Jeremy Glick was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed as part of the September 11 attacks. Aware of the earlier attacks at the World Trade Center and refusing to becoming a flying bomb that some say was meant to fly into the WHite House or the US Capitol, Glick and some of his fellow passengers attempted to foil the hijacking. During a struggle to reclaim the aircraft, it crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 33 passengers and seven crew members on board.
Glick was born into a Jewish family and had five siblings, all of whose names begin with the letter “J.” He was a middle child among the six children of his family.
Glick was an American National Collegiate Judo champion while he was a student at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.
According to accounts of cell phone conversations, Glick, along with Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham and Tom Burnett, formed a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers, and led other passengers in this effort. Glick’s last words to his wife when aboard Flight 93 were: “We’re going to rush the hijackers.” He then hung up the phone.
Co-workers and family stated that they were not surprised that Glick took action. Glick’s brother-in-law Douglas Hurwitt said, “that was my brother-in-law. He was a take-charge guy.” Glick’s former boss, Thomas Torf, added: “He was a no-nonsense kind of guy. He took ownership of things. Very focused. He loved his family. He was a good businessman. All of us loved him.”
Glick is memorialized at the Flight 93 National Memorial at the crash site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City, at the South Pool, on Panel S-67, along with other passengers on Flight 93.
On September 11, 2002, Glick was posthumously awarded the Medal for Heroism, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR).
In August 2007, Glick was posthumously awarded the Samuel Eells Award for distinguished public service by his fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, at its annual convention at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
In September 2008, the United States Judo Association (USJA), awarded Glick with an Honorary 10th Degree black belt.
