Remembering Betty Ann Ong.
She grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the youngest of four, the kid who used to watch planes take off at SFO and later made flying her life.
Friends called her Bee.
She collected Beanie Babies, visited seniors in Boston on her days off, and
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Remembering Betty Ann Ong.
She grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the youngest of four, the kid who used to watch planes take off at SFO and later made flying her life.
Friends called her Bee.
She collected Beanie Babies, visited seniors in Boston on her days off, and picked up extra trips so she could afford a vacation with her sister.
On September 11, 2001, that extra trip put her on American Airlines Flight 11.
She was not supposed to be on that plane.
From the rear galley she picked up an Airfone and became the first person to tell the ground what was happening: the cockpit would not answer, people had been stabbed, the cabin was filling with something that made it hard to breathe.
“I think we’re getting hijacked,” she said.
Then she stayed on the line for 23 minutes.
She gave seat numbers.
She answered questions.
Near the end she asked them to pray.
That call was the first confirmed warning that the country was under attack.
It helped controllers begin clearing the sky.
The 9/11 Commission later called her a hero.
A recreation center in her old neighborhood now carries her name.
She was 45.
She was doing her job until the last second.
Today is a good day to say her name.
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