The Poignant Last Words of a 9/11 Flight Attendant Reveal a Heroic Calm

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.

The World Trade Center was one of the targets on 9/11. Credit: Robert Giroux/Getty Flight 11 was hijacked shortly after takeoff 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 .