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At 8:20 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Betty Ann Ong spoke in a low voice over an Airfone in the back of American Airlines Flight 11.
Calm and pragmatic, she told the employees on the ground: “The cockpit is not responding. Someone was stabbed in business class – and I think there’s Mace … I think we’re being hijacked.
Betty, 45, had asked to work an additional crew on Flight 11, to Los Angeles from Logan Airport in Boston, so she could join her sister Cathie for a vacation in Hawaii. But 14 minutes after takeoff, the hijacked plane turned around and headed for New York.
Thanks to Betty’s stealth phone call, the world knows terrorists seriously injured flight attendants Karen Martin and Bobbi Arestegui, slit the throats of business class passenger Daniel Lewin and “sneaked” into the cockpit , where they probably killed co-pilots. John Ogonowski and Thomas McGuinness Jr.
We also know that they sprayed Mace – which was prohibited on flights – and that passengers gathered in the coach to escape the toxic fumes as the plane flew erratically towards the skyline of New York.
Authorities were able to quickly identify the five hijackers because Betty and her colleague Madeline Sweeney relayed the men’s seat numbers.
Ong’s last words: “Pray for us. Pray for us. ”Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 am
Many of the 25 flight attendants murdered on September 11 have shown extraordinary courage. But the contribution of Betty, a Chinese American, shines even brighter 20 years later, amid an increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
“My sister gave her life for her country on September 11,” Cathie Ong-Herrera, one of Betty’s two older sisters, told The Post, “and it’s very hurtful when you think about what’s going on. today.”
Betty, whose mother emigrated from China, was born in San Francisco and was the youngest of four siblings.
Follow our coverage of the 20th anniversary of September 11 here:
With her slim figure and pretty face, Betty has been approached for modeling before, but their mother frowned on it. Instead, the 22-year-old went to her parents’ beef jerky factory, where signs of her nerves of steel appeared.
“One day the store was blocked,” Cathie said. “Betty was in front and had a gun pointed at her head. My mom said she never panicked. All she said was, ‘Dad, we’re being robbed.’ “
They handed over the money and the thieves left. “She has never been shaken.”
Almost a decade later, in 1987, Betty was driving on US 101, south of San Francisco, when she saw a Honda get cut by a high-speed pickup and roll over twice.
Betty and another motorist immediately pulled over to help. ” I know you ! I know you!’ Honda driver Jo Ellen Chew remembers Betty telling her. It turned out that the two had met a month before at a local bowling alley.
“Courage, kindness, compassion,” Chew told the Post of Betty. “Most people would just pass by. But stop and run towards me? A miracle!”
Betty had wanted to travel since childhood – sometimes to San Francisco International Airport just to watch the planes take off – but her parents were always too busy working. As a flight attendant, she was able to take her sisters to places like China, Japan, Hawaii, Canada and England.
“Betty has flown nonstop to San Francisco often to see her family,” said colleague Michelle Brawley Ferragamo. The rest of the crew might mention plans for dinner, but Betty would say, ‘Have fun – I’m coming home. “”
On September 11, 2001, when news of the first plane to fly over the World Trade Center broke, Betty’s siblings desperately tried to reach her. At first, airline staff assured them that she was not on Flight 11.
But then the family heard about a brave attendant who had provided information from the plane. “I was like, ‘This must be Betty,’” recalls Cathie.
They learned more about Betty’s heroism two weeks later at her memorial – where Chew, the driver she had helped, sang “Hero” by Whitney Houston.
A woman introduced herself to Cathie as Nydia Gonzalez, an employee of American Airlines. “I am the person who spoke to your sister [from the ground], she told Cathie.
“You must be very proud of your sister. She provided a lot of information very calmly.
It was then that the Ong family heard about a recording of Betty’s conversation with the American Airlines ground crew.
When they asked to hear it, Cathie said, the airline said the FBI would not allow it.
“I was angry,” Cathie said. “We wanted to know the truth about what happened to our sister. “
An appeal to Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts paid off, she recalls. “The next day American Airlines called me and asked, ‘When and where do you want to listen to Betty’s tape?
The family listened in dismay to the recording revealing that the ground crew did not immediately grasp the seriousness of Betty’s call and kept asking the same questions, wasting precious time. While the call was infuriating, the family are happy it was recorded on tape.
“I am very grateful that we got to know the last minutes of Betty’s life,” said Sister Gloria Ong.
In 2004, the Ong family created a foundation in honor of Betty. It funds a summer camp for children and social programs for the elderly at the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center in San Francisco.
“We continue to keep her legacy alive through the work we do,” said Cathie. “We want to reflect who Betty was.”
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