Black Gulf War Vet Co-Piloted Flight 93 That Thwarted Hijackers

Jet, Oct 8, 2001

When President George W. Bush speaks of heroes in the wake of the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, thoughts turn to the heroic passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93.

Among them was Black co-pilot Leroy Homer.

His wife, Melodie Homer of Marlton, NC, recently told Diane Sawyer of "Good Morning America" during an interview that she considers her 36-year-old husband, United Airlines pilot Leroy Homer, a "very brave man" who may have--along with others on the airliner--turned the tables on the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93.

The plane eventually crashed in an open plain near an old coal mine in Shanksville, PA, killing all 44 people aboard.

Passengers on the plane, which had left Newark, NJ, bound for San Francisco, made cell-phone calls during the flight and indicated that the pilots had been taken out of the cockpit. Some passengers planned to thwart the hijackers' plans.

And given his training, said Melodie to Sawyer, she believes Homer, along with passengers and crew, tried to stop the terrorists.

"He's a military man. He's very brave," she said of her husband, an Air Force Academy graduate and Gulf War veteran. "He would have done whatever he could do to not have that plane harm any more people."

Melodie told "Good Morning America" she became worried when she learned of the World Trade Center being struck by a United Airlines plane.

"I had called United and ... at that point they indicated to me that his flight was still on track. They said they would send him a message via the computer ... I just wanted to make sure that he was OK ...

"[But] one of his friends who also flies for United had seen something different on the news on the West Coast and actually called me and told me that he saw his flight number [had crashed in Pittsburgh]. At first I was upset, but then I calmed down because I figured based on the time he had taken off, he would have been way past Pittsburgh ... because he was on his way to San Francisco ... And then I saw [on TV] that his flight number had gone down in Pittsburgh."

Melodie says she doesn't regret not hearing from her husband before the crash because she believes that "in my heart, a pilot is not going to call his family on his cell phone during a crisis. But I believe he was able to aid in that plane not hurting more people."