On September 11th, 2001, Tom Burnett was on United Airlines Flight 93. He was the COO and vice president of Thoratec Corp., a medical devices company.
After the airplane was hijacked, he called his wife and that is when he learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center. He made a total of four calls to her that day.
During the first call, he told her about the situation on the plane and asked her to call the authorities. On his second call, he told her that he believed the hijackers were going to fly the plane into the ground. On his next call, Mrs. Burnett quotes him as saying, “I could tell they were formulating a plan.”
On the fourth and final call, he reportedly said, “I know we’re going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it.”
Tom Burnett could have accepted his fate, but decided to act. Tom got a small group of passengers together so they could fight back. Their plan was to regain control of the plane, however, they all ultimately perished when the plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field.
No one knows the intended target of Flight 93. Many believe the hijackers were targeting either the White House or the US Capitol building.
Can you imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t fought back against the hijackers? Can you visualize what it would have looked like to see the White House or the US Capitol building burning and crashing down? Can you imagine how many thousands of lives were saved that day because of their efforts?
The actions of Tom Burnett and the others took immense bravery and in the end, they lost their lives.
On this September 11th, let’s all take a moment and remember to thank Tom Burnett and the other heroes on American Airlines Flight 93.
