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NewsMine 9-11 flight11-aa-wtc flight-11-attendant-betty-ong Viewing Item | How betty ong stayed calm { January 28 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/28/1075088080251.htmlhttp://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/28/1075088080251.html
How Betty Ong stayed calm in flight's terrible final minutes
January 28, 2004 - 5:10PM
Washington: Shortly before Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Centre, the American Airlines operations centre received a calm phone call from one of its flight attendants.
"The cockpit is not answering their phone," said Betty Ong. "There's somebody stabbed in business class, and we can't breathe in business. Um, I think there is some mace or something. We can't breathe. I don't know, but I think we're getting hijacked."
Ong, 45, known as "Bee," was on the American Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, before suspected 9-11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and four others took over the plane and crashed it into the North Tower of the Trade Centre.
The Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States heard portions of her 23-minute conversation with the American Airlines operations center on the second of its two-day hearing Tuesday.
Nydia Gonzalez, who was on duty at the operations centre that morning, told the panel how she received Ong's call at about 8.20am.
"Several media accounts of what occurred on Flight 11 claimed that Betty was 'hysterical with fear,' 'shrieking' and 'gasping for air'," she said. "Those accounts were wrong."
"In a very calm, professional and poised demeanor, Betty Ong relayed to us detailed information of the events unfolding on Flight 11," Gonzalez added. "I honestly believe after my conversation with Betty that the 81 passengers and new crew members on Flight 11 had no idea of the fate they were to encounter that day."
Ong tells the operations centre her flight and seat number and describes the scene on board.
"I'm sitting in the back. Somebody's coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second here, they're coming back.
"Our No. 1 (flight attendant) got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who. We can't even get up to business class right now, because nobody can breathe. Uh, our No. 1 is stabbed right now.
"Our No. 5, our first class passenger, er, our first class galley flight attendant and our purser have been stabbed. And we can't get into the cockpit. The door won't open."
"We can't even get into the cockpit. We don't know who's there," Ong says, before the call ends in a dial tone.
The Boeing 767 rammed into the World Trade Centre's North Tower at 8:46am.
AP
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