"One of the passengers on the airplanes hijacked and crashed by terrorists in the US today phoned her husband to tell him her flight had been hijacked.

Barbara Olsen, wife of US Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, rang him on her mobile phone twice to say hijackers wielding knives had taken control of the plane.

The hijackers, she said, forced passengers and crew to the back of the plane.

Ms Olsen was on her way to meet her husband to celebrate his birthday when the flight was hijacked.

She and all 266 passengers on board the four hijacked flights are presumed dead."