Who Are This Year's American Heroes?

N E W   Y O R K, Dec. 21 -- A single decision made in the air over western Pennsylvania turned ordinary people into American heroes.

Good Morning America's hero of the year award goes to the men and women who fought the terrorists on board United Flight 93. "Facing certain death, this brave group overtook the hijackers," ABCNEWS' Charlie Gibson said today. "No one can calculate how many lives they saved by diverting the plane, and no one can measure the courage it required."

It began on the morning of Sept. 11, when a group of 40 strangers did nothing more than get on a plane, United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. Minutes later, the plane was hijacked by three knife-wielding terrorists.

The passengers chose to give their lives — a sacrifice that became apparent first to their families, then to the world. Eerily, the men who hijacked Flight 93 allowed the passengers to use air phones, which allowed their families to join them in the crucible of their last minutes. Through those last shattering phone calls, officials were able to piece together what happened.

Plans to Fight Back

"There were three guys who had taken over the aircraft and they said they have a bomb," said Alice Hoglan, whose son Mark called her from the plane.

The passengers' loved ones told them of the destruction that the terrorists had already done. The passengers knew their flight was meant to be the fourth in a quartet of suicide attacks. But three passengers told their loved ones that they wouldn't let it happen.

Within minutes of the hijacking, a small group of passengers — Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, and Mark Bingham forged a makeshift SWAT team and assembled a breathtaking plan.

Lyzbeth Glick spoke to her husband just before the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

"He had asked me, 'are they going to crash thisplane into the World Trade Center?" Glick said. "And I said, 'I don't think so, you know. It's not there anymore.'"

Lisa Beamer, the wife of Todd Beamer, said that she thinks that the men probably came close to saving their own lives, too.