[IP] A very brave woman AA # 11 on 9/11 -- less we forget
A Calm Voice as Disaster Unfolded in the Sky
January 28, 2004
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 - Betty Ann Ong, a veteran flight
attendant for American Airlines, could not have sounded
much calmer on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, as she tried
to describe the mayhem aboard Flight 11.
"The cockpit is not answering the phone," she said from a
jump seat at the back of the Boeing 767, calling to the
ground from one of the crew phones that she would normally
use to communicate with other crew members on the plane.
"There is somebody stabbed in business class. They can't
breathe in business class. They've got Mace or something."
A tape of a four-minute portion of the 20-minute phone
call received at the airline's reservation center in Cary,
N.C., at 8:20 a.m., was played on Tuesday at a hearing of
the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, the
first time the recording was heard in public.
The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, said the commission
decided to allow the public to hear the tape as a
demonstration of the "heroism" of Ms. Ong and the "duty,
courage, selflessness and love" that was evident in the
midst of the chaos of Sept. 11.
While the tape was difficult to understand at times, it
clearly conveyed the situation of Ms. Ong and most of the
passengers and other crew members forced to the back of the
plane, with at least two flight attendants and a passenger
stabbed and dying, and with some sort of chemical released
into the air in the front of the plane.
"My name is Betty Ong," she said after reaching the
reservations office in North Carolina, speaking quickly but
in a tone that was remarkably calm and lucid. "I'm on
Flight 11." She explained that she had been forced to the
back of the jet, which was hijacked shortly after leaving
Boston on a flight to Los Angeles. The plane later crashed
into the World Trade Center.
She described the stabbing of her co-workers and said the
cockpit door was locked, with at least some of the
hijackers inside. "Our first-class galley attendant and our
purser are stabbed," she said. "We can't get into the
cockpit. The door won't open."
"Can anybody get to the cockpit?" she can be heard asking
someone nearby on the plane. "We can't even get to the
cockpit. Nobody can call the cockpit. We can't even get
inside."
There were a few moments of silence. "Is anybody there?"
Ms. Ong asked.
"Yes, we're here," said a reservations agent, who was not
identified at Tuesday's hearing.
"I'm staying on the line as well," said Ms. Ong, a 14-year
veteran of American Airlines and known to her friends as
Bee.
A second tape was played of a conversation between an
American Airlines supervisor, Nydia Gonzalez, who was
speaking separately with Ms. Ong, and the airline's central
operations center in Texas.
"You're doing a great job, just stay calm," Ms. Gonzalez
told Ms. Ong, whose voice could not be heard in the second
recording. "Is there a doctor on board?"
There was silence on the tape as Ms. Gonzalez listened to
Ms. Ong's reply. "They don't have any doctors on board,"
Ms. Gonzalez told the operations center. "The aircraft is
erratic again. She did say that the first-class passengers
have been moved back to coach."
"Betty, talk to me, are you there, Betty?" Ms. Gonzalez can
be heard asking.
Moments later, the phone line went dead. "I think we might
have lost her," Ms. Gonzalez told the operations center.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/national/28TAPE.html?ex=1076287822&ei=1&en=eebcec6aa69b70db
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/