Editing American Airlines Flight 77 (section)

===Calls===
Two people on board the aircraft made a total of three phone calls to contacts on the ground. At 09:12, flight attendant Renee May made a phone call lasting just under two minutes to her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas.<ref name="Summary" /> During the phone call, she made the erroneous claim that "six persons" had forced "us" to the rear of the airplane, but did not explain whether the people crowded together were crew members, passengers, or both.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/ |title=Home &#124; National Security Archive |website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}</ref><ref name="911-ch1"/><ref name="Summary" /> May asked her mother to contact American Airlines, which she and her husband promptly did,<ref name="911-ch1"/> although the company was well aware of the hijacking by this point.

At 09:16, [[Barbara Olson]] made a call to her husband Ted, quietly explaining that the plane had been hijacked and that those responsible were armed with knives and box cutters.<ref name="911-ch1" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Glen |url=https://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm |title=Probe reconstructs horror, calculated attacks on planes |work=The Boston Globe |date=November 23, 2001 |access-date=June 1, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608210201/http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> She revealed that everyone, including the pilots, had been moved to the back of the cabin and that the call was being made without the knowledge of the hostage takers. The connection dropped a minute into the conversation.<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Tim |url=https://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/pentagon.olson/index.html |title=Wife of Solicitor General alerted him of hijacking from plane |work=CNN |date=September 11, 2001 |access-date=September 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310030535/http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-11/us/pentagon.olson_1_hijacking-plane-crash?_s=PM%3AUS |archive-date=March 10, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Theodore Olson contacted the command center at the Department of Justice, and tried unsuccessfully to contact [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[John Ashcroft]].<ref name="911-ch1" /> Barbara Olson called again five minutes later, informing her husband of the announcement Hanjour―"the pilot"―made over the loudspeaker,<ref>{{harv|9/11 Commission|2004a|page=26|loc=chpt. 1}}</ref> and asked him, "What do I tell the pilot to do?"<ref name="usatoday30-atoday-77-whitehouse">{{cite web |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/12/flights-main.htm |title=Four flights, four tales of terror |author=Laura Parker |work=USA Today |date=September 13, 2001 |access-date=February 8, 2015 |archive-date=March 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308232047/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/12/flights-main.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Inquired of her whereabouts, Barbara replied saying that they were flying low over a residential area.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Zero Hour |series=Inside 9/11 |series-link=Inside 9/11 |air-date=September 23, 2005 |credits=Producers: Colette Beaudry and Michael Cascio |network=[[National Geographic Channel]]}}</ref> In the background, Ted overheard another passenger mentioning that the plane was flying northeast.<ref>{{cite book |title=9/11 Commission Report |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=2004 |author=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |chapter=Chapter 1 |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm |page=9}}</ref> He then made his wife aware of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center, causing her to go quiet; Ted wondered if this meant she had been shocked into silence. After expressing their feelings and reassuring one another, the call cut off for the last time, at 9:26&nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2002/telegraph030502.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905105204/http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2002/telegraph030502.html |url-status=live |archive-date=2008-09-05 |title='She Asked Me How to Stop the Plane' |work=The Telegraph |first=Toby |last=Harnden |date=March 5, 2002 |author-link=Toby Harnden |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Telegraph Group Limited}}</ref>