HOUSTON – It was only a few minutes of audio, but for Carrie Jackson, the weight of those words has lasted 25 years.
Jackson slowly scrolled through the transcript of a 911 call made from United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. She created that transcript while working for the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, listening repeatedly to the final recorded words of passenger Edward Felt.
“Just really the feelings that I had when I was typing it, I knew that I was typing this guy’s last words,” Jackson said. “And even when the call cut off, I thought at the time that’s when the plane went down. I later learned it wasn’t. It was a couple minutes later.”
Felt called 911 from the plane and reported that it had been hijacked. Jackson said his was one of the few calls from Flight 93 that reached emergency dispatchers rather than passengers’ family members.
“This is the transcript of one of the calls from Flight 93 that I transcribed,” Jackson said. “It was only a few minutes, but not very long at all.”
Those few minutes have never left her. Even 25 years later, Jackson said she can still vividly remember where she was sitting, the desk in front of her and the agents gathered around as she typed. She said the passage of time has not blurred the details of that assignment or the emotions she felt while completing it.
A responsibility she cannot forget
Jackson was working as a secretary and typist for the FBI’s Pittsburgh office when Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
As the bureau responded, Jackson was assigned to listen to Felt’s call and create an accurate written record for investigators.
“I put on these headphones…and I just started typing,” Jackson said. “I had agents, like, hovering over me because they couldn’t hear what I was listening to. They could only see. So they were reading the screen as I was typing.”
She had to play the recording, rewind it and listen again to ensure she captured every detail and every word.
“I think it was like 5 or 6 minutes long,” Jackson said. “It took me probably 30 minutes to do the whole transcription. You play it, you rewind it, you play it again—just make sure you get every detail, every word.”
Jackson knew the plane had already crashed as she listened. She tried to concentrate on the assignment while processing the fact that she was documenting a man’s final words.
“This is my job. This is what I have to do,” Jackson said. “But then just overcome with, like, almost sadness just right away, knowing that I’m typing this guy’s last words.”
What has stayed with her most is the moment the call abruptly ended.
“Really just the end of it,” Jackson said. “Just knowing that when the call went dead…that’s just what hits me the hardest. But just knowing that that was his last words. I mean, I typed his last words.”
What happened aboard Flight 93
United Flight 93 left Newark, New Jersey, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, headed for San Francisco.
Four terrorists hijacked the plane. Through phone calls, passengers and crew members learned that other hijacked planes had struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Realizing their plane was part of the coordinated attack, passengers and crew members fought back. Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, killing all 40 passengers and crew members aboard. The four hijackers also died.
The passengers’ actions prevented the terrorists from reaching their intended target in Washington, according to the National Park Service’s Flight 93 National Memorial.
‘I wanted to be a part of something bigger’
The Sept. 11 attacks became the largest investigation in FBI history. For Jackson, the assignment was also a turning point.
“I just knew that I wanted to do more,” Jackson said. “I didn’t just want to do admin stuff. I wanted to be a part of something bigger.”
She eventually became an investigative analyst and now serves on FBI Houston’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy team.
Her decision to deepen her involvement with the bureau also continued a family legacy that now spans four generations.
Jackson’s grandfather, Donald Wiseman, began that legacy as an FBI counterintelligence special agent. His daughter, Linda Felkar — Jackson’s mother, later worked as an administrative employee at FBI Pittsburgh.
Jackson followed them into the bureau. Now, her daughter, Allie Jackson, works as an executive assistant at FBI Houston.
From a counterintelligence special agent to administrative employees and an investigative analyst, four generations of one family have answered the same call to serve. For Carrie Jackson, seeing her daughter carry that legacy forward is deeply personal.
“I am just beyond words,” Jackson said. “Just excited for her. She’s doing great here…and yes, she definitely wants to continue following in our footsteps.”
Ensuring younger generations remember
Twenty-five years after the attacks, an entire generation knows 9/11 only through news coverage, documentaries, classrooms and audio recordings.
Jackson lived through the day and carried a deeply personal piece of its history with her. She wants younger people to understand how quickly life can change and why the lessons of that day still matter.
“Just learn from everything that happened,” Jackson said. “Don’t take anything for granted. Like, anything can change tomorrow and just do your best.”
For Jackson, remembering Sept. 11 means looking beyond the images of burning buildings, damaged landmarks and a Pennsylvania field. It means remembering the courage of the passengers and crew members who fought back aboard Flight 93.
“You can go back and look at all the calls that came off the plane,” Jackson said. ”And, I mean, they are true heroes. They saved thousands of lives. And to be a part of, like, just the whole world, knowing that it’s just very powerful.”
Twenty-five years later, she hopes their courage will never be reduced to a chapter in a history book.
“Just don’t forget,” Jackson said. “And they were all heroes. Every single one of those people on the plane…they’re all heroes.”
