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United Airlines Flight 93 was a and passengers Todd Beamer , Mark Bingham , Tom Burnett , Andrew Garcia , Jeremy Glick , and Richard Guadagno , among others, fought back against the hijackers. BACKGROUND The other three planes hijacked that day were on the following flights: American Airlines Flight 11 , United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77 . Unlike the other three flights, four, not five, hijackers were on board Flight 93, including Saeed Al-Ghamdi , Ahmed Al-Haznawi , Ahmed Al-Nami , and the suicide pilot Ziad Jarrah . They used knives and the threat of a bomb to take over the Cockpit . The plane was N591UA, a Boeing 757-222 on a morning route from Newark Liberty International Airport (then known as Newark International Airport) in Newark, New Jersey , near New York City , to San Francisco International Airport near San Francisco, California (EWR-SFO). It had 182 seats but was only carrying 37 passengers (including the hijackers) and 7 crew members including the captain Jason Dahl, and his first officer, LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Some early accounts say 38 passengers - this was apparently due to the fact that one passenger had booked two seats. The four hijackers were seated in first class. THE FLIGHT The 9/11 Commission Report provided a detailed account and timeline for Flight 93. The aircraft was scheduled to depart at 8:00, but did not lift off until 8:42 due to routine heavy morning traffic. 1 Had the flight departed on time, it would likely have been hijacked around the same time as the other flights, and there is little chance the passengers would have had time to organize a revolt. At 9:24 a.m., Flight 93 received from flight dispatch the warning "Beware any cockpit intrusion -- two a/c {Link without Title} hit World Trade Center." At 9:26 a.m. the pilot asked for confirmation of the message. That was the last time flight dispatch heard from Flight 93. Two minutes later, the hijackers took over the plane. At about 9:28 a.m., when both towers of the Accent , probably Ziad Jarrah , transmitted to flight control the following: "Ladies and gentlemen, here the captain, please sit down, keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board. So sit." (It is likely that Jarrah was attempting to broadcast this over the plane's intercom, but did not understand that the message was transmitted to flight control instead.) The flight then reversed direction and began flying eastward at a low altitude. At 9:39, air traffic controllers overheard Jarrah saying "Uh, this is the captain. Would like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board, and [we are going back to the airport, and to have our demands [unintelligible]. Please remain quiet." There were no further transmissions. ( USGS )]]The plane crashed into a reclaimed coal-mining area in Somerset County, Pennsylvania , near the municipalities of Stonycreek Township and Shanksville at 10:03 a.m., according to the 9/11 Commission Report. Other accounts give 10:06 or 10:10 a.m. as the time of impact. According to eyewitness statements, the plane was upside down and swaying when it crashed nose-first into a field. It landed at an estimated speed of 580 miles (933 kilometers) per hour and left a crater about 115 feet (35 meters) deep. All 44 people (including the hijackers) on board were killed. Authorities have since ruled that the deaths of the hijackers were suicides and that the deaths of the 40 others were homicides. It is accepted that the destination was Washington, D.C. , with the White House and more likely the United States Capitol as targets. Had the plane struck either building, it might not have killed anyone other than those on board the plane, as both buildings had been evacuated by 9:45 a.m. However, it might have dealt a powerful psychological blow to America, having severely damaged another symbol of American power. PASSENGER AND CREW PHONE CALLS Much of what happened on the plane has been reconstructed from the many phone calls made by passengers and crew, mainly through Cellular Phones , although doubts have been raised about whether in-flight calls using Cellular Phones were technically possible in 2001. Ten passengers and two crew members made calls after the hijacking began. This was in marked contrast to the other three planes, where few phone calls were made. It has thus been possible to assemble a detailed yet incomplete picture of what happened on board through these calls. All said that there were three rather than four hijackers. This has been interpreted as meaning that one of them (probably Jarrah, who was seated in the front row (seat 1B) and who is accepted as being the pilot) entered the cockpit right away and did not reemerge. He was thus not seen by the others on the plane. In the passenger area, three hijackers wearing red bandannas herded most of the passengers and crew to the back of the plane. Two were armed with knives and the third held a box that supposedly contained a Bomb . The remaining passengers were kept in the first class area. One male passenger was stabbed, probably before the herding started. This person was never named or described in the phone calls, but is believed by authorities to be Mark Rothenberg, the only first-class passenger who did not make a phone call. A flight attendant was held in the cockpit and may have been stabbed and killed - she was most likely the purser, Debra Welsh. It has been speculated by some that she attempted to perform CPR on either Mark Rothenberg or one of the pilots and refused to stop when the hijackers ordered her to. The passengers and crew became aware through the phone calls of what had happened to Flights 11, 175 and 77. THE COCKPIT STORM One first-class passenger, Tom Burnett , called his wife four times about the hijacking; she alerted the FBI . He described the death of the male passenger, asked about the other planes and stated at the end of the fourth call: "Don't worry. We're going to do something." Another first class passenger, Mark Bingham , called his mother and reported that three hijackers had taken over the plane. He gave little detail of them. He was apparently cut off at the end of his brief call, and did not return any of the phone calls from friends and family. One more first class passenger, Edward Felt , called 911 seeking information on the hijacking. His brief call was also cut off. A coach passenger, Jeremy Glick , called his wife in New York and reported that three " Iran ian-looking" men had hijacked the plane, one of whom had a red box strapped to his waist which they claimed to be a bomb. Jeremy asked his wife if it was true that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center , as he had heard from other passengers. He then stated that he was going to participate "in the charge (up the aisle to the cockpit)". Todd Beamer , another coach passenger, tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson . Beamer reported that one passenger was killed, and, later, that the pilot and first officer were mortally wounded. He was also on the phone when the plane made its turn in a south-easterly direction, a move that had him briefly panicking. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning "to jump" the hijackers. Other persons who made phone calls to relatives include passenger and Sandra Bradshaw . They all mentioned charges to the cockpit by way of final words. Reference was also made by the flight attendants to using boiling water on the hijackers. What happened afterward is uncertain but the Black Box recordings revealed that it is possible the passengers broke into the cockpit only after the pilot started aiming the plane down for a crash, in which a brutal, though doomed, physical struggle may have ensued. The passengers were never able to take control of the plane. "BLACK BOX" RECORDERS The Flight Data Recorder And Cockpit Voice Recorder were recovered on the afternoon of September 13 , buried 25 feet deep at the impact site, and have yielded additional information about the final half hour of the flight. In April 2002, in an unprecedented action, the cockpit voice recorder was played by the FBI to relatives of the victims of the hijackings. Further details were released by the 9/11 Commission in July 2004. The transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder {Link without Title} were made public as part of the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui , but the actual recording is unreleased. A woman can be heard pleading for her life at the start of the tape. This is thought to have been a flight attendant. The tape was reported to have contained voices saying " Allahu Akbar ," English shouts that included "Let's get them!" and "In the cockpit. If we don't, we'll die" then screaming and other sounds followed by silence. Sounds of crockery smashing have led to the conclusion that a service trolley was used as a battering-ram to force the cockpit door open. The tape also debunks speculation about First Officer LeRoy W. Homer Jr. being injured when the hijackers can be heard saying, "Inform them, and tell him to talk to the pilot. Bring the pilot back." indicating that they were having difficulty controlling the plane and needed the assistance of LeRoy Homer . The hijackers themselves appear to have all retreated into the cockpit prior to the charge, and they can be heard praying, reassuring themselves, and discussing on separate occasions, in Arabic, whether to use a fire axe in the cockpit on those outside or to cut off the oxygen to quell the charge. Jarrah said "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?" Another hijacker replied "No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off." Jarrah later said "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?" to which another hijacker replied "Yes, put it in it, and pull it down." then later "Pull it down! Pull it down!" The 9/11 Commission found from the recordings that, contrary to what many have believed, the passengers did not succeed in entering the cockpit before the plane started its dive. It is more likely that they broke in after it was far too late and the plane was descending vertically at nearly 600 MPH. The 9/11 Commission ruled that the actions of the crew and passengers prevented the destruction of the Capitol building or the White House by causing the hijackers to abort the attack on their intended target. While sifting through the wreckage, investigators reported finding a serrated belt-clip knife 2, as well a cigarette lighter with a concealed blade. 3 AFTERMATH '' was a Discovery Channel Docudrama of the events that occurred on United Airlines Flight 93. It premiered at 9PM on the 4th anniversary of 9/11]] All those on board Flight 93 were nominated for a Congressional Gold Medal for valor on September 19 , 2001 . These awards have not been granted, but the crew and passengers of Flight 93 have been the subject of numerous other honors, including a Government memorial passed on September 10 , 2002 . The permanent memorial is expected to be completed around 2010-2011. On September 24 , 2001 , President George W. Bush held a special meeting for the families of Flight 93's victims at the White House. An American Flag flies over gate 17, from which flight 93 departed at Newark airport. There is also a private memorial to the crew in the United airlines ramp agents' break room below the gate. The Flight Route Designation for future flights on the same route was renumbered from Flight 93 to Flight 81 in October 2001 out of respect for those who died. Among some of the passengers to fly this route was Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, to prove to the hijackers that Americans wouldn't stop flying because of what had happened. Melodie Homer, wife of LeRoy Homer , flew this route in order to complete the flight that her husband was unable to. Since then, United Airlines has renumbered all of their flights. The current flight designator for the same route, departing at approximately the same time, is Flight 853, from Newark to San Francisco, with a continuation to Tokyo, Japan, after an aircraft change. Todd Beamer 's " Let's Roll " has become a national catchphrase, with President Bush himself using it in several speeches. Both Shanksville and Somerset County became much more well-known as the result of the crash. Somerset County now has a special council, run by the Somerset County Flight 93 Coordinator, which handles Flight 93 matters such as visitors' gifts and memorial services. The crash was commemorated in ceremonies, public and private, on September 11, 2002 and 2003, at the field where the plane crashed. After the crash, the Port Authority Of New York And New Jersey changed the name of Newark's airport from Newark International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport. "Flight 93" no longer exists in the coding of United Airlines. The flight scheduled closest to Flight 93 is named "Flight 191" that departed at Newark at 7:45am (not 8:00am) every day. '' Flight 93 '', a TV movie based on the events on Flight 93, was broadcast on January 30 , 2006 , on A&E. '' United 93 '', a theatrical film based on the same events, was released on April 28 , 2006 . FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL See Also: Flight 93 National Memorial A national design competition was held to create a public memorial in the field where Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. The winning design for the Flight 93 National Memorial is called the ''Crescent of Embrace''. The site plan features a large crescent pathway with Red and Sugar Maples planted along the outer arc. 4 The design has created some controversy because the terrorists who hijacked the airplane were is a generally recognized symbol of Islam and the Red Crescent is used as the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross . The crescent is represented on the flags of a number of countries with Muslim majorities. The architect asserts that there is no intent on referencing Muslim symbols (a sentiment that has been shared by several families of the victims) and is willing to discuss design modifications. ALTERNATIVE THEORIES See Also: 9/11 conspiracy theories#United Flight 93
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REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS There are many websites on the Internet that deal with Flight 93 and its passengers and crew. A small sample of these is below. Websites
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