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A 9/11 flight attendant’s final words revealed what she saw moments before the plane hit the World Trade Center.
Madeline Amy Sweeney, a 35-year-old mother of two, was working aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when hijackers seized control of the aircraft shortly after it left Boston's Logan International Airport.
Sweeney managed to get on the phone with an American Airlines manager on the ground and calmly described what was happening on the fateful flight.
Sweeney worked for American Airlines for 12 years and usually took weekend shifts so she could spend more time with her family in Acton, Massachusetts, during the week.
She was one of nine flight attendants on the aircraft when it departed Logan International Airport at 7:45AM.
The plane, which was carrying 81 passengers, took off without incident, but investigators believed the hijackers seized control within approximately 15 minutes.
Sweeney called American flight services manager Michael Woodward at Logan and remained composed as she relayed what she could see happening around her.
"This plane has been hijacked," she said, according to an FBI investigative report, cited by LA Times.
She reported that two flight attendants, whom she identified by their crew numbers, had already been stabbed.
"A hijacker also cut the throat of a business-class passenger, and he appears to be dead," she added.
Investigators identified the five suspected hijackers aboard Flight 11 as Satam Al Suqami, Waleed M. Alshehri, Wail Alshehri, Mohamed Atta, and Abdulaziz Alomari.
They were among the 19 hijackers involved in the coordinated attacks and were believed to have used box cutters, razors and small knives concealed in cigarette lighters to take control of the four planes.
Sweeney apparently saw four of the five men and told Woodward all four appeared to be Middle Eastern and said three had been sitting in business class, adding that "one spoke English very well".
Despite the chaos around her, she was able to give the seat numbers of four suspected hijackers in the ninth and 10th rows.
Investigators later noted that some of those numbers did not match the seats assigned to the hijackers on their purchased tickets.
As Sweeney continued giving Woodward information, the hijackers were moving toward the front of the aircraft and "had just gained access to the cockpit".
The flight attendant tried to contact the cockpit but received no response.
The pilot was also reportedly trying to alert authorities to what was happening by discreetly clicking his radio transmission button.
Then Flight 11 suddenly changed direction and began rapidly losing altitude.
Woodward asked Sweeney if she could determine where the aircraft was.
Her response revealed what she could see outside: "I see water and buildings. Oh my God! Oh my God!" and then the call then ended.
Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center shortly afterward.
FBI officials in Dallas, where American Airlines was based, assembled a partial transcript and account of Sweeney's call on the day of the attacks.
One official familiar with the call later described how composed the flight attendant remained.
"She was very, very composed, very detailed. It was impressive that she could do that," they said.
The September 11 attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people, as well as the 19 terrorists, while more than 150,000 responders and survivors have been left with ongoing health issues.
After Flight 11 struck the North Tower, a second hijacked plane crashed into the South Tower. A third hit the Pentagon in Virginia, while the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to fight back.
Now, 25 years later, New Yorkers are again gathering to remember those who were killed and the people who tried to save others.
On the eve of the anniversary, more than 100 people participated in Manhattan's Children of Abraham Peace Walk, an interfaith event established a year after the attacks.
The walk stopped at Christian, Jewish and Muslim places of worship, beginning at Hebrew Union College, continuing to Judson Church, and finishing at the Islamic Center of New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the final stop, where he paid tribute to the first responders "who rushed towards horror so that others could rush towards home".
He also remembered FDNY Chaplain Mychal Judge, the first recorded death on September 11.
"[Judge] prayed over the bodies that lay in the street before entering the North Tower. Even as the towers began to collapse around, he refused to leave," he said. "He died in full embrace of faith."
"That faith, that pure expression of love was extraordinary…it was in many ways the light that New Yorkers showed in our city’s darkest hours," he added.
