Only female officer to die in 9/11 attacks sent heartbreaking final message before death
The daughter of the only female New York City Police Officer to die in the 9/11 attacks has shared her mother’s tragic last radio transmission.
Patricia Smith was just two years old when her mum, NYPD police officer Moira Smith, 38, was killed on 11 September, 2001, while trying to bravely rescue people from the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
On the fateful day 25 years ago, around 3,000 people lost their lives in New York City after four commercial planes carrying passengers were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists, and two of them crashed into the Twin Towers.
23 NYPD officers died, with Moira being the only woman.
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She alone was credited with saving hundreds of lives after she saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center and raced into action, staying in the building to help get people out, which means she tragically never made it out herself when the tower collapsed.
According to UA News Centre, she positioned herself in the South Tower’s stairwell and helped guide countless people out of the building.
She is remembered by her daughter, Patricia, who was two at the time, as well as her husband, Jim Smith.
Moira’s last police radio transmission has been shared by Spectrum News NY1, with the permission of her daughter.
She says: “Help me! Help! South Tower,” before, as per ABC News, later saying: “I don't have much air. Help me, please.”
Other officers can be heard trying to help by asking where she’s located and which floor she’s on.
Speaking to the outlet, Patricia emotionally recalled: “I had to listen to the voice recording of my mum’s last transmission, and basically her last words and her calling out for help over the police radio.
“Obviously that’s my mum, and that’s really hard to hear, and it’s really hard for my family to hear.
“I brought it to my dad, and I was like, ‘I had no idea that this was a thing. Did you know it was a thing?’
“And he was like, ‘I knew it was a thing, but I didn’t want you to hear it’.
“No one wants to remember their loved one in the manner that that voice transmission describes her as.”
She continued: “As hard as that is for us, and how traumatic that is to hear, I think it’s important that people do because you don’t understand it until you’re really faced with how terrible it was that day.
“We all said 25 years ago we would never forget, but it’s been difficult to see that it seems to have kind of started to slip away a little bit.”
In a previous interview with UA News Centre, Patricia explained just how much her mother helped on the devastating day.
She said: “We were told by one man who passed by her that she did her best to keep everyone calm while also having a look of determination on her face. He said that he knew he was going to be OK once he saw her.”
'I aspire every day to be like my mum'
According to the publication, he was one of the last to exit the South Tower before it collapsed.
Patricia went on to say: “I aspire every day to be like my mum. She knew early on 9/11 that there was a good chance that she wasn’t going to make it out of that situation, but she didn’t turn around and leave like a lot of people did.
“Her bravery and strength was truly heroic, and if I could embody just half of that I think I’d be a pretty good person.”
Madison Burgess