She is the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into The Pentagon during the September 11 attacks by Al Qaeda terrorists in 2001.

[4][5][6] Burlingame was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and moved frequently as a daughter of an active duty member of the United States Air Force.

[8] Her brother, Charles Burlingame, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, with First Officer David Charlebois, when it was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon.

[10] On the second anniversary of the attack, Burlingame launched a nonprofit foundation to provide college scholarships for young men and women wishing to pursue careers as officers in the United States armed services.

[3] Due to the efforts of Burlingame and others, New York Governor George Pataki barred the IFC from being located at the World Trade Center site,[13] causing it to be abandoned by its sponsors.

[20] She wrote: "Demolishing a building that was damaged by wreckage from one of the hijacked planes in order to build a mosque and Islamic Center will further energize those who regard it as a ratification of their violent and divinely ordered mission: the spread of shariah law and its subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit.

"[21] Burlingame also wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop (2014), which portrays a 9/11 family member and military combat veteran as a vengeful murderer—and, in Burlingame's words: “Worse, the flight’s quiet hero who comes to the aid of the protagonist, thereby saving the day, is a Muslim doctor.”[22] She said that this was "ironic" given the fact that the leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was a doctor – a "complete [reversal] of the roles [of] victim and victimizer [in] 9/11".

"[6] In 2017, Burlingame expressed support for Donald Trump's "Muslim travel ban" that prevented refugees from several Muslim-majority countries to enter the United States.