By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 11, 2026 – Todd Beamer boarded United Airlines Flight 93 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, as a husband, father and businessman traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco.
He died an American hero.
Beamer was 32 years old. His wife, Lisa, was pregnant with their third child, and their two sons, David and Drew, were waiting for him at home.
After four al-Qaeda terrorists seized Flight 93 and turned the Boeing 757 east toward Washington, D.C., Beamer attempted to call his wife using an onboard telephone. Instead, he was connected with GTE Airfone supervisor Lisa Jefferson.
There is no recording or verbatim transcript of their conversation. What Americans know about the call comes primarily from Jefferson’s recollection and subsequent investigations. Some versions circulated online dramatize or reconstruct the exchange and should not be presented as an exact transcript.
But the essential facts are well documented. Beamer told Jefferson that the flight had been hijacked. The terrorists had knives, had forced the passengers toward the rear of the aircraft and claimed to possess a bomb. Beamer believed the bomb might be fake.
During the call, Beamer and the other passengers then learned that aircraft had struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They understood that theirs was not an ordinary hijacking and that Flight 93 was likely intended to become another weapon.
At least 10 passengers and two crew members communicated with people on the ground. Through those calls, they pieced together what was happening and made a decision: They would fight back.
Beamer told Jefferson that he and several others planned to overpower the terrorist guarding the cabin and then break into the cockpit. He asked Jefferson to contact his wife and tell her and their children that he loved them.
He then asked Jefferson to pray with him.
Together, they recited the Lord’s Prayer and words from Psalm 23: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
At 9:57 a.m., the passengers and surviving crew members began their assault. The cockpit voice recorder captured a sustained struggle as the terrorists violently rolled and pitched the aircraft in an attempt to throw the passengers off balance.
Jefferson remained on the line. The final words she heard Beamer say to those around him became one of the enduring expressions of American courage from that terrible day:
“Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 am, killing all 40 passengers and crew members, along with the four terrorists. The 9/11 Commission concluded that the passengers’ assault forced the hijackers to abandon their mission and crash the aircraft before it reached Washington. Investigators believe the likely target was the U.S. Capitol.
Beamer and the others aboard Flight 93 could not save themselves. But by acting together, they almost certainly saved many other lives.
Todd Beamer died a father, a husband and a hero. Twenty-five years later, America should still remember his name, his faith and his final act of courage.
Let’s never forget Todd Beamer. And let’s never forget the passengers and crew of Flight 93 who refused to remain pawns in the terrorists’ plot.
Read the The 9/11 Commission Report here.
8 thoughts on “Let’s roll: Remembering Todd Beamer, the father and husband who helped lead the revolt aboard Flight 93”
Still rolling after 25 years. God bless this man and the passengers who tried to save Flight 93. The best of Americans.
As an analogous shoutout to fellow Republicans who do not want the Democrats with their LGBTQ candidate to invade the governor’s office this November:
LET’S ROLL!
Seriously? You have to bring politics into a page to honor the victims on Flight 93? Bad form.
And he was a Christian man and the courage he had in the moment of crisis came through knowing the Word of God.
Unlike the effeminate men churches are building contrary to the Word of God builds bold and courageous men.
Religion weakens a man. God’s Words through Christ makes Him strong, bold. And courageous.
It took courage for those men and Todd to confront the terrorists and evidently take control over the plane despite it crash-landing in a field. But at least it never made its target.
That we could all muster that heroic spirit when it matters. Bless his immortal soul; bless his family; praise our lord Jesus Christ!
Amen.
Religion makes weak men. the Word of God makes strong, courageous, and bold men.
TPUSA is encouraging more men and women to get back to attending a church because it’s a good starting place. But church going doesn’t make any man strong, bold, and courageous like Him reading the Word of God and having solid bible teachers like Charlie Kirk pushed more for his listeners to go get a paperback bible and read it; while Charlie Kirk had Many teachers and mentors to keep on the right track and accountable.
🙏🙏🙏
The revolters never did breach the cockpit. They came close, using a food cart as a battering ram. They also overcame the terrorist guards who were positioned outside the cockpit. Once the terrorist pilots realized that the revolters were about to break down the cockpit door, they inverted the plane and drove it into the ground at over 550 mph. The final 31 minutes from Flt 93 CVR (transcripts) are available online. Interesting reading.