Betty Ann Ong was born on February 5, 1956 in San Francisco, and she was of Cantonese descent. At the time of her death, Ong lived in Andover, Massachusetts. On September 11, 2001, Ong assigned herself to Flight 11, so she could return to Los Angeles and go on vacation to Hawaii with her sister. During the hijacking, she used a telephone card to call American Airlines' operations/Raleigh reservations center, from the plane's rear galley; identified herself and alerted the supervisor that the aircraft had been hijacked. Along with fellow flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, she relayed a report of the seat numbers of three hijackers. During her Airfone call, she reported that none of the crew could contact the cockpit nor open its door, a passenger and two flight attendants had been stabbed, and that she thought someone had sprayed Mace in the business class cabin.
Legacy
On September 21, 2001, some 200 members of the Chinese American community in San Francisco gathered in a small park to pay tribute to Ong. Mayor of San FranciscoWillie Brown, who was present, gave a proclamation honoring the people who died in the tragedy and called September 21 "Betty Ong Day". In 2002, the first recipients of the annual Madeline Amy Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery were Sweeney and Ong. In March 2002, Ong's remains were recovered and identified. She was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. In 2011, the recreation center in San Francisco's Chinatown where she had played as a child was renamed in her honor, as the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center. Ong's name is included in the 9/11 Memorial, which was dedicated on September 11, 2011. 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. The Betty Ann Ong Foundation is a non-profit public charity, which "serves to educate children to the positive benefits of lifelong physical activity and healthy eating habits and to provide opportunities for children to experience the great outdoors so that they can grow to become healthy, strong and productive individuals." Ong was played by Jean Yoon in the miniseriesThe Path to 9/11, and she is portrayed in a prominent role in episode two of Zero Hour. An extensive clip from Ong's call to headquarters was used for the beginning of the 2012 filmZero Dark Thirty. The clip was used without attribution, and without the consent of Ong's family and the airline. They requested that Sony Pictures Entertainment, the film's U.S. distributor, make a charitable donation in her name, credit her onscreen, state the Ong family does not endorse torture on its website and in home entertainment versions of the film, and acknowledge these things during the 85th Academy Awards ceremony.
Phone call
The following is a transcript of the eight-minute and 26-second conversation between Ong, American Airlines' operations/Raleigh reservations, Nydia Gonzalez and American Airlines' emergency line. It begins with Ong in mid-sentence, her voice audible during only its first four minutes.
