25 years later, family meets woman who took flight attendant’s historic 9/11 call

In Cary, North Carolina, Vanessa Minter was among the first people on the ground to learn about the terror unfolding in the air on September 11, 2001.

Minter, an American Airlines reservations agent, was on the other end of a phone call with flight attendant Betty Ong, who was sitting in the back galley of hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which had departed Boston for Los Angeles.

“She said, ‘I think we’re being hijacked,'” Minter recalled in an interview with “CBS Mornings.” 

Minter said she knew the threat was real from the tone of Ong’s voice.

“I had to ask myself, could I have done that? Because she was literally a pillar. She knew what she was doing. She knew what information we needed, and she was all business,” Minter explained. Ong relayed critical information during the call that contributed to the FAA’s decision to close U.S. airspace.

She would be the last person Ong spoke with before the plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Minter recalled some of Ong’s final words during their conversation: “Pray for us.”

“I was the last person that she spoke to and I couldn’t make it better. I couldn’t even help,” Minter said.

Three weeks after the September 11 attacks, Minter penned a letter to Ong’s family in California. She described Ong’s bravery and concern for passengers and their safety.

“I want you to know that she will always be in my heart and my prayers as I go through life,” she wrote.

The letter was given to Ong’s older brother Harry, who is now 77 and a grandfather of five. Harry said that was the first time the family learned about the mid-air call.

“When we listened to it, we were so proud of Betty,” Harry said.

Every month, Harry visits a memorial for Ong at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California – just outside of San Francisco – where she has a niche and a grave. Crews recovered a bone fragment with her DNA two blocks from Ground Zero in 2002.

“Betty was a hero, but not – not the fact that she’s the only hero, right? We envelope almost 3,000 people who have perished that day, and we have to just remember them and to say that they’re all heroes, and many, many more,” Harry said.

For 25 years, Minter never made the journey out west to meet Ong’s family – until now.

She recently reunited with Harry at Ong’s memorial. Afterward, he invited her to his home, where he shared some of the family’s keepsakes, including Ong’s ID tags and a letter from President Bush. She was also able to meet Ong’s mother, Gum, who is 99 years old.

“You have such a brave daughter. I feel like I’m a member of this family already,” Minter told Gum.