NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Heartbreaking final words of September 11 victims and their desperate families

By Emma Reynolds
news.com.au·
11 Sep, 2018 02:29 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Depiction of what happened in America on September 11, 2001.

Moments before United Airlines Flight 175 smashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a passenger left a voicemail for the wife he'd left behind in Massachusetts.

"Jules, this is Brian. Listen, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked," said Brian Sweeney, a 38-year-old aeronautics consultant and former Navy pilot. "If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I just want you to know that I absolutely love you.

"I want you to do good, go have good times — same to my parents and everybody — and I just totally love you … and I'll see you when you get there.

"Bye babe. I hope I call you."

Mr Sweeney called his mother to say he loved her, and tell her the passengers were planning to fight back. "They might come back here," he said. "I might have to go. We are going to try to do something about this."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Three minutes later, the plane crashed into the top floors of the South Tower.

The voicemail is one of heart-wrenching final messages that visitors to New York's 9/11 museum can listen to through telephones fixed to the walls.

They are the last words of passengers, crew members and office workers who were among the 2996 killed when terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Their voices convey both the primal fear of the moment they realised they are likely to die, as well as a need to reassure and comfort loved ones.

They are perhaps the saddest recordings you will ever hear.

MELISSA DOI was a Northwestern University graduate who dreamed of becoming a ballerina, and worked as a manager at IQ Financial Systems. She called 911 from the 83rd floor of the South Tower, 2 World Trade Center.

Doi: It's very hot, I see … I don't see, I don't see any air any more!

Discover more

World

Mystery lingers: Did doctor use cover of 9/11 to disappear?

09 Sep 06:29 PM
Opinion

Ann Gluckman: I possibly flew with 9/11 hit squad

10 Sep 05:00 PM
World

Note of recognition for 9/11 passengers' bravery

10 Sep 05:00 PM
World

Aussie man's eerie comment before 9/11 disaster

11 Sep 06:29 AM

911: OK …

Doi: All I see is smoke.

Doi: OK dear, I'm so sorry, hold on for a sec, stay calm with me, stay calm, listen, listen, the call is in, I'm documenting, hold on one second please …

Doi: I'm going to die, aren't I?

911: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, say your — ma'am, say your prayers.

Doi: I'm going to die.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

911: You gotta think positive, because you gotta help each other get off the floor.

Doi: I'm going to die.

911: Now look, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.

Doi: Please God …

KEVIN COSGROVE was on 105th floor of the same building when he called emergency services from an office at 9.54am. The 46-year-old father of three was trapped in an office with co-worker Doug Cherry, trying to breathe through thick, black smoke.

Cosgrove: Lady, there's two of us in this office. We're not ready to die but it's getting bad.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

911: We're getting there.

Cosgrove: Doesn't feel like it man, I got kids.

Cosgrove: There's smoke really bad.

911: Sit tight and we'll get to you as soon as we can.

Cosgrove: I know you've got a lot in the building but we're up on the top. Smoke rises too. Come on, I can barely breathe now — can't see. It's really bad, it's black, it's arid. We're young men, not ready to die.

911: Hello?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Cosgrove: Hello … there's three of us, two broken windows … Oh God — oh!

His phone call ends abruptly, with screams and the sound of debris falling as the call cuts off.

MELISSA HARRINGTON HUGHES was only in New York for one day on business. She called her husband Sean in San Francisco.

"I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York," she said in her voicemail.

"There's lots of smoke and I just wanted you to know that I love you always."

CEECEE LYLES was a flight attendants working on board United Airlines Flight 93. When the plane was hijacked on September 11, the mother-of-four called home twice, but could not reach her police officer husband, who was sleeping after a night shift.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

United 93 was the plane on which passengers and crew decided to fight the hijackers, and it was during the clash that it crashed in Pennsylvania, just 200 kilometres northwest of Washington, DC.

It's believed they prevented an even worse tragedy, and many more lives being lost.

"Hi baby," Ms Lyles said in her voicemail. "I'm — baby, you have to listen to me carefully. I'm on a plane that's been hijacked. I'm on the plane, I'm calling from the plane.

"I want to tell you that I love you. Please tell my children that I love them very much. And I'm so sorry baby.

"I don't know what to say. There's three guys, they've hijacked the plane … we're turned around and I heard that there's planes that have been flown into the World Trade Center.

"I hope to see your face again, baby. I love you.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Bye."

BETTY ONG was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, the first plane to be hijacked. She phoned American Airlines reservations and Nydia Gonzalez, an operations agent, using a seat back Airfone at the back of the plane. These are extracts of the conversation.

Ong: The cockpit's not answering. Somebody's stabbed in business class, and um, I think there is mace that we can't breathe. I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked … my name is Betty Ong. I'm Number 3 on Flight 11.

AAL: Can you describe the person, that you said someone is what in business class?

Ong: I'm — I'm sitting in the back, somebody's coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second, they're coming back. (Inaudible) Anyone know who stabbed who?

Background: I don't know, but Karen and Bobby got stabbed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ong: Our — our Number 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Ah, nobody knows who stabbed who and we can't even get up to business class right now because nobody can breathe. Our Number 1 is — is stabbed right now. And our Number 5. Our first-class passenger that, first class galley flight attendant and our purser has been stabbed and we can't get to the cockpit, the door won't open. Hello? … Can anybody get up to the cockpit? We can't even get into the cockpit. We don't know who's up there.

AAL: Well if they were shrewd, they would keep the door closed, and —

Ong: I'm sorry?

AAL: Would they not maintain a sterile cockpit?

Ong: I think the guys are up there. They might have gone there — jammed their way up there, or something. Nobody can call the cockpit. We can't even get inside.

(American Airlines relays the information to an emergency line)

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

AAL: What's going on, Betty? Betty, talk to me. Betty, are you there? Betty? (Inaudible) Do you think we lost her? OK, so we'll like — we'll stay open. We — I think we might have lost her.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Mum Kathleen Folbigg to receive $2.2m payout after wrongful murder convictions

World

23 indicted over collapse of under-construction Bangkok high-rise

Premium
World

Staggering US tariffs begin on NZ goods as Trump widens trade war


Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Mum Kathleen Folbigg to receive $2.2m payout after wrongful murder convictions
World

Mum Kathleen Folbigg to receive $2.2m payout after wrongful murder convictions

She was wrongly imprisoned in Australia for 20 years for her children's deaths.

07 Aug 08:48 AM
23 indicted over collapse of under-construction Bangkok high-rise
World

23 indicted over collapse of under-construction Bangkok high-rise

07 Aug 08:19 AM
Premium
Premium
Staggering US tariffs begin on NZ goods as Trump widens trade war
World

Staggering US tariffs begin on NZ goods as Trump widens trade war

07 Aug 05:07 AM


Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’
Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

04 Aug 11:37 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP