Trade Centre plane passengers 'tried to fight back'

Passengers on one of the jetliners that crashed into the World Trade Centre tried to fight back against the hijackers, it emerged today.

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, 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.

“He always stated that family came first and in the face of death he called me, he called his mother, and the next priority was trying to save everyone around him.

“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.

Until now, it was not known that other passengers may have tried to prevent the terrorists hitting their targets on the fateful day, except those on flight 93.

After hearing via mobile phones about the attacks on the twin towers, passengers on that plane decided to take on their hijackers.

The aircraft crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, averting a second possible strike on Washington.

It is thought that flight 93 may have been targeted at the White House or congressional Capitol Building in the capital.