7 incredible heroic acts of ordinary Americans during the attacks of September 11

The worst terrorist act in US history has turned some ordinary Americans into true heroes. Edition Business Insider published 7 incredible stories of the heroic deeds of ordinary Americans, who were at the center of the events of September 11.

Фото: Depositphotos

About 3000 people were killed and more than 6000 were injured on 11 on September 2001 after al-Qaeda hijackers flew by plane to the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York.

Tens of thousands of people, as usual, worked at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, and most of them were able to escape. While everyone who survived this terrible day can be called brave, there are some who have done everything possible to save lives, and ultimately did not allow the tragedy to get worse.

1. The 24-year-old stock trader helped at least a dozen people get out, and then he returned to the building along with firefighters to save even more.

Just a few minutes after the 175 United Airlines flight raided the South Tower of the World Trade Center, the 24-year-old Wells Crowther called his mother and calmly left a voice message: “Mom, this is Wells. I want you to know that I'm fine. ”

Crowther was a stock trader at Sandler O'Neil and Partners on the 104 floor. But after this call, a man who was a volunteer firefighter in his teens went down to the lobby of the 78 floor and became a hero for strangers, known only as “the man in the red bandana”.

Amid smoke, chaos and rubbish, Crowther helped injured and disoriented office workers get to a safe place, risking their own lives. Although they could not see through the haze many of those whom he had saved, they recalled a tall figure wearing a red bandana to protect his lungs and mouth.

He went down to the lobby on the 78 floor, a niche in the building with high-speed elevators, designed to expedite trips to the first floor. In his “strong, authoritative voice”, according to the description, Crowther sent the survivors to the stairs and urged them to help others while he carried the wounded woman on his back. Having led them down 15 floors, he returned upstairs to help others.

“Everyone who can stand, stand now,” Crowther told the survivors, leading them toward the exit of the stairs. “If you can help others, do it.”

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"He's definitely my guardian angel because without him we'd be sitting there waiting for the building to collapse," said survivor Lin Yang. Crowther is credited with saving at least a dozen people that day.

Crowther's body was discovered next to the stairwell leading back to the building.

2. A group of strangers teamed up to take United Flight 93 from the terrorists so that the plane did not kill countless people in the US Capitol.

Around 9: 28 AM 11 September 2001, United Flight 93 was captured by four Al Qaeda terrorists. After the terrorists killed the pilot and the stewardess, the passengers were told that there was a bomb on board and the plane was heading back to the airport.

But this happened after two planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center, and the United Flight 93 passengers, crowded in the back of the plane, began to guess what the real plan of the terrorists was. Several passengers called their loved ones.

“Tom, they're hijacking every plane up and down the East Coast,” Dinah Burnett told her husband Tom, a passenger on United Flight 93, by cellphone at 9:34 a.m. “They take them and hit their intended targets.” They have already hit both towers of the World Trade Center." During the second phone call, Tom learned from his wife that another plane had flown into the Pentagon.

“We have to do something,” Burnett told his wife. “I’m making a plan.” Other passengers, including Mark Bingham, Jeremy Glick and Todd Beamer, heard the same news from their loved ones. As the plane headed toward Washington, D.C., passengers voted to fight back against the hijackers. Led by a group of four people, the passengers rushed into the cabin, and Beamer gave them parting words that became his last: “Are you ready? Okay, let's get started!

The recorder in the cockpit picked up the sounds of "combat" in the plane losing control at an altitude of 30 feet (more than 000 km) - the collision of carts, the scattering and breaking of dishes. The terrorists shout at each other to hold the door and there is an apparent siege of the cabin. Passengers shouted: “Get them!” “Give it to me!” - the passenger shouts, apparently about to seize control of the plane.

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Instead of the plane hitting its intended target - the White House or the Capitol building - it crashed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all the passengers on board but saving the lives of thousands of people.

Фото: Depositphotos

3. Two former US Marines put on their uniform again and looked for survivors in the wreckage that could collapse at any moment. They found two survivors.

While the planes flew to the World Trade Center, 27-year-old Jason Thomas drove his daughter to his mother on Long Island.

When Thomas heard what had happened, he changed into the Marine uniform he kept in a drawer—he was a former sergeant and had been out of service for a year—and rushed toward Manhattan.

“Someone needs help. It doesn’t matter who,” Thomas said. “I didn’t even have a plan.” But I went through the training and all I could think was, 'My city needs me.'"

Around the same time in Wilton, Connecticut, Dave Carns worked in his office, watching on television how the attack was unfolding.

“We are at war,” the former Marine sergeant told his colleagues, then told his boss he might not return for a while. He went to get a haircut, changed into a Marine Corps uniform and drove to New York at 120 mph (193 km/h).

Once both Marines reached the destroyed towers - a place now covered in ash and rubble - they began searching for survivors, but first they found each other. They had almost no equipment except lanterns and military weapons.

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Together with the other first rescuers, the couple climbed over a dangerous field of metal, concrete and dust, shouting: “US Marines! If you hear us, scream or knock! ”

When they reached the hollow in the ruins of the south tower, one of them said: “It seemed to me that I heard someone ... They screamed, and got an answer. The victims asked not to leave them.

Karnes told Thomas to get to the main point to send rescuers to the scene, then he called his wife and sister on a cell phone and told them to call and tell New York police where he is.

Two officers, William Jimeno and John McLaughlin, were in the main hall between the towers when the South Tower began to fall. They were alive, but were seriously injured and trapped about 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface.

Hearing the voices of the Marines, Jimeno began to shout out the officer’s code: “8-13! 8-13! ” It took the rescuers about three hours to dig up Jimeno, and eight more to get to McLaughlin, who was locked even lower.

Exhausted Thomas, who never gave his name, left the place after Jimeno was rescued, but continued to help the victims. His identity remained a mystery until Oliver Stone's 2006 World Trade Center movie of the year saving the officers came out and Thomas finally revealed his identity.

Karnes also left after rescuing Jimeno, but helped on the spot for another nine days. After he returned to Connecticut, he went to his reserve center and was re-drafted, and served two terms in Iraq.

4. Two flight attendants on an American Airlines 11 flight calmly relayed information about the hijackers, which helped the FBI determine that the perpetrators were Al Qaeda.

Fifteen minutes after taking off from Boston, American Airlines' 11 was hijacked by five Al Qaeda terrorists and dramatically changed its flight route to Los Angeles for New York. Five terrorists, led by Mohamed Atta, hijacked a plane, injured and killed several crew members and passengers, and drove the remaining passengers into the rear of the aircraft.

Using crew phones, flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney calmly relayed to their colleagues what had happened that morning: “Okay, my name is Betty Ong. I'm number 3 on flight 11. The cabin is not answering calls, someone was stabbed to death in business class. Does anyone have a mace or something?”

Speaking to an American Airlines reservation center, Ong explained that some crew members were killed and hijackers entered the cabin. She shared information about the men, including their number and how they looked. Her colleague Amy Sweeney did the same.

As the media describe it, Sweeney sat in the passenger seat in the last row of the plane and used the crew phone to call American Airlines Flight Services at Boston Logan Airport. “This is Amy Sweeney,” she said. “I’m on flight 11 - this plane was hijacked,” without listening to the end, she was disconnected, she called back. “Listen to me and listen very, very carefully.” After a few seconds, the person on the other side of the phone changed his voice to one she recognized.

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“Amy, this is Michael Woodward,” they said on the other side. The American Airlines flight services manager had been friends with Sweeney for ten years, so he didn't have to waste time checking that it wasn't a hoax. “Michael, the plane has been hijacked,” Sweeney repeated and told him the locations of the three hijackers: 9D, 9G and 10B. She said they were all of Middle Eastern descent and one of them spoke English very well.

Those on the other side of the line were amazed at their calm behavior and professionalism. At least 20 minutes before the plane crashed into the North Tower, American Airlines had names, addresses and other information about three of the five hijackers, information that prompted the FBI to initiate an investigation.

Nydia Gonzalez, an American Airlines operations specialist, later testified to the 9/11 Commission about Ong's calm demeanor, which asked her to "pray for us."

5. Rick Rescorla saved over 2700 lives, he sang songs to reassure people while the evacuation was ongoing.

Rick Rescorla at the time of the attack was already a hero of Vietnam, where he received the Silver Star and other awards for his exploits as an army officer.

Rescorla - once immortalized on the cover of the book We Were Soldiers Once... and Young - often sang to his men to calm them while under fire, using songs from his youth.

Many in the South Tower heard his songs on 11 of September. Rescorla worked as the head of corporate security at Morgan Stanley. According to the source, when the plane crashed into a tower next to it, the administration ordered ReSCORLE to keep its employees in place.

But Rescorla did not listen to the order and began to withdraw his people. “Everything above where the plane hit will collapse, and it will take the entire building with it. I’m getting my people out of here,” Rescorla said.

He often warned the administration of the building and his company about the security flaws of the World Trade Center. He made Morgan Stanley employees practice emergency exercises for many years, and that came in handy that day: just 16 minutes after the first plane crashed into the opposite tower, more than 2700 employees and visitors left the building when the second plane crashed into that tower where they were.

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During the evacuation, Rescorla reassured the people, singing to them “God Bless America” and “People of Arlech” through the mouthpiece as they descended the stairs.

During the evacuation, Rescorla called his wife.

“Stop crying,” he told her. “I have to get these people out safe and sound.” If anything happens to me, I want you to know that I have never been happier. You are everything to me in this life.”

For the last time, Resressla was seen on the 10 floor of the South Tower. He was heading up to bring out the others who remained in the building. His body was never found.

Фото: Depositphotos

6. Two F-16 fighters that had no weapons fought to the last to stop the other hijacked airliners, and the pilots were ready to give their lives for it

With scant details of what was happening and lack of time to prepare checklists before the flight, two DC National Air Guard pilots quickly climbed the United 93 after two other planes crashed into the World Trade Center.

They were without weapons.

A few days before September 11 in Washington, DC, there was not a single armed aircraft on guard, ready to immediately respond to the incident.

When the Boeing 757 began heading toward Washington, Penny and her commander, Colonel Marc Susseville, did not wait for the tens of minutes it would take to properly arm their aircraft.

“We had to protect the airspace in any way possible,” recalled Major Heather Penney. “We wouldn’t shoot him down.” We would have rammed the plane. Basically, I would be a kamikaze pilot." Even before takeoff, Penny and Sasseville were ready to shoot down the plane with their F-16s.

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Instead, the passengers of United 93 recaptured the ship to the terrorists. The plane eventually crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and both pilots survived.

7. A guide at the Pentagon provided medical assistance to the injured outside, and then returned to the still burning building.

Bo Doboshensky worked as a guide at the far end of the Pentagon building when an airplane flew into the building and did not even hear it. But Doboshensky, a former volunteer firefighter, volunteered after a navy captain requested someone with medical training.

“Specialist Bo Doboshenski was the tour guide that morning, at the far end of the building,” Joe Biden said at the 10th anniversary of 11/XNUMX. “In fact, he was so far away that he didn’t even hear the plane crash.” He could have gone home - no one would have judged him.”

Doboshensky walked around the building, trying to get to the crash site, but was stopped by the police. In the end, he went around the barricades to get to the medical sorting station, and helped provide first aid to many victims. After that, he joined a team of six, which returned to find survivors, while the building was still on fire.

“When people started coming out of the building and screaming, he ran toward the crash,” Biden said. “For several hours, he bounced between treating his colleagues and rushing into hell with a team of six.”

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