| Todd Beamer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Todd Morgan Beamer November 24, 1968 Flint, Michigan |
| Died | September 11, 2001 (aged 32) Shanksville, Pennsylvania |
| Cause of death | Plane crash |
Todd Morgan Beamer (November 24, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was one of the passengers who attempted to foil the hijacking and reclaim the aircraft, which crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.[1][2]
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Beamer attended Los Gatos High School, Wheaton Academy, DePaul University, California State University, Fresno and Wheaton College. In September 2001, he was an account manager for Oracle and resided in Cranbury, New Jersey, with his wife, Lisa Beamer, and two sons, David and Drew. Beamer and his wife taught Sunday school at their church for six years. His daughter, Morgan Kay, was born on January 9, 2002, approximately four months after Beamer's death.
After United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked, Beamer and other passengers communicated with people on the ground via airphones and cell phones, and learned that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked using hijacked airplanes.
Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to GTE 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. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a southeasterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning to "jump on" the hijackers and fly the plane into the ground before the hijackers' plan could be followed through. Beamer also recited The Lord's Prayer with Jefferson. According to Jefferson, Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Okay, let's roll."[3]
At least five facilities have been named for Beamer: a post office in Cranbury where he resided; the Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way, Washington; the Todd M. Beamer Student Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, and Todd Beamer Park in Fresno, California.
The Cranbury post office was dedicated to Beamer on May 4, 2002, as a result of an Act of Congress authored by Congressman Rush D. Holt, Jr.. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush.[4]
Beamer was posthumously awarded with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2002.
At the National 9/11 Memorial, Beamer and other passengers from Flight 93 are memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-68.[5]
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