From Lucianne

Flight 93 hero heard on black box

- - - - - - - - - - - - By Joann Loviglio

Sept. 16, 2001 | PHILADELPHIA (AP) --

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll!" is an expression Todd Beamer used whenever his wife and two young sons were leaving their home for a family outing.

The 32-year-old businessman and Sunday school teacher said the same thing before he and other passengers apparently took action against hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Tuesday, shortly before the plane crashed in a western Pennsylvania field.

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The jetliner, which government officials suspect was headed for a high-profile target in Washington, was the fourth to crash in a coordinated terrorist attack that killed thousands, and the only one that didn't take lives on the ground.

"He was gentle by nature, he was also very competitive, and he wouldn't stand for anyone being hurt," said Beamer's wife, Lisa, who was told of his last words by an operator who spoke to him. "Knowing that he helped save lives by bringing that plane down ... it brings joy to a situation where there isn't much to be found."

Todd Beamer placed a call on one of the Boeing 757's on-board telephones and spoke for 13 minutes with GTE operator Lisa D. Robinson, Beamer's wife said. He provided detailed information about the hijacking and -- after the operator told him about the morning's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks -- said he and others on the plane were planning to act against the terrorists aboard.

"They may have realized that (the hijackers) were planing to do the same thing with their plane," Beamer said Sunday in a telephone interview from her Hightstown, N.J., home. "So they chose to do what they could to prevent other people from being hurt."

Before the call ended and with yelling heard in the background, Todd Beamer asked the operator to pray with him. Together, they recited the 23rd Psalm. Then he asked Robinson to promise she would call his wife of seven years -- who is expecting a third child -- and their two sons, ages 1 and 3.

After receiving clearance from investigators, Robinson kept her promise Friday.

"People asked me if I'm upset that I didn't speak with him, but I'm glad he called (Robinson) instead," Lisa Beamer said. "I would have been helpless. And I know what his last words would have been to me, anyway."

Beamer said her husband placed the call at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday and told Robinson that there were three knife-wielding hijackers on board, one who appeared to have a bomb tied to his chest with a belt. The other two hijackers took over the cockpit after forcing the pilot and co-pilot out.

The jet was bobbing and changed course several times; the passengers knew they would never land in San Francisco.

"They realized they were going to die. Todd said he and some other passengers were going to jump on the guy with the bomb," Lisa Beamer said.

Several other passengers made phone calls from the jet before it crashed southeast of Pittsburgh: Jeremy Glick, 31; Mark Bingham, 31; and Thomas Burnett Jr. 38. Glick and Burnett said they were going to do something.

Todd Beamer dropped the phone after talking to Robinson, leaving the line open. It was then that the operator heard Beamer's words: "Let's roll."

Then silence.

Shortly afterwards, the plane crashed, killing all 45 aboard.

"Some people live their whole lives, long lives, without having left anything behind," Lisa Beamer said. "My sons will be told their whole lives that their father was a hero, that he saved lives. It's a great legacy for a father to leave his children."

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Answers

Now, where is that kleenex..I thought I was DONE... thanks, Beckie...I hadn't see this story yet. I suppose we will have more coming ...it is bitter sweet, you want to read them, and you want to just take a break for a few hours....then I think of the firefighters...they are NOT taking a break.....

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

I imagine there are many people wondering if they would have the same ability in that situation. I know I do. Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words.

Thanks for bringing this to share, Beckie. Maybe we can use that as our call to arms against the terrorists.

"Let's roll!"

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

http://www.internetnews.com/asp-news/article/0,,3411_884251,00.html

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) had planned to make only one announcement today, its much anticipated Q1 quarterly results. But now the world's second largest software company has become latest among several technology corporations to report the loss of one of its employees after Tuesday's terrorist attack on the United States.

Sales account manager Todd Beamer, 32, was among the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania after being hijacked as part of Tuesday's attack on U.S. landmarks, a company spokesman confirmed earlier today.

Beamer was Oracle's sales account manager for the mid-Atlantic region and lived in Plainsboro, New Jersey. He is father to two boys and his wife is due to give birth to a third child in January, said Oracle spokesman Mark Jarvis.

Beamer was a die-hard athlete and sports fan and a former basketball and baseball star at Los Gatos High School, where he graduated in 1987. There was no one he relished playing ball with, and watching Chicago Cubs baseball games with, more than his two sons, David, 3, and Drew, 1.

"He was an incredible dad, and he was fun," said his sister, Michele Beamer. "He was a kind and decent person. He was my big brother."

Meantime, the company continues to search for six consultants who were scheduled to be in the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks that reduced the landmark skyscrapers to rubble and left the Pentagon in flames.

With deep the concern for its employees, the company's scheduled Q1 earnings report still continued.

Oracle beat analyst earnings expectations with help from strong services sales and cost cuts, as it reported earnings earlier today that increased 2 percent to $510.6 million on revenue of $2.2 billion. Earnings per share increased to 9 cents compared with 8 cents in Q1 last year. The company announced earlier Thursday that it would postpone its analyst conference call scheduled with the company's management until at least Monday.

A memorial service for Beamer will be held Sunday afternoon at the Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro, Jarvis said

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001