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Apr 9, 2006 · April 9, 2006 12:00 AM EDT. O n United Airlines Flight 93–out of Newark, scheduled for San Francisco, bound for history–34 passengers caught up on paperwork or dreamed their last dream. Four ...
- Richard Corliss
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.
- September 11 Attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
- Flight 93 Comes Under Attack
- Flight 93's Passengers Fight Back
- Flight 93: The Shanksville Crash Site
- Remembering Flight 93
- List of Crew and Passengers of Flight 93
- HISTORY Vault: 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93
At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping many more on the building’s higher floors. Eighteen minutes later, a second Boeing 767 appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower.
As millions watched the events unfolding in New York in horror, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C. and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the situation in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. At 10:30 a.m. the north tower also gave way. Faced with the knowledge that the United States was under attack, the nation’s air traffic controllers began a frantic attempt to wrest back control of America’s skies.
United Airlines Flight 93, a regularly scheduled early-morning nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, departed at 8:42 a.m., just minutes before the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. The flight’s takeoff had been delayed for nearly 45 minutes due to air traffic at Newark International Airport.
The plane carried seven crew-members and 33 passengers, less than half its maximum capacity. Also on the flight were four hijackers who had successfully boarded the plane with knives and box cutters. The plane’s late departure had disrupted the terrorists’ timeline for launching their attack; unlike the hijackers on the other three planes, they did not attempt to gain control of the aircraft until nearly 40 minutes into the flight. Meanwhile, Ed Ballinger, a flight dispatcher for United Airlines, was taking steps to warn flights of possible cockpit intrusions.
Huddled in the back of the plane, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 made a series of calls on their cell phones and the in-flight Airfones, informing family members and officials on the ground of the plane’s hijacking. When they learned the fate of the three other hijacked flights in New York City and Washington, D.C., the passengers realized that their plane was involved in a larger terrorist plot and would likely be used to carry out further attacks on U.S. soil.
After a brief discussion, a vote was taken and the passengers decided to fight back against their hijackers, informing several people on the ground of their plans. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett Jr., told his wife over the phone, “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.”
Another passenger, Todd Beamer, was heard over an open line saying, “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were: “Everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
At 9:57 a.m. the passengers and crew members aboard Flight 93 began their counterattack, as recorded by the cockpit voice recorder. In response, the hijacker piloting the plane began to roll the aircraft, pitching it up and down to throw the charging passengers off balance. Worried that the passengers would soon break through to the cockpit, the hijackers made the decision to crash the plane before reaching their final destination. At 10:02 a.m. a voice was recorded saying, “Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.” The airplane then rolled onto its back and plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour.
1 / 5: David Maxwell/Getty Images
The fireball from the plane, which was carrying 7,000 gallons of fuel, scorched hundreds of acres of earth and set the surrounding trees ablaze for hours. The crash site in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, near the town of Shansksville, was littered with the wreckage from the fragmented plane, with a debris field scattered nearly eight miles away from the initial point of impact.
In the weeks following the September 11 attacks, temporary memorials to the victims of United Flight 93 were erected at the Pennsylvania crash site and elsewhere, and in 2002 Congress established the Flight 93 National Memorial to create a permanent tribute to the plane’s passengers and crew. The first phase of the memorial was completed in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in September 2011.
Administered by the National Park Service and encompassing more than 2,220 acres, the memorial includes a visitor center; walking paths including the 40 Memorial Groves; and The Tower of Voices, a 93-foot tower with a wind chime representing each person who perished on board. Visitors can walk through Memorial Plaza to the Wall of Names, where the names of every passenger of Flight 93 are recorded, before proceeding to the crash site itself, known as “Sacred Ground,” the final resting place of the heroes of Flight 93.
Crew:
Captain Jason M. Dahl
First Officer LeRoy Homer
Lorraine G. Bay
Sandy Waugh Bradshaw
Wanda Anita Green
On September 11, 2001, one hijacked plane never reached its target when United 93 crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Previously classified streams of evidence are combined to piece together what really happened in a gripping minute-by-minute account.
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Sep 8, 2020 · The suspected hijackers of United Airlines flight 93: (L-R, top to bottom) Ahmed Alnami, Ahmed Ibrahim A. al-Haznawi, Ziad Samir al-Jarrah, and Saeed Alghamdi. On the morning of September 11, four ...
Jul 23, 2004 · The report from the 9/11 Commission on Thursday provided new, chilling details about what happened in the cockpit of Flight 93 in its last minutes. It provides a gripping account of the battle to ...
Jun 6, 2024 · Explore the Flight 93 story in further details and look at flight data recordings. Crew and Passengers Learn more about the crew and passengers of United Airlines Flight 93.
Sep 11, 2001 · Flight 93 Clip #1. Watch as Debby describes Deora’s whereabouts on the morning of September 11, 2001, which started out as an ordinary day. Transcript. Deora found herself on Flight 93 as a stand-by passenger. Her friend was starting her first day of class that day, and she would have missed her class had she dropped Deora off on-time for her ...
