The Boeing 767 jetliner was 15 minutes into its journey from Boston

September 29, 2025 admin 0 Comments

The Boeing 767 jetliner was 15 minutes into its journey from Boston to Los Angeles when flight attendant Betty Ann Ong realized something was wrong.

Preparing meals in the back of the plane, she heard screams coming from the front section. Someone dashed back and told her that two attendants had been stabbed and that a noxious chemical had been sprayed in the first-class cabin.

Three minutes later, at 8:17 a.m., Ong picked up the in-flight phone and punched the buttons for the American Airlines reservations desk.

And that’s how the world learned that the terror attacks of Sept. 11 had begun.

“The cockpit is not answering the phone and there’s somebody stabbed in business class,” Ong calmly told the male clerk who answered. “We can’t breathe in business class. Somebody’s got Mace or something. … We can’t get into the cockpit. The door won’t open.”

At 8:46 a.m. and 40 seconds, Ong’s American Airlines Flight 11 disappeared into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

Harry Ong (Betty’s brother) and his wife, mother and two surviving sisters flew to New York for a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks. But as quickly as they can, they will jet back West to go where they’ve gone on Sept. 11 for the past five years – to a cabin at Lake Tahoe, where they will be away from phones and questions and, as much as possible, the awful memories of that day.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/10/MNPU1KM4UT.DTL#ixzz1Xg1X0Muy