Passengers on Twin Towers jet tried to fight back
It had been thought that only passengers on Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, battled against the terrorists on September 11, 2001.
But Julie Sweeney told how her Gulf War veteran husband Brian telephoned his mother after his plane, United Airline Flight 175, was hijacked.
“I might have to hang up quickly, we’re going to try to do something about this,” he said in the call to his mother, Louise.
His widow told how his mother said: “OK, do what you have to do.”
It will probably never be known if the passengers on Flight 175 managed to attack the hijackers.
The aircraft struck the south tower of the World Trade Centre a few minutes after Mr Sweeney’s call to his mother.
Julie Sweeney recounted to the New York Daily News the conversation her husband, aged 38, had with his mother.
“She asked who they were and he said they were Middle Eastern.
“He could literally kill somebody with a twist of the neck. We could see him trying to do something about it.
“I believe he and other people on the plane were trying to do something, but I believe it was just too late.”
Navy lieutenant Mr Sweeney, who was an aeronautics consultant, was posthumously awarded the Defence of Freedom Medal, created by the Pentagon to honour department employees who died on September 11.
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