Worth knowing the human details behind this, Betty Ong wasn't even supposed to be on Flight 11, she picked up an extra shift to earn money for a Hawaii vacation with her sister, and because it wasn't her usual route, she was assigned to the rear galley instead of first/business class, the exact section where the hijackers were seated.
That placement, purely incidental, is what let her make the call undetected while the attack was unfolding just feet away.
Using an Airfone at the back of the plane, she reached American Airlines' reservations center in Cary, North Carolina, and calmly relayed that the cockpit wasn't responding, that passenger Daniel Lewin and flight attendants Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui had been stabbed, and that she believed Mace had been sprayed in the cabin.
Working alongside fellow flight attendant Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, she identified the specific seat numbers of three hijackers, information that let the FBI immediately pull passport and identity records once the names became known.
The ripple effect of that single call was massive, it triggered the first-ever nationwide FAA airspace shutdown in US history, as officials scrambled to respond to a threat they didn't yet fully understand.
Her final words on the call, "Pray for us. Pray for us," not just for herself, but for everyone on board.
Her ground contact, Nydia Gonzalez, testified later that Ong showed no fear at all across the entire 23-minute call.
The 9/11 Commission formally declared her a hero for her composure and the intelligence she provided under conditions almost no one could imagine staying calm through.
Repost so others know the full story of this hero.
@venturetwins@fal I'd beg to differ.
Have been a fan of the Big Bang Theory since I was young. Hope to see more original comedies like it, not AI demos that treat Sheldon and Leonard as free props.
If this becomes normal, there is less incentive to create the next great sitcom.
Just learned about paraprosdokians. And Claude LOVES to use them, especially in marketing copy.
"Four steps, and only one of them is yours."
"A thousand integrations, and you’ll only ever click one."
"Everything about billing changed. Your invoice didn’t."
GET THAT JUNK OUT!