Last Words: Todd Beamer

“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.”

- Todd Beamer (1968-2001)

Todd Beamer was a passenger on the hijacked 9/11 United Airlines Flight 93.

During the hijacking in 2001, he and other passengers communicated with people on the ground via in-plane phones and mobile phones. From this, they learned of the other hijackings and planes having been flown into the World Trade Centre buildings. Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of the plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.

Beamer asked the operator to tell his wife and two sons that he loved them, and that some of the plane's passengers were planning to "jump on" the hijackers and force the plane into the ground rather than to allow it to be crashed into a building.

According to Jefferson, Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."

There is widespread speculation that Beamer and the other passengers intended to use a wheeled food cart to break open the cockpit door and attack the hijackers.  A short time after the final call, the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 on board.

Todd Beamer’s daughter, Morgan Kay Beamer, was born on 10 January 2002. Morgan was Todd Beamer’s middle name.