“Courage, kindness, compassion,” Chew told The Post of Betty. It turned out the two had met a month before at a local bowling alley. Courtesy of the Ong familyīetty and another motorist immediately pulled over to help.“‘I know you! I know you!’”Jo Ellen Chew, the Honda’s driver, recalled Betty telling her. Nearly a decade later, in 1987, Betty was driving on US 101, south of San Francisco, when she saw a Honda get clipped by a speeding pickup and roll over twice.īetty Ong and her sisters Cathie and Gloria during a trip to China in 1980. ![]() They turned over the money and the robbers left. All she said was, ‘Dad, we’re being robbed.’” “Betty was out in front and had a gun held to her head. “One day the store was being held up,” Cathie said. Instead, the then-22-year-old pitched in at her parents’ beef jerky factory, where signs of her steely nerves emerged. With her slim figure and pretty face, Betty was once approached about modeling, but their mother frowned upon it. Sisters in NY’s Finest recall losing their NYPD father on 9/11.How 9/11 hero flight attendant Betty Ong identified her plane’s hijackers.9/11 widow describes ‘life after the nightmare’.Firefighters honor legacy of their FDNY parents killed on 9/11. ![]() 11,” Cathie Ong-Herrera, one of Betty’s two older sisters, told The Post, “and it’s very hurtful when you think about what’s going on today.”īetty, whose mother emigrated from China, was born in San Francisco and was the youngest of four siblings.įollow our 9/11 20th Anniversary coverage here: “My sister gave her life for her country on Sept. But the contribution of Betty, a Chinese American, shines even brighter 20 years later, amid a surge in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. Many of the 25 flight attendants murdered on 9/11 showed tremendous courage. Flight attendant Betty Ong alerted ground staff that American Airlines Flight 11 was being hijacked on Sept. Pray for us.” Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 a.m. We also know that they sprayed Mace - which was prohibited on flights - and that passengers huddled in coach to escape the toxic fumes as the plane flew erratically toward the NYC skyline.Īuthorities were able to quickly identify the five hijackers because Betty and fellow attendant Madeline Sweeney relayed the seat numbers of the men. Thanks to Betty’s furtive phone call, the world knows that terrorists critically wounded flight attendants Karen Martin and Bobbi Arestegui, slit the throat of business-class passenger Daniel Lewin, and “jammed their way” into the cockpit, where they likely killed co-pilots John Ogonowski and Thomas McGuinness Jr.
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