1. John Joseph Ferruggio was an American in-flight director who led the evacuation of Pan Am Flight 93, which was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
17 Facts About John Ferruggio
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John Ferruggio was born to Sicilian immigrant parents in the North End of Boston.
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John Ferruggio was the youngest of the family's three children.
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John Ferruggio forged his father's signature in order to enlist in the United States Navy during World War II due to his age.
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John Ferruggio participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Battle of Iwo Jima with a Marine unit.
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John Ferruggio returned to South Boston following the end of World War II.
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John Ferruggio worked jobs in area shipyards and restaurants before joining Pan Am in 1954 as a flight attendant.
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John Ferruggio married his wife, Susan Wilson, who was raised in Newton, Massachusetts, and worked as a ballet dancer in New York City, in 1961.
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John Ferruggio was the in-flight director of Pan Am Flight 93 on September 6,1970, when the plane was hijacked by two men armed with grenades and handguns.
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The Pan Am flight, carrying 152 passengers and 17 crew members, including John Ferruggio, was scheduled to fly from Amsterdam to New York City.
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John Ferruggio, who instructed passengers to remain calm, asked the hijackers what would happen when the Pan Am flight landed in Egypt.
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John Ferruggio led the evacuation of passengers from the plane in Cairo.
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John Ferruggio moved with his family to Milton, Massachusetts, in the early 1970s.
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John Ferruggio retired from Pan Am during the 1980s and ran a real estate business in South Boston.
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John Ferruggio died of organ failure at Milton Hospital in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 19,2010, at the age of 84.
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John Ferruggio was survived by his wife, Susan; three daughters, Joann Kerzel, Lisa DeLuca and Donna Lee York; and six grandchildren.
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John Ferruggio was buried in Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree, Massachusetts.