Uli Derickson, 60, Who Helped Airline Hostages, Dies

[Spinzonner]

(sometimes, in this day of pervasive hype, we forget about true heroes)

"Uli Derickson, the Trans World Airlines flight attendant honored for saving passengers' lives in 1985 by both confronting and mollifying terrorist hijackers, died on Friday at her home in Tucson. She was 60.

Ms. Derickson was still working as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines when she received a diagnosis of cancer in 2003, her son, Matthew Derickson, said in announcing her death.

On June 14, 1985, when a pair of Lebanese gunmen commandeered a T.W.A. flight from Athens to Rome, Ms. Derickson took the lead in protecting the 152 passengers and crew members.

Though the two hijackers spoke almost no English, Ms. Derickson was able to speak with one of them in German and occasionally calm him by singing a German ballad he requested. She won the hijackers' pity for one passenger by explaining that his daughter had been delivered by a Lebanese doctor."

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/national/24derickson.html

[Bluebear]

1. Quote: "What's a hero? I didn’t even think about it."

And that's why she was a hero. May she rest in peace.