11 September 2001 marked the most deadliest terror attack in US history, taking the lives of 2,977 people.
The whole world stood still when 19 terrorists hijacked four aircrafts, which saw American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crash into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City.
Almost simultaneously, American Airlines Flight 77 – initially heading for the White House – crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile, United Airlines Flight 93 was flying towards the capital before it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Not a single person from all four flights survived.
Audio recordings from the flights have since emerged from that fateful day, providing people with a terrifying insight into what it was like for those onboard the hijacked planes.
11 September 2001 marked the deadliest terror attack in US history (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
One of the recordings picked up was that from Todd Beamer, an account manager for the Oracle Corporation who lived in Cranbury, New Jersey.
He was aboard United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that would go on to crash in a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The account manager tried to place a credit card call through an in-flight telephone, but was instead routed to a customer-service representative, before being connected to a supervisor named Lisa Jefferson.
He told her that a passenger had been killed by a hijacker, before being told by the flight attendant that the pilot and co-pilot had been forced out of the cockpit and were possibly wounded.
Todd Beamer tried his best to get help while onboard the doomed flight (9/11 Memorial and Museum)
Jefferson then heard Beamer’s panic when the plane suddenly turned in a southeasterly direction, later telling her that that some of the plane’s passengers planned to ‘jump on’ the hijackers.
The supervisor said that Beamer’s last audible words were: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.”
His line became so iconic that it would later become the war cry for American soldiers that would fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the years following.
It was widely believed that passengers onboard purposely crashed the airliner to save the lives of those on the ground, however the 9/11 Commission’s findings – which is based on the ‘black box’ cockpit recordings – revealed that the passengers of Flight 93 did not intentionally do this.
It is believed the passengers of United Airlines flight 93 burst into the cockpit to take control of the plane (BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)
The passengers actually burst into the cockpit and fought with the terrorists over control of the plane.
Unfortunately, the plane crashed into a field and killed everyone onboard, but nobody on the ground.
A post office in Cranbury, New Jersey, was named after Beamer, as well as the Todd Beamer high school in Federal Way, Washington. Wheaton College also named a building after the hero, calling it the Todd M. Beamer Student Center.
A national hero, Beamer is often credited with helping to save the US capital from any further damage, though the efforts of everyone on board Flight 93 have been commended.
