Dispatcher Talks About Flight 93 Phone Call

Shaw Talked With Man Locked In Bathroom


The Pittsburgh Channel
December 6, 2001
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/News/1106952/detail.html

 

GREENSBURG, Pa. -- A Westmoreland County 911 dispatcher who received a call from one of the passengers aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in Somerset County on Sept. 11, was honored Thursday for his efforts, WTAE-TV's Marcie Cipriani reported.

The passenger, whose name is not being released, called from a cell phone. He told 911 dispatcher John Shaw, 29, of Youngwood, Pa., that he was hiding in the bathroom of the hijacked plane.

Shaw (pictured, left) said he knew immediately that the man on the other end of the line was desperate.

"He told me he locked himself in the bathroom, he gave me the flight number and the tail number, everything he possibly could, and that the plane had been hijacked," Shaw said. "I told him to stay calm, I tried to get as much information off of him as possible in the shortest period of time."

Before Shaw could gather any more information about the hijackers, he said he heard something, but couldn't make out the noise. Then, just one minute after the call began, the line was dead.

"I got dead silence," Shaw said. "I was the last person that man talked to, without a doubt."

 

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