Melissa Harrington-Hughes’ Heart-Wrenching 9/11 Phone Calls To Her Husband And Father
Family PhotoMelissa Harrington-Hughes left a voicemail for her husband and was able to speak with her father on 9/11.
About 10 minutes after Flight 11 hit the North Tower, slicing between floors 93 and 99, Melissa Harrington-Hughes started making phone calls. Harrington-Hughes, a 31-year-old international trade consultant, was trapped on the 101st floor during a business trip to New York City.
She first called her father, Bob Harrington, who was home in Massachusetts.
“She was a little hysterical and I couldn’t understand what she was saying, so I said, ‘Slow down a minute and tell me what the problem is so I can help you out,'” Harrington told CNN. As she explained what was going on, he turned on the TV and saw the burning North Tower, where she was trapped.
“I said, ‘You get to the stairwell and get out of that building as fast as you can.’ I told her that I loved her,” Harrington remembered. “She said, ‘I love you too, Dad,’ and she said, ‘You have to do me a favor. You have to call Sean and tell him where I am and tell him that I love him.'”
Public DomainFlight 11 crashed between floors 93 and 99 of the North Tower, trapping Melissa Harrington-Hughes on the 101st.
At 9:07 a.m., Melissa Harrington-Hughes tried to call Sean herself, but he was on the West Coast and still asleep. She left her husband a message on the answering machine, which the family keeps to this day.
“Sean, it’s me,” Harrington-Hughes said in her voicemail. “I just wanted to let you know I love you and I’m stuck in this building in New York. There’s a lot of smoke and I just wanted to let you know that I love you always.”
The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. Melissa Harrington-Hughes’ body was found at the Ground Zero site four days later.
