This makes my blood run cold

Wife of Solicitor General alerted him of hijacking from plane
September 11, 2001 Posted: 9:23 p.m. EDT (0123 GMT)


Barbara Olson was on board the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

By Tim O'Brien
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN.

A short time later the plane crashed into the Pentagon. Barbara Olson is presumed to have died in the crash.

Her husband said she called him twice on a cell phone from American Airlines Flight 77, which was en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles.

Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters.

She felt nobody was in charge and asked her husband to tell the pilot what to do.

Ted Olson notified the Justice Department command center immediately.

He told CNN that his wife had originally been booked on a flight Monday, but delayed her departure because Tuesday was his birthday and she wanted to be with him in the morning.

Barbara Olson was a former federal prosecutor and served as Chief Investigative Counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight during its probe into the Clinton Administration "Travelgate" scandal.

She had appeared frequently as a commentator on CNN.



can you imagine the helplessness her husband must of felt, and the absolute terror?!?!? Something like this is my worst nightmare, to get a call from a loved one and knowing they are on a crash course to die and being powerless to stop it

Oh you guys.....it must have been terrible, horrid, unbelievably shocking for those family members to hear those frantic phone calls...but like you said...they were brave to even attempt to make those calls, I don't know if I would have had the guts to try to use my cell phone, when faced with these killers on board.

I pray God has a special place for these brave people in heaven.

I tried not to cry all morning while reading the posts here but this one broke me.
I fear helplessness most of all and disasters have always been my worst nightmare because one's completely helpless. This one, however, was not caused by nature but by a handful of evil minded people. What sort of person could have done such a thing I wonder?
And I also wonder what purpose could the killing of thousands of innocent people serve??
I can't think of anything else but this all day.
My prayers are with all American people.

I have been in tears reading this thread,oh the poor people who listened to thier loved ones saying good-bye for the last time.


Yesterday evening I looked up to the sky,while a plane was passing by,it just made me think how can a few evil people on a plane cause such a tragedy.



Jackie

Aristocat,

I was feeding my cats last night when I got home from work. As I stood at the kitchen sink, I heard a plane fly over and thought the same thing you did. How bizarre.

I don't think I can ever look at a plane in the air again without a chill going through me. Yesterday someone asked me if this has changed my thoughts on flying. I said no. But after seeing all this stuff and watching time after time, the plane flying into the building, I can honestly say now that yes, I'm scared and will ALWAYS have a little fear in my mind, that up until yesterday, never crossed it.

Donna

I agree Donna....I have always loved flying, and have never thought twice about it.....but now....I don't know if I can ever step foot on a plane again.

I received this article from the Ananova alerting service today:

Man escaped tower as sister died on jet

A survivor fled the World Trade Centre as it was hit by a hijacked airplane which had his Irish sister and young niece on board.

Ronnie Clifford ran for his life after the first plane struck the twin towers in New York.

He escaped the second tower as it was hit by the United Airlines Boeing 767.

In a cruel twist, his sister Ruth McCourt, 45, and her four-year-old daughter Juliana were passengers on the second plane and died as he escaped.

All 266 passengers and crew on the four planes hijacked were believed to have been killed in the attacks, which have sent the world into shock.

Mrs McCourt, originally from The Lough, Cork, were among 56 passengers on the hijacked plane.

Mr Clifford's brother John told of the deaths and his brother's astonishing escape. John, also from Cork, said he began fearing for his sister and niece after discovering that his brother was safe.

"Tragically my sister hit the tower building as my brother was on the ground floor. He's safe now. He's very traumatised. He said he saw sights he would never see again. Very sad. Very evil, but he's safe," he said.

He continued: "I was very concerned when the two buildings collapsed, because I knew Ronnie worked in one.

"He phoned to say he made it, he was OK, traumatised, that he was within an inch of his life.

"He went through the front door on the ground floor and a lady was about three seconds in front of him. She was hit by a terrific fireball. She subsequently died.

"He said that unfortunately, while he was OK, he had a feeling that his sister - my sister - had left Logan Airport to go to Los Angeles with her daughter at around 7.30 in the morning. So we were then concerned that she may have been on either of the two flights that crashed into the towers, and that was confirmed."

Last updated: 15:54 Wednesday 12th September 2001

Copyright 2001 Ananova Ltd



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Oh, Joe, just when you think that you can't possibly hear anything more horrific and sad, you do. It just gets worse and worse.

I was thinking about the same thing tonight; I wouldn't call my loved ones & wouldn't want them to call me either in a situation like this ! (Even told my husband during the dinner tonight; "Don't call me & I won't call you if something similar happens") Even thinking about this is enough to ache my heart !

Before, I always wondered what people feel, think when planes go down & crash. Everything happens just in seconds & you are there, in that plane with your everything ! This is kind of a similar thing. Trying to imagine the situation is really depressing, sad enough for me.

Poor people in the plane & in the towers !

They never tell us about the nationality of these hijacker people on plane though ?? I mean, some passenger must have told it to someone by his/her cell phone ?? Were they talking English or some other language, how did they look like etc..It might affect the investigation though, and flare up some people, so that may be why they aren't telling us ??

This is just too sad. All this just because of a few cruel people.

This DOES just seem to get worse and worse as it unfolds!