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Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and lawyer, did not panic when hijackers resumed her flight on September 11, 2001, from Washington Dulles Airport in Los Angeles, where she was heading for an appearance in the Bill Maher TV show.
She managed to call her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, twice from the back of the plane where terrorists, armed with knives and cutters, were rounding up passengers. She reported the hijacking on American Airlines Flight 77 and asked what she could convey to the captain.
According to the 9/11 Commission report, only Olson and flight attendant Renee May were able to phone loved ones from the plane before it crashed into the Pentagon. Twenty years later, Barbara’s husband still marvels at his bravery and composure in the last moments of his life.
“To this day, I don’t know how the hell she managed to do it,” said Ted Olson, who received the calls at his Department of Justice office in Washington, DC.
Former United States Solicitor General Theodore ‘Ted’ Olson testifies on day four of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court candidate Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington , USA, September 7, 2018. Olson will attend the Pentagon’s September 11 memorial service to mark 20 years since his wife, Barbara, was killed in the terrorist attack.
(REUTERS / Chris Wattie)
Both phone calls were very brief and both ended abruptly. Two hijacked planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center, and Olson’s in-flight call prompted Ted Olson to warn other FBI and Justice Department agents that a third plane was under attack.
“Barbara was an extraordinarily resourceful person,” Olson told Fox News. “She was also a fighter. She wouldn’t have taken this quietly.”
Olson calls his late wife “a quintessential American” who believed strongly in herself and in a country that would allow her to fulfill her dreams and ambitions. At the time of her death, she was a frequent television commentator on media outlets like CNN and Fox News as well as an author of a book on Hillary Clinton.
Barbara quickly became the high-profile victim of the terrorist attacks, and her husband, who was known to have successfully argued the Bush v Gore case in the Supreme Court, was also brought into the limelight as the public face of mourning.
“Barbara was the first face to appear on the television screens of the American people because people knew who Barbara was,” Olson said.
Barbara Olson, wife of former United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson, was one of 64 people who died in the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 at the Pentagon. Olson made two calls to inform her husband that the plane, from Washington Dulles Airport to Los Angeles, had been hijacked. She told him that the hijackers, armed with knives and cardboard cutters, rounded up the passengers and crew, including the pilot, to the back of the plane. Olson, a frequent contributor to CNN’s “Larry King Live,” is shown in a video on the show.
(Reuters)
Olson had to make a choice fairly quickly. Would he naturally have backed down in the midst of sudden grief, or would he choose to move on with his job and his life. Olson said he made a conscious decision to fight, just as he expected Barbara would.
“I felt the brunt of the whole disaster overwhelmingly,” Olson recalled. “It was personalized for me, but it was also devastating for our nation.”
“I felt a certain responsibility to talk about it so that we could communicate the idea that we were attacked but that we will not be defeated. And I also felt the need to talk about Barbara because she was such an amazing person and she was so tragically murdered. I felt I could be her voice a little bit. “
Now in 2021, that decision to live still guides Olson today. He will be 81 on September 11. Yet, far from retirement, he works full time as a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington DC.
He found love again after the terrorist attacks and will be married for 15 years. Knowing how precious life is, Olson decided to dig deep and grab hold of life, rather than “curl up in a corner.”
“It’s survival,” Olson said of his resilient mindset. “You can either retire and be gone. Or you can grab the opportunities that the gift of life offers you in the first place.”
“I felt very strongly that Barbara would have wanted this,” Olson added. “It was the kind of person that Barbara was.”
FINAL ACTS OF BRAVERY
Barbara Olson wasn’t supposed to be on the ill-fated plane.
She had originally planned to fly to Los Angeles to appear on Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” show on September 10. But she changed her travel schedule to be with Ted Olson for his birthday, which is September 11. The couple had planned a festive dinner the day before.
On the morning of September 11, Ted Olson woke up early, as usual, to leave their home in suburban Northern Virginia before 6 a.m. to avoid rush hour in Washington, DC Barbara was still at the House. The couple spoke on the phone before boarding their flight at Dulles Airport. Olson recalls that it was probably a routine conversation to wish his wife a safe trip.
In this September 11, 2001 file photo, smoke rises from the burning Twin Towers of the World Trade Center after hijacked planes crash into the towers in New York City. (AP Photo / Richard Drew, file)
Olson, President George W. Bush’s newly confirmed Solicitor General, was in his Justice Department office when two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, blowing the world away. As he and the rest of the nation watched in horror, Olson’s thoughts turned to concern for Barbara’s escape.
At first he was relieved when his assistant walked in to let him know Barbara was on the phone.
During that first phone call, which took place between 9:16 a.m. and 9:26 a.m., Barbara told her husband that hijackers had taken control of his plane and that they did not know that she was on the phone. She only spoke for a minute before the line was cut.
She managed to call back soon after, and she and her husband tried to find out where the plane was in the air. Olson spoke to his wife about the World Trade Center attacks, but remarkably Barbara “didn’t show any signs of panic,” according to the 9/11 Commission report. She seemed totally in control of herself because she wanted to do something to help, Olson recalls.
But the phone line abruptly disconnected again, ending what would be the final conversation of their five-year marriage. Barbara Olson was 45 years old.
“We weren’t able to know we had the last words because all of a sudden the phone broke,” Olson said. “And I guess that was around the time when [the plane] was actually crashing into the Pentagon. “
A 9/11 BIRTHDAY
Olson now has 20 9/11 commemorations and as many 9/11 birthdays since that terrible day. He usually prefers to be away from Washington, DC at this time and retreat to his Wisconsin home along Lake Michigan.
Given the gravity of this year’s milestone event, Olson will attend the Pentagon Memorial Service with his children and grandchildren. He feels obligated to Barbara and the other victims to participate, no matter how painful it may be.
“I think we should never forget what happened that day,” Olson said.
A large American flag is displayed at the Pentagon ahead of ceremonies at the National Pentagon 9/11 Memorial to honor the 184 people killed in the 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon in Washington on Friday, September 11, 2020 (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
There are still too many in this world who hate America and want to destroy our way of life and attack the freedoms offered by our country, Olson said. He hopes that this memorial can serve as a reminder to be vigilant.
“We must not let our guard down,” he said.
With his birthday now tied forever to a serious act of terrorism and personal heartache, Olson said he’s not trying to celebrate his annual trip around the sun on another artificial date. Her birth milestone will always be the day Barbara dies.
“Whatever pain and memories come with it, it’s a part of life,” Olson said. “You can’t just make it go away.”
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