. It sounded strange for her son to introduce himself by his full name. She knew he was flustered.
"I want to let you know that I love you. I'm on a flight from Newark to San Francisco and there are three guys who have taken over the plane and they say they have a bomb," he said.
"Who are these guys?" Alice Hoglan asked.
There was a pause. Hoglan heard murmurs of conversation in English. Mark's voice came back.
"You believe me, don't you?" he asked.
"Yes, Mark. I believe you. But who are these guys?"
There was a pause. Alice heard background noise. The line went dead." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► Flight attendant helped fight hijackers

"Sandra Bradshaw, a spirited 38-year-old Greensboro flight attendant, knew they were a flying weapon, aimed toward a populous target somewhere. She and the others decided to fight back.
"We're all back here getting hot water together and getting ready to take over the plane," Bradshaw told her husband, Phil, in a cellular phone conversation that proved to be their last.
A veteran pilot with US Airways, Phil Bradshaw told the News & Record that he had been begging his wife to quit her job in the air and stay home full time. She promised during their last call that if she survived, she would.

Bradshaw said he took his wife's call about 9:30 a.m. at their home in northwest Greensboro. He was talking to another friend on the phone about the World Trade Center attacks.
The television was on when he got the call and put his friend on hold. Then he heard the worst possible news from his wife.
"Have you seen what's happening? Have you heard?" Sandy asked her husband in a calm voice. "We've been hijacked."
He didn't believe it. He asked her to repeat what she had said.
"We've been hijacked," she repeated, in her smooth Southern drawl.
She said the plane had been taken over by three men with knives. She had gotten a close look at one of the hijackers, who had been sitting in the back row in first class, where she loved to work.
"He had an Islamic look," she told her husband.
She said the hijackers put most of the people in the rear of the plane and a few in first class.
While Sandy talked, she and other flight attendants were boiling water to toss on the hijackers. Nearby, many passengers were making cell phone calls, a few were plotting an uprising.
She said they didn't know who was flying the plane, whether it was the pilots or the hijackers.
She asked her husband if he had any ideas.
He said he didn't at the time. He was too stunned.
Bradshaw thinks they talked for five or 10 minutes. They spoke of their love and their kids, Shenan, 16, Alexandria and Nathan.
She said the flight had veered off its westbound course. She saw a river. Now he knows it was near Pittsburgh.
Around Sandy, three men were whispering the 23rd Psalm. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want..."
Then one of the men apparently made the call to charge the hijackers.
Phil Bradshaw heard the phone drop.
"We're all running to first class," were her last words.
"I've got to go. Bye." - News & Record (09/21/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Phil Bradshaw was home in Greensboro, N.C., on the telephone, talking with a friend about the horrors on television. The line clicked. He asked his friend to hold.
It was Sandy Bradshaw, his wife, the flight attendant.
"Have you heard what's going on? My flight has been hijacked. My flight has been hijacked by three guys with knives," she said.
Who was flying the plane? Phil asked his wife.
"I don't know who's flying the plane or where we are," she said.
Sandy Bradshaw, who was trained never to spill hot coffee on a paying customer, slipped into the airplane's galley and began filling pitchers with boiling water.
"I see a river." Sandy Bradshaw couldn't name it. It suggested, though, that Flight 93 was somewhere over Western Pennsylvania.
"I just told her to be safe and come home soon," Phil Bradshaw said. "She said she hoped she would.

"Everyone's running to first class," Sandy Bradshaw told her husband. "I've got to go. Bye." " - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► 13-minute call bonds her forever with hero

"Marion Britton, 53, Brooklyn, assistant regional director of the U.S. Census Bureau
She called longtime friend Fred Fiumano, from whom she had borrowed a cell phone. She said the plane had been hijacked, they had slit the throats of two people and the plane had made a U-turn.
Fiumano told her that the World Trade Center towers were in flames. She said, "I know, and we're going to go down." Fiumano said they were only going to take them for a ride, but she responded, "No. They're going to kill us."
Fiumano heard a lot of yelling and screaming, and the line went dead. He tried calling back but the call didn't get through." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/22/01)

► What Happened on Flight 93?

"What else but sheer terror could the passengers have been feeling? Marion Britton, a 53-year-old manager for the Census Bureau, called an old friend, Fred Fiumano, in a panic.
"She said, 'We're going to - they're going to kill us, you know, we're going to die,'" says Fiumano. "And I told her, 'Don't worry, they hijacked the plane, they're going to take you for a ride, you go to their country, and you come back. You stay there for vacation.' You don't know what to say. What are you going to say? I kept on saying the same things, 'Be calm.' And she was crying and, you know, more or less crying and screaming and yelling." - MSNBC (09/03/02) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com]

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Marion Britton, 53, assistant director of the Census Bureau's New York office, phoned a longtime friend, Fred Fiumano. All he can remember is that it was "sometime after 9:30."

Britton was crying. She had been hijacked, she told Fiumano, and two people on the plane already had been killed.
"I was trying to console her," Fiumano said. "I said 'Don't worry, they're only going to take you for a ride. You'll be all right.'" - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► Transcript of Tom’s last calls to Deena

"6:27 a.m.( pacific time) First cell phone call from Tom to Deena

6:34 The phone rang in on call waiting, Tom’s second cell phone call.

6:45 a.m. Third cell phone call from Tom to Deena

6:54 a.m. Fourth cell phone call to Tom to Deena" - Tom Burnett Foundation

► Calls tell of heroics on board Flight 93

"The wife of another passenger has also spoken of farewell phone calls from her husband in which he, too, mentioned a plan among the hostages to thwart the terrorists.

Deena Burnett said she received four calls from her husband, California businessman Thomas E. Burnett Jr., 38. During the first call, he described the hijackers and told her they had stabbed and seriously injured one passenger, advising her to contact authorities. She informed him that the World Trade Center had been hit by another hijacked jet.

Thomas Burnett called back shortly thereafter to report that the wounded passenger had died, and said he and some others "were going to do something," to stop the terrorists, Deena Burnett told KCBS Radio San Francisco." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/13/01)

► Calls indicate Flight 93 passengers went down fighting

Passenger Tom Burnett, a 6-foot-2 former high school quarterback, was also apparently part of the group. He called his wife four times during the hijacking. On the last call, he told her the male passengers were getting ready to do something.
"He said, 'They've already knifed a guy; they're saying they have a bomb. Please call the authorities,' " said Deena Burnett." - CNN (09/19/01)

► 13-minute call bonds her forever with hero

"When he called home, his wife, Deena, was feeding their three daughters breakfast and watching the television accounts of the World Trade Center attacks. "I'm on the airplane. They've already knifed a guy. Call the authorities." Then the phone went dead.
She called 911 and was connected to the FBI. Her husband called again and said, "They are talking about flying the airplane into the ground." She told him about the jets that had crashed into the World Trade Center. He asked questions, then suddenly had to go.
He called a third time and said that the man who had been stabbed, possibly the pilot, was dead. Deena remembered her training as a former flight attendant. "Please sit down and don't call attention to yourself," she said.
On his fourth and final call he said passengers had decided to act. "I know we're going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/22/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Deena Burnett was waking up at her home in San Ramon, Calif. She'd gone down to the kitchen to fix breakfast for her three daughters. The phone rang. She recalls it was around 6:20 a.m. -- 9:20 Eastern time.
It was Tom.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"No. I'm on United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. The plane has been hijacked. We are in the air. They've already knifed a guy. There is a bomb on board. Call the FBI."
Deena Burnett dialed 911.
Around 9:30, Deena Burnett's phone rang again. It was Tom.
"He didn't sound frightened, but he was speaking faster than he normally would," she said. He told her the hijackers were in the cockpit.
"I told him a lot of planes had been hijacked, that they don't know how many," she said.
"You've got to be kidding," he replied.
"No," she said.
Were they commercial planes, airliners, he asked her. She didn't know.
"OK," he said, "I've got to go." He hung up.
Deena looked at the television. The Pentagon suddenly appeared, a hole torn into its side by an oncoming airplane. She wondered if it was her husband's flight. Deena Burnett started crying.
While Beamer was on the phone with Lisa Jefferson, Deena Burnett's phone rang again.
Tom was still alive.
"They're taking airplanes and hitting landmarks all up and down the East Coast," she told him.
"OK," he replied. "We're going to do something. I'll call you back.

Sometime shortly before 10 a.m., Tom Burnett called home one last time.
"A group of us is going to do something," he told Deena.
"I told him, 'No, Tom, just sit down and don't draw attention to yourself,' " she said.
"Deena," he told her, "If they're going to crash the plane into the ground, we have to do something. We can't wait for the authorities. We have to do something now."
"Pray, just pray, Deena. We're going to do something," Tom Burnett told his wife." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► The Burnetts

"In the year since, as the 38-year-old former flight attendant and her three daughters grapple with their loss, this "gift" leaves Deena feeling strangely fortunate.
She has the four calls that Tom made from the doomed United Flight 93, conversations she painstakingly reconstructed from memory and notes scribbled that day on a shopping list in her kitchen as he spoke.

She noted the precise time for each call to the couple's California home: 6:27, 6:34, 6:45 and 6:54 a.m. The last one — in which Tom told her, "Don't worry, we're going to do something" — ended less than 10 minutes before the hijacked Boeing 757 plunged into a Pennsylvania field as passengers fought hijackers for control.

The hijacking occurred 45 minutes into the flight. "We're waiting until we're over a rural area," Burnett told his wife during the final phone call. "We're going to take back the airplane." - USA Today (09/11/02)

► NOTES:  1 "We Have Some Planes"

"80. We have relied mainly on the record of FBI interviews with the people who received calls. The FBI interviews were conducted while memories were still fresh and were less likely to have been affected by reading the accounts of others or hearing stories in the media. In some cases we have conducted our own interviews to supplement or verify the record. See FBI reports of investigation, interviews of recipients of calls from Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Sandy Bradshaw, Marion Britton, Thomas Burnett, Joseph DeLuca, Edward Felt, Jeremy Glick, Lauren Grandcolas, Linda Gronlund, CeeCee Lyles, Honor Wainio." - 9/11 Commission Report [Local]

► What Happened on Flight 93?

There were two couples: Donald and Jean Peterson, and Linda Gronlund and Joseph DeLuca.

"Joseph DeLuca called his Dad..." - MSNBC (09/03/02) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com]

► Plots Aboard Flight 93

"Joseph DeLuca called his dad." - Adventist Review

► Cell Phone Caller: 'We Are Being Hijacked!'

"A passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 called on his cell phone from a locked bathroom with a chilling message: "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!" Minutes later the jetliner crashed with 45 people aboard, the last of four closely timed terror attacks across the country.

Minutes before the 10 a.m. crash, an emergency dispatcher in Pennsylvania received a cell phone call from a man who said he was a passenger locked in a bathroom aboard United Flight 93. The man repeatedly said the call was not a hoax, said dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer in neighboring Westmoreland County.
"We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!" Cramer quoted the man as saying, from a transcript of the call.
The man told dispatchers the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him," Cramer said." - SFGate/AP (09/11/01)

► Felt reaches 911 just before crash

"Investigators believe Edward Felt may have been in a group of passengers who were herded into the rear of the plane near the bathrooms. From there, at 9:58 a.m., he called 911 on his cell phone and reached an operator in Westmoreland County.

"We're being hijacked. We're being hijacked," he told John Shaw, 29, of Youngwood, as the plane passed over Mt. Pleasant Township.

Shaw spoke to Edward Felt for one minute and 10 seconds, learning that he'd locked himself in the bathroom to make the call. He told Shaw the flight number and explained that the plane was hijacked in mid-flight on its way to San Francisco.
"He was crying...frightened, scared and anxious," said Shaw, who remained on the line until the signal was lost.
For months, Edward Felt wasn't as well-known as some passengers who have been labeled heroes for striking out against the four hijackers. Westmoreland County officials refused to reveal the caller's identity. Shaw was not named until December as the operator who took his call.

Edward Felt was identified in May after his family listened to the cockpit and 911 tapes during a meeting of the families and the FBI in Princeton, N.J. Gordon Felt said he recognized his brother's methodical way of handling things and disagrees with Shaw's characterization." - Pittsburg Live (09/08/02)

►  The day that changed America

"John Shaw did. He stood in front of the set at Westmoreland County's 911 center. He saw the fireball, the smoke, the investment bankers at the window. He heard the phone ring.

"We are being hijacked," the man on the other end said.
He sat down. The man on the line was crying, trying hard to hold himself together. He'd be dead in six minutes.
He talked fast. His name was Edward Felt. F-E-L-T. He was on United Airlines Flight 93. To San Francisco. He had locked himself in the bathroom.
The plane had been hijacked turned an explosion white smoke.
"We're going down," he said. "We're going down." - Pittsburg Tribune-Review (09/11/02)

Jeremy Glick

► Calls tell of heroics on board Flight 93

"As United Airlines Flight 93 entered its last desperate moments in the sky, passenger Jeremy Glick used a cell phone to tell his wife, Lyzbeth, of his impending death -- and pledged to go down fighting.

Glick, 31, told his wife that the Boeing 757's cockpit had been taken over by three Middle Eastern-looking men wielding knives and a red box they claimed was a bomb. The terrorists, wearing red headbands, had ordered the pilots, flight attendants and passengers to the rear of the plane.

Lyzbeth Glick, in turn, informed her husband that another hijacked jet had already crashed into the World Trade Center, according to Glick's brother-in-law, Douglas Hurwitt, who had spoken in detail with Glick's wife about the 30-minute call. Authorities believe the hijackers of Flight 93 were aiming for a target in Washington.

Glick said he and others aboard the plane had decided to rush the cockpit and try to subdue the terrorists -- a display of resistance that may have staved off a much worse catastrophe.

"They were going to stop whoever it was from doing whatever it was they'd planned," Hurwitt said. "He knew that stopping them was going to end all of their lives. But that was my brother-in-law. He was a take-charge guy."

Ten minutes into the 30-minute call with her husband, Lyzbeth Glick asked her father to call the FBI on a separate line, Hurwitt said. FBI agents monitored the last 20 minutes of the call and are studying a tape and transcript.

Glick, a sales manager for a technology firm who celebrated his 31st birthday on Sept. 3, told his wife he hoped she would have a good life and would take care of their 3-month-old baby girl -- before the phone call faded out amid what Hurwitt described as "random noises and screams." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (09/13/01)

► Calls indicate Flight 93 passengers went down fighting

"Passenger Jeremy Glick, 31, a 6-foot-1 judo champ, called his wife to tell her his plane had been hijacked. He said the hijackers had stabbed a flight attendant -- and to find out if what he had heard was true -- that another plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.

When she said yes, Glick put the phone down. When he came back on the line, he told her the male passengers had taken a vote to attack the hijackers." - CNN (09/19/01)

► The Final Moments of United Flight 93

"There are other phone calls. Jeremy Glick calls his wife, Lyz, in New York to say that three “Iranian looking” men, one with a red box strapped to his waist, have taken control of the plane and to call the authorities. He asks if it’s true, as he’s heard from another passenger, that two other planes have crashed into the World Trade Center." - MSNBC (09/22/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny
"Jeremy Glick picked up a GTE Airfone just before 9:30 a.m. and called his in-laws in the Catskills. His wife, Lyz, and daughter, Emerson, were visiting. The family had been transfixed in front of a television, watching news coverage of airliners smashing into the World Trade Center in New York.
Glick's mother-in-law, JoAnne Makely, answered.
"Jeremy," she said, "Thank God. We're so worried."
"It's bad news," Glick replied. He asked for Lyz.
Lyz recalls no background noise. No commotion. He described the men as Arabic-looking, wearing red headbands, carrying knives. One told passengers he had a bomb. Most passengers had been forced to the rear of the cabin. Glick's mother-in-law went to another phone and dialed 911. As Jeremy and Lyz spoke, New York state police patched in on the call.
Glick asked his wife: Was it true that planes had been crashed into the World Trade Center?
Yes, she said. Glick thought so. Another passenger had been on the phone home and heard the same thing.

Lyz Glick was still on the phone with Jeremy. She stood in her parents' living room while the television screen filled with the sight of two burning towers.
"You need to be strong," she said.
State police, on the other line with Glick's mother-in-law, relayed a question: Did Glick know where his plane was? Glick didn't know, but he sensed they had changed direction.
Lyz and Jeremy spoke of their love for each other.
"I need you to be happy," he told her, "and I will respect any decisions that you make."
Then he told her the passengers were taking a vote: Should they try to take back the plane?
"Honey, you need to do it," Lyz told him.
Glick wondered what to use for a weapon. "I have my butter knife from breakfast," he joked." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► What Happened on Flight 93?

"Lauren Grandcolas was traveling from her grandmother's funeral, but she had reason to be happy - after years of trying, she was pregnant with her first child and was about to write a book.

And both Lauren Grandcolas and Linda Gronlund were trained emergency medical technicians.

Lauren Grandcolas left a second message for her husband, Jack, in a voice so composed, he says she might have been calling from a supermarket:
"I heard her say, 'There's a little problem on the plane, I'm totally fine, just a little problem, I want you to know how much I love you, know that," says Jack Grandcolas. "Stopping herself from saying I'll call you back, as if she didn't want to leave a haunting promise. And then mentioning that she was fine and comfortable for now, and that she loved me more than anything, just know that and that it was just a little problem as if it was something they were going to take care of and to tell my family how much I love them and goodbye."
Then Grandcolas handed her phone to Elizabeth Wainio, the younger woman sitting next to her, and said, call your family." - MSNBC (09/03/02) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com]

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, 38, phoned her husband Jack in San Rafael, Calif.
She'd been scheduled to take a later flight that day, but rebooked to get home sooner. Jack hadn't heard the message. He'd seen the madness on television, and when Jack's sister-in-law phoned to ask if he'd heard from Lauren, he checked the phone machine.
"Sweetie," the voice came over the tape, "pick up the phone if you can hear me." There was a brief pause. "OK, I love you. There's a little problem with the plane. I'm fine and comfortable for now." She told Jack she loved him. She asked him to tell her parents and family how much she loved them, too. Then she passed the Airfone to the woman seated next to her.
"Now you call your people," Grandcolas told her." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► Plots Aboard Flight 93

"Joseph DeLuca called his dad. His girlfriend, Linda Gronlund, called her sister, telling her the combination to her safe-deposit box and how much she loved her." - Adventist Review

► What Happened on Flight 93?

There were two couples: Donald and Jean Peterson, and Linda Gronlund and Joseph DeLuca.

And both Lauren Grandcolas and Linda Gronlund were trained emergency medical technicians.

"Linda Gronlund had once dislocated her leg, and had set her own kneecap in the driveway while waiting for the ambulance to arrive," says Longman.

Joseph DeLuca called his Dad; his girlfriend, Linda Gronlund, called her sister, Elsa Strong.
Elsa Strong says, "She said, 'Hi, Else, this is Lin. I just wanted to tell you how much I love you.' And she said, 'Please tell Mom and Dad how much I love them.' And then she got real calm and said, 'Now my will is in my safe and my safe is in my closet. and this is the combination.' And she just told me the combination of her safe. and then she just said, 'I don't know if I'm ever going to get a chance to tell you again in person how much I love you, but I'm really going to miss you.' And she said goodbye." - MSNBC (09/03/02) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com]

► Partial Lists Of Terror Victims

"Cee Cee Ross-Lyle, a flight attendant for United Airlines, pictured at left with her two children, Jerome and Jevon, perished when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed outside Pittsburgh Tuesday. Ross-Lyle of Fort Myers, Fla., called her husband, Fort Myers police officer Lorne Lyles, on a cell phone from the plane shortly before it went down." - CBS (09/25/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"CeeCee Lyles, 33, of Fort Myers, Fla., had perhaps the most unusual resume among the flight crew. She'd been a police officer and detective for six years in Fort Pierce, Fla. In late 2000, she left that job to pursue her lifetime dream: to be a flight attendant.

In Fort Myers, Fla., Lorne Lyles didn't hear the phone ringing. He'd worked the night shift and had lain down to sleep at 7:30. At 9:47 a.m., the answering machine picked up a call from his wife, CeeCee, stranded in the back of the airplane.
When the tape was played back hours later, CeeCee Lyles could be heard praying for her family, for herself, for the souls of the men who had hijacked her plane.
"I hope I'll see your face again," she said.

From the back of Flight 93, CeeCee Lyles finally reached her husband, Lorne.
"Babe, my plane's been hijacked," she said.
"Huh? Stop joking," he said.
"No babe, I wouldn't joke like that. I love you. Tell the boys I love them."
The pair prayed. In the background, Lorne Lyles could hear what he now believes was the sound of men planning a counterattack.
"They're getting ready to force their way into the cockpit," she told him.

CeeCee Lyles let out a scream.
"They're doing it! They're doing it! They're doing it!" she said. Lorne Lyles heard a scream. Then his wife said something he couldn't understand. Then the line went dead." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

► The Final Moments of United Flight 93

"NEWSWEEK has learned, may come from yet another phone call made by a passenger. Elizabeth Wainio, 27, was speaking to her stepmother in Maryland. Another passenger, she explains, had loaned her a cell phone and told her to call her family. “I have to go,” Wainio says, cutting the call short. “They’re about to storm the cockpit” referring to her fellow passengers." - MSNBC (09/22/01)

► Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"Then she passed the Airfone to the woman seated next to her.
"Now you call your people," Grandcolas told her.
Honor Elizabeth Wainio, 27, took the phone from Grandcolas and dialed her stepmother, Esther Heymann, in Baltimore.
"Mom, we're being hijacked. I just called to say good bye," she said.
"Elizabeth, we don't know how this is going to turn out. I've got my arms around you," Heymann said.
Wainio told her stepmother she could feel them.
"Let's look out at that beautiful blue sky. Let's be here in the moment," Heymann told her. "Let's do some deep breathing together."
They passed a few quiet moments.
"It hurts me that it's going to be so much harder for you all than it is for me," Wainio said.

Honor Wainio was still on the line with her stepmother.
"I need to go," she said. "They're getting ready to break into the cockpit. I love you. Goodbye." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

This chart shows a weeks worth of the U.S. government's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) on-time statistics for the 9/11 hijacked planes.  All of these four flights had been regular daily scheduled flights.  Note that the BTS website has since changed and an archive of these charts can be found here.

What's interesting to note is that the BTS has statistics on their website for the doomed flights of Flight 175 and Flight 93, but not for Flight 11 or Flight 77.  So according to the BTS, not only did Flight 11 and Flight 77 not depart on 9/11, they weren't even scheduled to fly on 9/11.  Also note that the BTS' wheels off time for Flight 93 on 9/11 is 8:28 am, 14 minutes earlier than the 9/11 Commission's reported takeoff time of 8:42 am.

Note that "Actual Depart" is when the planes push back from the gates and "Wheels off" is when the planes lift off from the runways.

Original source:  Bureau of Transportation Statistics - [ Archive ]

Recommended reading:   No Hijackings - by Gerard Holmgren

Airports:
BOS - Logan International
EWR - Newark International
IAD - Washington Dulles International
LAX - Los Angeles International
SFO - San Francisco International

LAS - Mccarran International, Las Vegas, NV

NTSB Reports

Flight 11

NTSB Identification: DCA01MA060.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of American Airlines
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in New York City, NY
Probable Cause Approval Date: 3/7/2006
Aircraft: Boeing 767-200ER, registration: N334AA
Injuries: 92 Fatal.

Flight 175

NTSB Identification: DCA01MA063.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of United Airlines
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in New York City, NY
Probable Cause Approval Date: 3/7/2006
Aircraft: Boeing 767-200ER, registration: N612UA
Injuries: 65 Fatal.

Flight 77

NTSB Identification: DCA01MA064.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of American Airlines
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in Arlington, VA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 3/7/2006
Aircraft: Boeing 757-200, registration: N644AA
Injuries: 64 Fatal.

Flight 93

NTSB Identification: DCA01MA065.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of United Airlines
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in Shanksville, PA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 3/7/2006
Aircraft: Boeing 757, registration: N591UA
Injuries: 44 Fatal.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Safety Board provided requested technical assistance to the FBI, and this material generated by the NTSB is under the control of the FBI. The Safety Board does not plan to issue a report or open a public docket.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

The Safety Board did not determine the probable cause and does not plan to issue a report or open a public docket. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Safety Board provided requested technical assistance to the FBI, and any material generated by the NTSB is under the control of the FBI.

- NTSB 2001 Index

*Note that the NTSB did issue a report for Flight 1771, the last hijacked plane in the U.S. in which the hijacker shot the pilots and put the plane into a steep dive and crashed into the ground.

Boeing Specs

767-200ER

757-200

Operating Empty Weight

  CF6 engines

  JT9Ds

80,920kg (178,400lb) [80.92 tons]

80,510kg (177,500lb) [80.51 tons]

Operating Empty Weight

  P&W engines

  RB211s

57,840kg (127,520lb) [57.84 tons]

57,975kg (127,810lb) [57.98 tons]

Operational Limitations

Please Note: The limitations data contained on these pages is applicable only to the Boeing 767-300 with Rolls Royce RB211 engines, unless otherwise stated.

MAXIMUM SPEEDS

Bird Impact Protection

From Sea Level to 8,000ft restrict airspeed to 313 kts* for Bird Impact Protection. Above 8,000ft, observe Vmo / Mmo pointer and overspeed warning.

*[313 kts = 360 mph]

Source:  767.org.uk

Operational Limitations

Important Note: The limitations data contained on these pages is applicable only to the Boeing 757-200 with Rolls Royce RB211 engines, unless otherwise stated.

MAXIMUM SPEEDS

Bird Impact Protection

From Sea Level to 8,000ft restrict airspeed to 313 kts* for Bird Impact Protection. Above 8,000ft, observe Vmo / Mmo pointer and overspeed warning.

*[313 kts = 360 mph]

Source:  757.org.uk

Scale

Scale

► The Boeing 757-200

"The 757-200 flight deck, designed for two-crew member operation, pioneered the use of digital electronics and advanced displays.
• A fully integrated flight management computer system (FMCS) provides for automatic guidance and control of the 757-200 from immediately after takeoff to final approach and landing.
• The precision of global positioning satellite (GPS) system navigation, automated air traffic control functions, and advanced guidance and communications features are now available as part of the new Future Air Navigation System (FANS) flight management computer.

Flight decks of the 757 and 767 are nearly identical and both aircraft have a common type-rating. Pilots qualified to fly one of the aircraft also can fly the other with only minimal additional familiarization." - Boeing

► The Boeing 767-200

"New techniques for navigation and flight control are used on the 767-200... An automatic flight control system coupled with a computer allows storage of an entire flight plan and gives automatic guidance and control of the aircraft from takeoff to landing." - NASA

FCS-700
Autopilot Flight Director System - Rockwell Collins

DESCRIPTION

The FCS-700 is a fully digital, fail operational autopilot flight director system. The system, part of the Boeing 757 and 767 flight control system, performs tasks associated with control wheel steering, flight director commands, speed selection, altitude selection, heading selection, autopilot, autoland, and system fault isolation.

The FCS-700 has been selected as the standard autopilot flight director system for the Boeing 767 and 757 aircraft.

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