SHANKSVILLE, PA — “We’re getting ready to do it now. It’s happening.”
Those were among the last words 33-year-old CeeCee Ross Lyles ever spoke to her husband. Seconds later, she put down the telephone, stepped into the aisle of United Airlines Flight 93, and prepared to fight. On the morning of September 11, 2001, when the world descended into unprecedented darkness, a mother, wife, and former police detective rose up to be counted among legends.
From the Badge to the Skies
Long before she donned a flight attendant’s uniform, CeeCee Lyles wore a police badge. For six years, she patrolled the streets of Fort Pierce, Florida, eventually earning her way up to detective. Inside the department, she was known as a fearless enforcer of the law. If a suspect ran, CeeCee ran after them. Highly respected and on the fast track to becoming a sergeant, she was the epitome of public service.
Her dedication extended to her home life, where she and her husband, Lorne—also a police officer whom she had encouraged to join the force—were raising four young boys. But CeeCee harbored a lifelong dream. Since she was a little girl, she had wanted to fly.
In a courageous leap of faith, she made one of the biggest decisions of her life: she traded her badge for wings. By January 2001, she had completed her training with United Airlines. She had been living her dream in the skies for just eight months when she boarded a Boeing 757 in Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco.
The Call That Changed History
Forty-six minutes after takeoff, an ordinary Tuesday morning turned into a nightmare. Four hijackers seized control of the aircraft, forcing the passengers and crew to the back. But as the people of Flight 93 began making phone calls to the ground, they learned the horrifying truth: other planes had been used as weapons to attack the World Trade Center. Their flight was heading toward another target.
At 9:47 a.m., CeeCee made a desperate call home. Her husband, resting after a grueling night shift, missed the first call. The answering machine recorded her heartbreaking, yet steady voice:
“You have to listen to me carefully. I’m on a plane that’s been hijacked. I want to tell you I love you. Please tell my children that I love them very much. And I’m so sorry, babe.”
She called again, and this time, Lorne answered. Thousands of feet in the air, with her world closing in, CeeCee didn’t just say her goodbyes, she reported a tactical plan. She told her husband that the crew was filling coffee pots with boiling water. The passengers and crew were preparing to use whatever they could to rush the hijackers.
Connected only by a telephone line, a husband and wife prayed together, knowing they might never speak again. So painful and touching!
The Cop Inside Never Left
CeeCee had left law enforcement to follow her dreams, but on that terrifying morning, the police officer inside her took command.
“Tell the boys I love them,” she told Lorne, pausing to gather her strength. “We’re getting ready to do it now.”
Another pause.
“It’s happening.”
Those were the final words Lorne ever heard his wife speak. CeeCee dropped the phone and charged forward into the ultimate battle between good and evil.
A Legacy Written in Courage
At 10:03 a.m., United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Everyone aboard perished. But because of the unyielding bravery of CeeCee and her fellow passengers and crew, the plane never reached its intended target in Washington, D.C. Their fierce resistance changed the course of American history.
Today, a stunning bronze statue of CeeCee stands in Liberty Garden in Fort Pierce, Florida, looking out peacefully over the water. Every September, police officers, family members, and the community gather at her feet to honor a woman who gave everything for her country.
Before she was a national hero, she was an officer. Before she was a flight attendant, she was a mother to four boys who will grow up knowing exactly the caliber of woman their mother was. When her country needed people willing to fight back in the face of certain death, CeeCee Ross Lyles rose to answer the call.
She did not just face history, she altered it!
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