- Betty Ong
Betty Ann Ong (Chinese: 鄧月薇;
5 February 1956 –11 September 2001 ), born inSan Francisco was an AmericanFlight attendant on boardAmerican Airlines Flight 11 when it was flown into the North Tower of theWorld Trade Center as part of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Biography
Ong was born to Harry Ong Senior and Yee-gum Oy. She grew up in San Francisco's Chinatown and graduated from George Washington High School. Her family owned a grocery store on Jackson Street. Ong was the youngest of her surviving siblings: sisters, Cathie Ong Herrera, Gloria Ong Woo and brother Harry Ong.
Betty started her career as a flight attendant in 1987. Her professionalism and hard work later earned her the position of a purser, a head flight attendant.
On September 11, Ong assigned herself to Flight 11, so she could return to
Los Angeles and go on vacation toHawaii with her sister. During the hijacking, Ong called in to American Airlines emergency, she identified herself and alerted the supervisor that the aircraft had been hijacked. Along with fellow flight attendant,Madeline Amy Sweeney , she relayed seat numbers of the hijackers. During her 23-minute call, she reported that none of the crew could open thecockpit door, two flight attendants and a passenger had been injured and one of the hijackers had sprayed irritant in the first class cabin. [ [http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/911-ong-tape.htm The Memory Hole > Betty Ong's Call from 9/11 Flight 11 ] ]On September 21, 2001, some 200 members of the Chinese American community in San Francisco, gathered in a small park to pay tribute to the much loved member of their community. Mayor Willie Brown, who was present, gave a proclamation honoring the people who died in the tragedy and called September 21 "Betty Ong Day". [See the link: [http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Sept04/BettyOng092204.html "Pelosi: In Recognition of the Heroism of Betty Ong (September 22, 2004)".] ]
Ong is also memorialized on "Gold Mountain", a mural dedicated to Chinese contributions to American history on Romolo Place in North Beach, a street where she used to skateboard and play as a child, [cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/BAH0S2TVJ.DTL
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
title=S.F. mural depicting 9/11 flight attendant scarred by taggers
author=Jim Herron Zamora
date=2007-09-12
accessdate=2007-09-12] and a foundation named in her honor.Betty Ong was played by
Jean Yoon in the ABCminiseries "The Path to 9/11 ".References
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Tr0u35Tek&NR=1 Audio and Transcript of Betty Ong call to AA operations]
* [http://www.bettyong.org bettyong.org] - the Betty Ong Foundation.
* [http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/2001-09-11-FBI-FD302-betty-ong-transcript.pdf FBI source transcript of Betty Ong phone call (pdf)]
* http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/27/911.commis.call/
* http://www.asianweek.com/2001_09_28/news_betty_ong.html
* http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3910967
* http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2004-01-27-911-hearings_x.htm
* http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=3e34cc197d92d5417e98676ccb4a1af3
* http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=8
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