WHEN Deena Burnett received an unexpected phone call from her husband Tom on the morning of 9/11, she asked if he was OK.

“No, I’m not,” replied Tom. “I’m on an airplane that has been hijacked.”

He had cancelled a prestigious appointment to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell so he could catch an early flight home to Deena and their three young girls.

Tom went on: “The hijackers have already knifed a guy, one of them has a gun, they are telling us there is a bomb on board. Please call the authorities.”

Seven minutes later Tom called Deena again. When she told him about the attacks on the World Trade Center, he said: “Oh my God. It’s a suicide mission.”

In a third call he told Deena passengers were trying to overtake the plane. On his final call, he said they were waiting until the plane was safely over a rural area before moving in on the hijackers.

Deena told him: “I love you.”

Tom replied: “Don’t worry, we’re going to do something.”

United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco became known as the “let’s roll” flight, after the words uttered by passenger Todd Beamer as he and Tom tried to storm the cockpit.

All 40 passengers and crew died when it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. In the 10 years since the al-Qaeda terror attacks, there have been several dramatisations and reconstructions on the Flight 93 hijacking. For Deena, 47, and their daughters – twins Madison and Halley, now 15, and Anna Clare, 13 – all are especially painful viewing.

Deena said: “There have been 15 films – most documentaries or made for TV. But I saw United 93 in the movie theatre and to see it played out there on a larger scale was more chilling. The girls have not seen any of them – apart from one. I did tell them recently they are now old enough to watch them if they want to.”

Tom – the 38-year-old vice-president of a medical device manufacturer – was living with his family in San Ramon, California, at the time of the attacks.

He had spent the night of September 10, 2001, in a Times Square hotel and the next morning was due to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell, an honour televised live in the US. Fatefully, he changed his mind at the last minute so he could spend time with his family.

Now, 10 years on from that horrific day, Deena and her three daughters have returned to New York to see some Broadway shows and stay in the place where Tom spent his last day alive.

Deena says: “The girls talk about him a lot and even more so recently because Tom’s last night was in Times Square where we are now. Tom was on his way home – he was staying at the Marriott Marquis just down the street. That’s one of the reasons we stay in Times Square whenever we visit New York.

“The girls are doing great. They are great kids and they have their father’s spirit.

“They’re loving, kind, sweet, compassionate and smart. He’d have been proud – very, very proud.

“When I think of Tom and our married life together and his death I really think about it as a learning experience for me. I’ve been able to take what I’ve learned from him and still use it. It’s very sad but I am continuing to raise our children the way we had discussed and planned.

“At first the girls reacted in different ways. But now they’re more similar. They are curious. When they talk about dating and everyday things they say, ‘Gosh, I wish dad was here to answer questions’ and ‘What do you think dad would say about it?’” Shortly after the attacks, Deena and the three girls moved to Arkansas to be closer to their relatives.

Deena has since been all over the country talking about 9/11 – speaking at college campuses, attending memorial walks, and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show with her daughters.

She has also slowly rebuilt her own life – tying the knot with Rodney Bailey five years ago. But when al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces back in May, Deena had an ­unexpected reaction.

“I was watching TV in bed when the news came on,” recalls Deena. “The kids had already gone to sleep so they didn’t find out until the next morning.

“I said, ‘I’ve got some news for you’ but they had already found out on Facebook. We had some discussions and Madison asked what bin Laden’s involvement was – it had been so long since we discussed it. Then we talked about it a lot. His death brought some real closure for me, it really did. I was very, very surprised.”

However nothing can ever erase the grief she feels at the death of her first husband. She says: “People ask me, ‘Have you come to terms with it’? But what does ‘coming to terms with it’ even mean?

“Even 10 years on, I can still cry at the drop of a hat.”