Tom Burnett

Thomas Edward Burnett Jr. (May 29, 1963 – September 11, 2001) was an American who was the vice-president and chief operating officer of Thoratec Corporation, a medical devices company based in Pleasanton, California; he resided in nearby San Ramon, California.

Thomas Edward Burnett Jr. was born on May 29, 1963, the son of Thomas Burnett Sr. and Beverly Burnett.

Burnett and his sisters grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota.

He attended Ridgeview Elementary School, then Olson Middle School.

At Thomas Jefferson Senior High School, where he wore jersey No. 11 and then No. 10, he led the Jaguars to the state finals as their starting quarterback in 1980.

He graduated in 1981.

Burnett studied Economics at Saint John's University in Minnesota, where he was a quarterback on the football team.

After two years, an injury shortened his football career and he transferred to the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

He was named president of the Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity, then later graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.

He went on to earn a Master of Business Administration degree at Pepperdine University.

In 1985, Burnett and a female classmate became the biological parents to a daughter who was given up for adoption.

Her name is Mariah Mills Jacobsen.

In July 1989, Burnett met his future wife, Deena, in Atlanta, where she had just completed flight attendant training for Delta Air Lines.

They married in April 1992 and had three daughters, Halley Elizabeth, Anna Claire, and Madison Margaret, and lived in San Ramon, California, where Deena worked as a stay-at-home mother, beginning when she first became pregnant in 1995.

Thomas Burnett had attended mass daily in the year prior to the September 11 attacks, attempting to address a sense of foreboding which he had expressed to his wife.

Burnett had busts of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill in his office.

In 1996, Burnett joined Thoratec Corporation, a medical devices company, as vice president of sales and marketing.

In November 1999, he was promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer.

On September 11, 2001, Burnett was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks.

He, along with other passengers, formed the plan to retake the plane from the hijackers, and led the effort that resulted in the crash of the plane into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, thwarting the plan of the hijackers to crash the plane into a building in Washington, D.C., most likely either the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House.

On September 11, 2001, Burnett boarded United Airlines Flight 93, returning home to San Ramon, after a business trip.

Burnett sat next to passenger Mark Bingham.

Burnett called his wife, Deena, after hijackers took control of the plane.

He made several phone calls to her beginning at 09:30:32 from rows 24 and 25, though he was assigned a seat in row four.

Burnett explained that the plane had been hijacked by men claiming to have a bomb, and also said that a passenger had been stabbed with a knife and that he believed the bomb threat was a ruse to control the passengers.

During his second call to her, she told him about the attacks on the World Trade Center and he replied that the hijackers were "talking about crashing this plane...Oh my God. It's a suicide mission."

He began pumping her for information about the attacks, interrupting her from time to time to tell the others nearby what she was saying.

Then he hung up.

Upon learning of the situation, Deena, a former flight attendant, recalled her training and urged Burnett to sit quietly and not draw attention to himself.

However, Burnett instead informed her that he and three other passengers, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer and Jeremy Glick, were forming a plan to take the plane from the hijackers, and leading other passengers in this effort.

He ended his last call by saying, "Don't worry, we're going to do something."

Burnett and several other passengers stormed the cockpit, foiling the hijackers' plan to crash the plane into the White House or Capitol Building.

To prevent the passengers from gaining control of the plane, the hijackers crashed it in a Pennsylvania field, killing all 44 people on board.

Burnett is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota.

On September 14, 2001, the Jefferson High School football team wore on their helmets the number 10, in honor of Burnett, who wore that number when he played at Jefferson High.

Funeral and burial services were held on May 24, 2002.

In March 2002, Bradley Street, a small street in Pleasanton, California, that runs outside the headquarters of Thoratec Corp. where Burnett worked, was renamed Tom Burnett Lane.

On September 11, 2002, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, dedicated the Tom Burnett 9/11 Memorial near the Nordstrom Court, with the loved ones of Burnett in attendance.

In January 2004, Jacobsen obtained a copy of her birth certificate, and that Burnett was her father.

She met Burnett's family, becoming close to his sisters, his widow Deena, and her three half-sisters.