Betty Ong, The Flight Attendant Who Recorded The Final Moments Of Flight 11
9/11 Memorial & MuseumBetty Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 when it was hijacked by terrorists.
Of all the 9/11 messages, Betty Ong’s is among the most harrowing. On September 11, 2001, Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. And she used her final moments to alert the world to what was happening.
“Number 3 in the back. The cockpit’s not answering. Somebody’s stabbed in business class. And I think there’s mace… we can’t breathe. I don’t know. I think we’re getting hijacked,” Ong said in her call to the AA reservation desk at around 8:19 a.m. She had placed the call about 20 minutes after the plane had taken off from Boston en route to Los Angeles.
This was the first indication that something was wrong in the skies. Minutes later, Mohamed Atta, one of the terrorists on Flight 11, inadvertently alerted air traffic control officials in Boston to the hijacking when he pressed the wrong button in the cockpit. (He’d meant to speak to the passengers.)
skinnylawyer/Wikimedia CommonsBetty Ong’s name at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.
Meanwhile, Ong continued to relay information to AA ground personnel.
“Our Number 1 got stabbed,” Ong said. “Our purser is stabbed. Ah, nobody knows who stabbed who and we can’t even get up to business class right now because nobody can breathe. Our Number 1 is, is stabbed right now… and we can’t get to the cockpit, the door won’t open.” At one point later on in the call, Ong told personnel on the ground to “pray for us.”
Ong’s phone call ultimately lasted 23 minutes. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, killing everyone onboard.
“What’s going on, Betty?” an American Airlines operations specialist asked. “Betty, talk to me. Betty, are you there? Betty? Okay, so we’ll, like — we’ll stay open. We — I think we might have lost her.”
