BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 On September 11, 2001, one phone call made Betty Ann Ong the first voice to alert the world of what was unfolding on Flight 11. But before that call, she was a daughter, a sister, a friend, a woman with a life of her own. Twenty-five years later, we\u2019re remembering the woman behind the voice.<\/p>\n
In a phone call made to the American Airlines Operations Center, 45-year-old Betty Ann Ong made this phone call:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cockpit’s not answering, somebody\u2019s stabbed in business class.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 23 minutes, Betty Ann Ong remained on the phone as panic and devastation unfolded around her.<\/p>\n
However even in those final moments, her instinct was to help others.<\/p>\n
She calmly gathered information, relayed critical details, and helped confirm the horrifying reality of what was happening onboard the plane.<\/p>\n
Continuing her call, Betty says,<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s mace\u2014 that we can\u2019t breathe. And I don\u2019t know I think we\u2019re getting hijacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betty was a flight attendant aboard Flight 11, the plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n
She was headed to Los Angeles, where her older sister, Cathie Herrera Ong, was waiting to see her. But Betty never made it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard from American Airlines and they did confirm that Betty was on the flight and I started crying and I asked my husband to pull off to the side of the road,\u201d said Cathie Ong.<\/p>\n
Cathie says at one point she overheard talks of a flight attendant making the call. Knowing her sister\u2019s character, she says she had no doubts Betty made the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a very caring person always wanted everyone to do well, very helpful, even back then she was really caring of others people children and we were really very proud of her for trying to help and get assistance,\u201d said Cathie Ong.<\/p>\n
Facing unimaginable loss, Cathie says she and her family decided to turn their grief into action, creating the Betty Ann Ong Foundation in her honor.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit Foundation provides community support, summer camps, and free shoe programs for young people and seniors, such as this recent event in the Greenfield school district.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetty had a deep care for children and for senior citizens and so I formed the Betty Ann Ong Foundation in 2004 and for the past 20 years we\u2019ve hosted and facilitated summer camps here in Bakersfield and also in surrounding communities,\u201d said Cathie Ong.<\/p>\n
This year, Betty Ann Ong would have turned 70 years old. While September 11th will always be remembered as a day of tragedy, her family wants people to remember more than the way she died, they want the world to remember the extraordinary life she lived and the courage, compassion, and legacy she left behind.<\/p>\n
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