The crew and passengers of United Airlines Flight 175
On the morning of September 11 2001, United Airlines Flight 175 was flying to Los Angeles from Boston, and was hijacked by Islamic terrorists. Shortly after taking off it was deliberately flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre, New York.
There were no survivors.
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 175 PASSENGERS
Mother and daughter, Ruth Magdaline McCourt, 45, and Juliana Valentine McCourt, 4, were passengers on Flight 175. They lived in New London, Connecticut. Ruth McCourt was the founder of Clifford Classique, a day spa business in Boston. Ruth was travelling with Juliana and a friend on a week-long pleasure trip to Los Angeles the trip was to include a surprise vist to Disneyland for Juliana. They were to meet up at LA airport with Juliana's godmother, Paige Farley-Hackel. The best of friends, Ruth and Paige had originally planned to fly from Boston together but Paige decided to take advantage of her frequent-flyer miles and took American Airlines Flight 11 instead. Flight 11 was also hijacked and flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Born Ruth Clifford in County Cork, Eire, her family emigrated to America in 1973. Ruth was the only girl of 6 children, her brother Ron said Ruth was the peacemaker amongst them, "She was always the one to sit down and negotiate with us when there was conflict in the family. She was the one who could find a place for us to agree."
In a remarkable coincidence Ron Clifford witnessed the events of that day in New York. On a business trip, he was about to enter the WTC complex when the first plane struck the North Tower. In the lobby of the Marriot Hotel he heard "an incredible explosion" and smelled the pungent odor of aviation fuel.
"It created an immediate haze, engulfing everything," he recalled. Through that haze, Clifford saw someone coming in through the revolving doors that he had passed through just moments before.
"She was ghastly white, " he said. "Her clothes were gone except from her front, where her sweater was welded to her chest. Her arms were completely swollen, her hair melted away."
Ron Clifford grabbed a fresh garbage bag from the men's room, filled it with water and doused the woman. "She said, 'Holy Mary, Mother of God,'" he recalled, "and I knew she was Catholic, so we said some prayers."
That badly burned lady was Jennieann Maffeo of Brooklyn, a 40-year-old senior associate in systems development at UBS PaineWebber. Ron Clifford and others aided Ms Maffeo and stayed with her until she was evacuated by ambulance. She had been standing on the sidewalk and doused with burning jet fuel. She died 6 weeks later.
As Ron Clifford made his way to Battery Park and caught the ferry on his journey home he thought of his sister and phoned his family. Knowing that she was headed to Los Angeles for a few days' vacation, and knowing the first plane commandeered in the attack was an American Airlines jet, he was relieved to discover Ruth, 45, and 4-year-old Juliana were on a United flight.
But to be sure, his family checked with officials at Boston's Logan Airport, where the hijacked flights originated.
Their worst fears came true with word that their loved ones' plane was the second jet to hit the towers.
"My brother-in-law is still trying to process it all," Clifford said. "He says things are OK until he closes his eyes and visions of their life together float in his mind."
The whole family gathered, as it always does in times of joy and sorrow, at the McCourts' home in New London, Connecticut.
"My daughter is trying to figure this all out," he said. "When we came to visit, she stayed with her in (Juliana's) bedroom, a picture-perfect bedroom with beautiful twin beds. And now one is empty," he added, choking over the words.
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