How a phone call from hijacked Flight 93 saved US Capitol on 9/11

In California's San Ramon, Deena Burnett was watching the horror unfold on live television on September 11, 2001, with her five-year-old twin daughters and a three-year-old daughter beside her. Two planes, hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists had slammed into New York's World Trade Center (WTC), sending tremors across the United States. But for Deena, the horror on screen was painful, and also personal. Her husband, Tom Burnett, a top executive with a medical-device company, was also somewhere in the sky, on that Sunday morning.Soon, reports came that the two planes that had struck the WTC might not be the only hijacked aircraft. At around 9.10 am, Deena started to call Tom's mobile phone, desperate to know where he was. There was no answer. Each unanswered call made the fear harder to contain. Tom was on a flight returning home from a business trip in New York.Then, at 9.27 am, Deena's phone rang. When she looked at the screen, she saw Tom's number. She picked up. Her first words were instinctive, "Are you OK?"Tom's answer turned Deena's worst fear into reality. "No, I'm not. I'm on an airplane that has been hijacked. They just knifed a guy." That call from United Airlines Flight 93 would become one of the most consequential phone conversations of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Tom learnt that other planes had struck the World Trade Center and then helped lead a passenger revolt that prevented Flight 93 from reaching its intended target, which is said to have been either the White House or the US Capitol.Friday marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the deadliest terrorist attack in history, which killed 2,977 people. The attacks reshaped the world, triggering the US-led war on terror, which transformed global security, aviation rules and more.On this anniversary, we revisit what unfolded aboard one of the four aircraft hijacked by al-Qaida that morning 25 years ago. How Tom and his fellow passengers, after learning what had happened in New York and realising that their plane might be used as a weapon, mounted a desperate fight against the hijackers.Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10.03 am, killing all 40 passengers and crew members. But their decision to fight back is widely credited with preventing the aircraft from striking either the US Capitol or the White House. The story of Flight 93 remains one of the most tragic and dramatic chapters of September 11, 2001. For Deena, however, it is the story of the final hours of her husband.In a 2021 interview with US outlet StyleBlueprint, Deena recalled the ordeal and spoke about how she continues to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial every year to meet Tom.On that September morning, a phone call connected a frightened wife thousands of miles away to a husband trapped aboard a hijacked aircraft. What happened after that call would help change the course of the deadliest day in modern US history, thwarting a likely attack on the heart of the US government.If you are wondering how Tom's cellphone connected at that certain altitude, official records indicate that it did not. He tried, but failed. Then, Tom used a seatback Airfone, which connected the aircraft to the ground telephone network through radio signals. Deena, however, recalled seeing his mobile number on caller ID, and the discrepancy between her account and the official records remains unexplained. Tom Burnett, his wife Deena Burnett, and their five-year-old twin daughters. (Image: Danee Brunett) HOW AL-QAIDA MANAGED TO CARRY A DEADLY ATTACK USING 4 PASSENGER FLIGHTS IN USThe 9/11 attacks were not the result of a single security failure. They exposed a chain of vulnerabilities across airport screening, intelligence sharing, immigration controls, cockpit security and the US military's response to hijacked aircraft. The 9/11 Commission later found that the aviation security system was built around an "older understanding of what a hijacking meant". Hijackers were expected to take hostages and negotiate, not use aircraft as suicide weapons.Khalid Sheikh Mohammed devised the 9/11 plot, while al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden approved the operation. The 19 hijackers exploited weaknesses in the system and boarded four flights from three US airports. Nine of the 19 hijackers were flagged by the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System, but it only led to closer checks of their luggage, not personal searches. Nor were they denied boarding.Once airborne, small teams of hijackers seized control of the aircraft using knives, irritants and threats of bombs. They had been trained to storm the cockpit quickly.The strategy of the terrorists exploited another major weakness of the US. For decades, US aviation authorities had followed a policy of cooperating with hijackers, keeping passengers alive and allowing authorities to intervene after landing. The possibility of a suicide hijacking was not central to that approach.Four aircraft were then turned into weapons. American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York at 8.46 am, followed 17 minutes later by United Airlines Flight 175, which was used to strike the WTC's South Tower. Both 110-storey buildings eventually collapsed.American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon near Washington DC, killing people inside the building and aboard the aircraft. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back against the hijackers.According to the 9/11 Commission report, "Flight 93 was either headed towards the US Capitol or the White House in Washington."The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people, excluding the 19 al-Qaida hijackers, according to a report in The New York Times. All 246 people aboard the four aircraft died, along with 2,606 people in and around the World Trade Center and 125 at the Pentagon. Thousands more were injured, while many first responders and survivors later developed critical illnesses linked to the toxic dust and smoke.All the attacks took place in less than two hours. The third hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC, while the fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, was believed to be headed for the US Capitol or the White House. (Image: US Air Force) HUSBAND IN HIJACKED PLANE, WIFE'S ONE DETAIL FROM HOME CHANGED WHOLE SCENERIOThe morning of September 11, 2001, had already become a nightmare for Deena before she knew, her husband, Tom, was trapped aboard a hijacked aircraft. At their home, she was watching the TV coverage with her daughters. Three hijacked planes had done the damage. The attacks were unprecedented, and the whole country was in shock.Reports of more flights being hijacked were beginning to emerge, but Deena did not initially know that Tom Burnett, who was returning from New York, was on one of the hijacked aircraft.Tom had changed his travel plans and boarded United Airlines Flight 93, bound for San Francisco. He had not told Deena that he was taking an early flight. When she tried calling his mobile phone, there was no answer.Deena, in 'Fighting Back: Living Life Beyond Ourselves', a book she co-authored, recalled that she "initially did not find the unanswered call alarming. This was not cause for immediate concern, because if he was on a flight already, use of cell phones was forbidden".Then, at around 9.27 am, her phone rang. It was Tom. "Are you OK?" Deena asked."No, I'm not. I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked," Tom replied."Tom told me, 'Yes, yes, just listen. Our airplane has been hijacked. It's United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. We are in the air. The hijackers have already knifed a guy. One of them has a gun. They're telling us there's a bomb on board. Please call the authorities'," Deena wrote in her book. Honouring the courage of the passengers and crew of Flight 93, a chain-link fence adorned with flags, hats, rosaries and other items served as a temporary memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Image: National Archives) HOW DEENA'S WARNING REVEALED THE HIJACKERS' SUICIDE MISSIONDeena immediately called 911 (the emergency number in the US) and was eventually connected with authorities. She was given questions to ask Tom during subsequent calls. But she did not want to waste the limited time she had with him. Instead, she began writing down everything he told her.New York-based sports journalist, Jere Longman, in his book 'Among the Heroes: United Flight 93' and the 'Passengers and Crew Who Fought Back', described how the calls from Flight 93 began providing people on the ground with a window into what was unfolding inside the aircraft.Tom called Deena again around 9.34 am. He told her that the man who had been stabbed was dead and that he had tried to help him but could not find a pulse. Then Deena gave Tom information that would change his understanding of what was happening inside Flight 93 and became a turning point."Tom, they are hijacking planes all up and down the East coast," she told him. "They are taking them and hitting designated targets. They've already hit both towers of the World Trade Center."Tom began to understand what the terrorists intended."They're talking about crashing this plane," he told her, according to the book. "Oh my gosh! It's a suicide mission," said Tom.The call ended with Tom telling Deena that they were over a rural area and that he had to go. For Deena, the television images and the voice of her husband had now become inseparable. The horror she had been watching from thousands of miles away was unfolding in front of Tom. A marker at the temporary memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, honours the passengers and crew of Flight 93, which was hijacked on September 11, 2001. (Image: National Archives) HOW FLIGHT 93 PASSENGERS FOILED PLANS OF 9/11 HIJACKERSBy the time Tom called again, the passengers of Flight 93 had begun piecing together what was happening. At around 9.45 am, Deena had watched television coverage of the Pentagon being struck. For a moment, she feared that Tom's aircraft might have been the plane involved. When they spoke again, she told Tom, "They just hit the Pentagon."She also told him that reports indicated that five planes had been hijacked, with one still on the ground.Tom asked about the possibility that the bomb claimed by the hijackers was real. But, according to Deena's account in her book, he had begun to doubt their threat. "I don't think they have one," he told her. "I think they're just telling us that for crowd control."Then came the words that marked the beginning of the passengers' decision to fight against the hijackers."They're talking about crashing this plane into the ground. We have to do something. I'm putting a plan together," Tom said.He told Deena that several people were helping him and that "there's a group of us [passengers]."Deena, in her book, wrote that "Tom sounded as though he was sitting at his desk, and we were having a regular conversation."The passengers were no longer simply trying to understand what had happened. They were discussing how to take back the aircraft. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004, hijacked Flight 93 was intended to hit the US Capitol. (Image: Reuters) WHAT HAPPENED AFTER TOM BURNETT'S FINAL CALL TO HIS WIFE?In the final call, around 9.54 am, Tom asked Deena if there was anything new. He asked about their children and told her to tell them he would talk to them later. Then he explained what the passengers were preparing to do."We're going to take back the airplane," Tom said. "If they're going to crash this plane into the ground, we're going to have to do something. We can't wait for the authorities.""Don't worry. I'll be home for dinner. I may be late, but I'll be home," Tom added.The passengers had learnt that the hijackers were likely taking the plane towards Washington DC.At 9.57 am, the passengers and surviving crew members began their assault on the hijackers. The cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of the struggle. The sounds of thumps, crashes, shouting and breaking objects, as the passengers tried to force their way into the cockpit to attack the hijackers were captured, noted the 9/11 Commission report.Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker-pilot, violently manoeuvred the aircraft in an attempt to stop them. But the passengers kept coming. At 10.00 am, the cockpit recorder captured Jarrah asking whether they should finish it. Minutes later, as the struggle intensified, the aircraft rolled and plunged towards the ground.At 10.03 am, Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 passengers and crew members on board. The aircraft never reached its destination or the one the terrorists had intended.The 9/11 Commission later concluded that Jarrah's objective was to crash the aircraft into a symbol of the American Republic. That would either be the US Capitol or the White House. The passengers, alerted to the wider attacks through calls from the aircraft, had fought back before the hijackers could reach that target.For Deena, however, the story was never about the target the passengers prevented from being hit. It was about a phone ringing in a California home, a husband trapped thousands of miles away, and a final conversation in which Tom told his wife that he was going to fight for his life.- EndsPublished By: Avinash KateelPublished On: Sep 11, 2026 07:00 IST