Gut-wrenching 9/11 voicemail reveals victim’s final words to his wife moments before tragedy

2026 marks 25 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was a day that forever changed America. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, and the country was left to grapple with an unimaginable loss that continues to echo a quarter-century later.

For 25 years, the words “never forget” have carried a deeply personal meaning for the families, survivors, first responders and countless Americans whose lives were changed that day.

And every September 11, one voicemail from a husband to his wife brings the unimaginable pain of that morning back into focus.

Last words over a seat-back phone

Brian Sweeney was a passenger aboard United Flight 175 when the plane was hijacked on September 11, 2001. Before it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, he used a seat-back phone to leave a message for his wife, Julie Roth.

Julie was teaching that morning when she was called away from her classroom. Her mother-in-law was on the other end, telling her that Brian was aboard a hijacked plane.