Michael Horrocks was born in 1963 in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. He attended Hershey High School and West Chester University (where he was quarterback of the college football team), then served as an officer (a pilot, and, later, a flight instructor) in the United States Marine Corps, where he was known by the congenial nickname, “Rocks.”
On retiring from the Marine Corps, Michael was hired by United Airlines.
On September 11, 2001, Michael Horrocks was the First Officer (co-pilot) of United Airlines Flight 175, a regularly scheduled flight from Boston’s Logan Airport to Los Angeles.
According to news reports confirmed by a family member, Horrocks called his wife before the plane took off and joked that the pilot–Victor Saracini–was “some guy with a funny Italian name.”
While we will never know exactly how or when Michael Robert Horrocks died, it is an absolute certainty that he was not at the controls when his plane struck Tower 2 of the World Trade Center at 9:03 AM on September 11, 2001. United Airlines Flight 175 was carrying 56 passengers (including the five hijackers) and nine crew members, making a total of 60 actual human beings; all died.
Michael Robert Horrocks is survived by his wife Miriam, and his children Michael (Mick) and Christa, as well as an extended family and a network of professional friends and colleagues around the world from his time in the military and in the airline industry.
At Michael’s funeral, he was remembered as an avid outdoorsman, a proud family man, a quiet but intense Marine and professional pilot, and a man who could always be trusted to do the right thing.
