[b]Moments before the San Francisco-bound plane went down, businessman Thomas Burnett of San Ramon, Calif., called his wife, telling her he feared the flight was doomed but he and two other passengers planned to do something about it, the family’s priest told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Burnett, 38, was a father of three and chief executive of Thoratec Corp., a Pleasanton, Calif., medical devices company. In the call, he told his wife that one passenger had already been stabbed to death.
The Rev. Frank Colacicco, pastor of St. Isidore’s Catholic Church, said Burnett’s wife, Deena, told him Burnett said: “I know we’re all going to die - there’s three of us who are going to do something about it.” Then, the priest said, Burnett told his wife, “I love you, honey” and the call ended.
Authorities have not said whether an attempt by passengers to thwart the hijacking may have caused the plane to crash in the Pennsylvania countryside instead of hitting a high-profile target elsewhere. [/b]

God Bless him.  How many families are still together because of his heroism?  Give him a posthumous medal!

There are no words to describe the gift those men gave us.  I can only say God bless them for their sacrifice and bless their families.

God Bless Texas

balls made of tungsten carbide.......all three people.

Hopefully the cockpit voice recorder will shed some more light on what happened in the end.

Those three were definitely heros.  Their families should be proud to know that, while they accepted their own impending deaths, they were determined to change the course of the plane from its primany target.

Of course, there may have been others on the other planes too, who tried, but were unsuccessful in doing the same.   Maybe the cockpit recorders (if they are ever found) would shed more light on other fallen heroes.

ARnSC

GOD bless them!

If I knew I was going I would rather die by the hands of a hero than by the hands of a F'ing f*ck up for a human being.

those men had the the balls to stand up to terrorist and let them know they wernt going down without a fight.Have heard that there were about 55-60 people per flight with 4-5 as terrorist.Wonder what if more passengers got involved what would have happened.

The timeline I heard was that the first 3 planes crashed a while before this one did in PA.  That would allow for the pilot, and possibly anyone on board with a laptop hooked to one of those phones in the back of the seats, to know that planes were being hijacked and crashed.  I believe that people and the pilots of the other 3 planes would have done, and maybe tried to, the same thing if they had also had the time to be forwarned.

Pilots are tought to comply with hijackers.  The previous 3 pilots might have just given the controls over thinking that they were going to be hostages.  The people on this plane had time to learn that would not be the case and I believe that is why this plane did not hit its target.

My 2 cents.  Hopefully we will find out someday but I doubt it.

The only thing for sure is there was at least one hero on that plane, otherwise it would have hit something.  I hope we can find out someday, his (or her) bravery should be rewarded with, at the very least, praise to his family and his story, bravery and honor tought to our children.

Based upon the cell phone transmission, three men on that flight were ready to fight. The total number of victims on all four flights was 266.

It has also been reported that in one flight the victims were told they were going to die, and yet they apperently did not resist (or at least not enough of them did to make a difference).

More on the PA crash:

[url]http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/1m/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19050-2001Sep12.html[/url]

Previously posted by Threegunar:
"Pilots are tought to comply with hijackers. The previous 3 pilots might have just given the controls over thinking that they were going to be hostages. The people on this plane had time to learn that would not be the case and I believe that is why this plane did not hit its target."


I said close to the same thing to my wife last night. A cop NEVER gives up his gun, and a pilot should NEVER give up control of his plane. If the pilots were required to remain in the cockpit, not coming out for ANY reason, this would have been avoided. True, passengers would have been lost, but better a couple hundred innocent deaths than 10,000!  
I know hind sight is 20/20, and I don't mean to deminish the memory of these victims. I just think that there is a lesson to be learned here.