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Learn more about the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93, whose brave actions ended the 9/11 terror attacks on September 11, 2001. Click on the images to read their biographies. Source: National Park Service
- Overview
- HISTORY Vault: 9/11 Documentaries
The cockpit voice recorder captured the sound of passengers attempting to break through the door.
The coordinated terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, unfolded at nightmarish speed. At 8:46 a.m., the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Sixteen minutes later, a second jet hit the South Tower. At 9:37, an airliner hit the Pentagon. Within hours, thousands had died, including hundreds of first responders who’d rushed to the scenes to help.
But after the events quieted and the scope of the damage came into relief, it became clear that there was at least one element of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot where the damage had been mitigated—with the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
Like the three other planes hijacked on September 11, Flight 93 was overtaken by al-Qaeda operatives intent on crashing it into a center of American power—in Flight 93’s case, likely the White House or the U.S. Capitol. But instead of hitting its intended target, the United jet went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania. While all 44 people aboard the plane were killed, countless people who might’ve perished in Washington were spared because of a passenger revolt—a heroic struggle undertaken with whatever low-tech weapons they and the cabin crew members could muster.
The Fighter Pilot Who Tried to Take Down Flight 93
Brendan Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us, a book about domestic airline hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s, says that in the hundreds of cases he studied for his book, he never came across anything like Flight 93’s passenger revolt.
Explore this collection of extraordinary documentary films about one of the most challenging days in U.S. history.
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Nov 9, 2010 · The fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed down in a field in rural Pennsylvania, never reaching its intended target because its crew and passengers fought back against the ...
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government building in the national capital of Washington, D.C.
Sep 10, 2021 · On September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 had forty passengers and crew members on board, travelling non-stop from Newark to San Francisco. The passengers ranged in age from twenty to...
Jul 26, 2023 · Captain Jason M. Dahl. Crew Member - Pilot.
Sep 2, 2021 · SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) — United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark International Airport and was headed for San Francisco. It was believed that after the hijackers took over the plane,...
