Jill Biden on 9/11 Attacks: ‘I Was Scared to Death’

September 11, 2001 marked one of the gloomiest days in US history, as the deadliest terror attack in the country's history left at least 2,977 people dead and about 6,000 injured. On that day, al-Qaeda* terrorists hijacked four planes and conducted suicide attacks against several targets in the US, including the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

In an interview with AP news agency, First Lady Jill Biden recalled how she felt on September 11, 2001, when she heard the news about the series of deadly terrorist attacks on America.

The FLOTUS said that she was terrified by her thoughts that her sister Bonny Jacobs, who served as a United Airlines flight attendant at the time, could be on board of one of the four hijacked airplanes that were flown into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, claiming the lives of almost 3,000 people.

“I called Bonny to see where she was because I was scared to death ... I didn’t know where she was, whether she was flying, not flying, where she was. And then I found out she was home,” Jill Biden said, adding that she then “went straight to Bonny's house.”

The First Lady also recalled that her husband, Joe Biden, then a US senator, was on an Amtrak train en route to Washington when she got in touch with him that day.

According to her, they spoke on the phone when she started to cry “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God” after she heard the news about an aircraft ramming a second twin tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The FLOTUS stressed that “there were so many things swirling that day” because she “was worried about Joe’s safety,” and also because she “just could not imagine” that her sister “was on one of those flights.”

“I don’t know what word I want to use. I was so worried and I don’t even think that’s strong enough. The whole thing was so surreal, but I was just, you know, just really praying that she was not on one of those flights,” Jill Biden added.

She also underscored that dozens of lives were saved by the actions of everyone aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001. All 44 people on board, including the hijackers, were killed after the passengers and crew tried to regain control of the plane from the hijackers.

“That plane was headed for the US Capitol and so I think it’s important that every year we go to Shanksville and we remember those who fought: the flight attendants, the captains, the pilots, all of those who fought to save those lives”, Joe Biden’s wife said, adding that her bottom line message later on Sunday would be, “We will never forget."

She referred to her upcoming remarks later in the day to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In the wake of the attacks, the US launched "Operation Enduring Freedom" on October 7, 2001, with then-President George W. Bush announcing airstrikes targeting both al-Qaeda and the Taliban*, which refused to extradite al-Qaeda members at the time.

*al-Qaeda, a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries

** Taliban, a group under UN sanctions for terrorist activity