In a tragic twist of fate, one of the victims of the crash of Continental Flight 3407 was Beverly Eckert, a September 11 widow. She was flying to her hometown of Buffalo Thursday night to celebrate what would have been husband Sean Rooney's 58th birthday when the plane crashed on approach to the airport.

Eckert's husband Sean worked on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower. At public press conferences and Congressional hearings, Eckert would tearfully recount how her husband -- her high school sweetheart -- called her on the morning of the attacks, and told her he loved her just before there was a loud explosion ... and then nothing.

Eckert was part of a small group of passionate 9/11 widows, mothers, and children who successfully lobbied Congress to pass sweeping reform of the U.S. intelligence system. Eckert and her colleagues spent months walking the halls of Congress, pressing lawmakers to pass the bill. After the bill was passed, she told reporters "I did all of this for Sean's memory, I did it for him," she said, crying again. "There is a euphoria in knowing that we reached the top of the hill. ... I just wanted Sean to come home from work. Maybe now, someone else's Sean will get to come home."

Just this pas week, Eckert met with the President at the White House alongside other relatives of those killed on 9/11 and the bombing of the USS Cole to discuss how the new administration would handle terror suspects.

Carol Ashley, whose daughter died at the World Trade Center, said the grim details of Eckert's death are particularly painful to Eckert's friends among 9/11 families. "The fact that it was a plane crash, it was fire, it was reminiscent of 9/11 that way, that's just very difficult."