Madeline “Amy” Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery (2003)

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which at least 206 people with ties to Massachusetts perished. The first flights to be hijacked took off from Boston Logan International Airport. Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, displayed extraordinary cool under extreme pressure during the hijacking. The Massachusetts 9/11 Fund Blog is profiling the Sweeney Award recipients for the past quarter century every week leading up to the naming of the 2026 Honoree(s) at the 25th Anniversary Commemoration on September 11th.

CAP Squadron helps find plane crash; Hull teen saves siblings from fire

Four volunteers of the Pilgrim Composite Squadron Civil Air Patrol responded when a small plane, carrying a family of seven from Florida to New Hampshire, crashed in Beartown State Forest in March.

Timothy Churchill, 17, Doreen Churchill, 43, Thomas Melucci, 18, and Geoffrey Monks, 16, participated in the rescue of four survivors whose plane crashed near the New York state line.

Searchers had been combing the area along the Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut borders for signs of the single-engine Piper Cherokee Six until it was spotted with its nose buried in four feet of snow, with debris scattered for 100 feet along a ridge.

A child was waving nearby, and the arm of an adult was moving stiffly back and forth through an opening in the battered fuselage. Doreen Churchill maintained radio contact with authorities while the three teens joined EMTs to hike up Mount Wilcox through snow and below-zero temperatures to the crash site.

Three young boys and their father had survived both the crash and 18 hours in bone-chilling cold in the remote forest. The mother and two older children were declared dead at the crash site. The father later died in the hospital from a heart attack.

The three boys, ages 2, 5 and 10, all survived although they had severe hypothermia, and one child had a broken leg. Thomas Melucci helped warm the 2-year-old by cradling him inside his jacket.

Andrew MacDonald, 13, helped his two younger sisters out of their Hull home when it caught fire the night of Feb. 15. Andrew modestly described himself as "an ordinary kid" who "did the right thing at the right time."

"The true heroes are those that cannot be here with us today," Doreen Churchill told a packed Massachusetts State House chamber during the award ceremony.

Next Week: Three heroes honored for rescues from suicide attempt and plane crash