![]() He told her to tell his wife, Lisa, pregnant with their third child, he loved his family. He asked her to recite The Lord's Prayer with him. Todd Beamer, strong, competitive, athletic, traveling on business to San Francisco, told Jefferson of the plan to rush the cockpit. Here was an “independent ear witness” recalling the final moments of his life, giving the Beamers some answers that have eluded so many other 9/11 families, affirming what they already knew about their loved one. During that race across the country, he learned of the in-flight call between his son and GTE Airfone supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Then in California, David Beamer drove coast to coast - airlines were grounded - to a New Jersey church for the memorial service for his 32-year-old son. Still, the passengers continued their assault.Īt 10:03 a.m., the plane hurtled, almost upside-down, into a field in western Pennsylvania at 580 mph, killing all 33 passengers and seven crew members on board and leaving a crater of scorched earth some 20 minutes of flying time from its presumed target in Washington. As passengers stormed the cockpit, the hijackers tried to knock them off balance by steering the plane sharply to the left and right.Ī cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of fighting, shouting, breaking glass and plates. Capitol or the White House, the 9/11 Commission later determined. The four hijackers on Flight 93 likely intended to crash the Boeing 757 into the U.S. “And namely to fight back, to launch this successful counterattack.” “It was a call to action, to do the right thing,” David Beamer said. He'll leave a note of thanks on the windshield of the car because whoever owns it remembers his son's resolve. “Are you guys ready?” an air phone operator heard Beamer, a Wheaton College graduate, ask his fellow passengers on United Flight 93 just before they revolted against al-Qaida hijackers that morning 20 years ago.īeamer's father, David, sometimes comes across the same two words on a license plate. His son's last known words have been stamped on fire trucks and police cars, hockey helmets and the nose of an F-16 jet.Ī Washington state school that has no affiliation to Todd Beamer bears his name and adopted as its motto the phrase he uttered on Sept. A tribute to Todd Beamer, inset, at his alma mater Wheaton College is a bas-relief sculpture based off a photograph taken by Lisa Beamer of her husband and their two sons, David and Drew.
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