Twenty-five years ago, a scheduling mix-up may have saved Chloe Berta Caviness' life. The former United Airlines flight attendant, who was 22 at the time and based in Boston, was originally slated to work the 8 a.m. flight from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001 — the flight that became United Flight 175, hijacked and flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Instead, she was rebooked onto a 1 p.m. flight, a change she says she is grateful for to this day.
Caviness, who now lives in Marin County and started a family in San Rafael, usually flew overnight from San Francisco to Boston, according to NBC Bay Area. She landed in Boston at 6 a.m. that morning and, per the same account, had even visited briefly with the crew of Flight 175 before her own schedule sent her elsewhere. “I literally should have been on Flight 175,” she said, reflecting on how close she came to boarding the doomed aircraft.
It was Sara Nelson, now International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, who had made the scheduling change to Caviness' September roster. The two had been close since college, where it was Nelson who persuaded Caviness to become a flight attendant in the first place — a February 1996 phone call, made during a layover visit to Miami Beach, that set both women on the same career path, according to The New Yorker. Nelson began flying alongside Caviness as a Boston-based United attendant that same year.
An Agonizing Wait for Word
Flight 175, a Boeing 767, carried nine crew members and 56 passengers, including five hijackers, when it was hijacked shortly after departing Boston Logan International Airport for Los Angeles, according to Britannica. It struck the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. Caviness learned of the attacks while still in Boston, unaware for hours that her name had been pulled from that flight's roster.
Nelson endured her own agonizing stretch that morning, uncertain whether her friend was aboard the doomed jet, per the NBC Bay Area report. She has since said she is grateful Caviness survived, and the two remain close friends a quarter-century later. Nelson has described flight attendants broadly as “the nation's last line of defense” and as “aviation's first responders” — language that reflects how dramatically the job's mandate shifted after that day.
From Passive Compliance to Front-Line Defense
Before 9/11, flight crews received minimal hijacking training, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs. That approach changed after the attacks. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, enacted in November 2001, required FAA guidance for improved crew training, but did not specify the training and gave airlines broad discretion. Flight and cabin crew member security training was among the areas addressed after 9/11, while better planning and internal controls remained concerns. The Transportation Security Administration’s role was part of the post-9/11 aviation-security changes.
The federal government also rapidly expanded the Federal Air Marshal Service in the aftermath, growing the covert program from just 33 active marshals to thousands deployed on flights nationwide and internationally, per The Washington Post. More recently, physical secondary cockpit barriers — designed to prevent intruders from rushing the flight deck when the primary door opens — were mandated for newly manufactured aircraft under a June 2023 Federal Register rule, with an enforcement deadline for deliveries after August 2025. That safeguard was part of later aviation-security measures. Cockpit security has remained a consideration in aviation-security discussions.
A Bay Area Thread Through 9/11's History
Caviness continued working as a flight attendant for another year after the attacks before eventually leaving the profession; she went into labor with her first daughter on September 11, 2003, two years to the day after her scheduling reprieve. She is now married with three children and has visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York.
Her story joins a broader thread of Bay Area connections to that day. Betty Ann Ong, an American Airlines flight attendant aboard Flight 11, represents another San Francisco connection to 9/11. Her story remains part of the city’s memory of that day.
Telling Her Story at SF State
Caviness is scheduled to tell her story this Friday at San Francisco State University as part of a 911day.org event tied to the National Day of Service and Remembrance. The SFSU gathering aims to mobilize Bay Area volunteers to pack non-perishable meals for distribution through the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, part of a campaign marking the 25th anniversary. Volunteers also help the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank sort, pack and deliver food.
The September 11 National Day of Service channels the memory of that day into local community action. It is observed as a day of service — a framework meant to channel the memory of that day into local community action, the kind Caviness will be part of this week in San Francisco.
