Flight 93

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Flight 93 was the fourth plane hijacked on September 11, 2001. it was the only plane hijacked that did not hit its intended target; instead, it crashed in an abandoned field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The official story states that the plane was driven into the ground by the terrorists while trying to thwart an attempt by the crew and passengers to retake control of the plane. However, conflicting reports of the plane's fate exist, and there are a number who believe that Flight 93 was actually shot down by an Air Force interceptor plane and the incident covered up.

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Fateful day

There seems to be confusion and conflicting reports about flight 93, perhaps even more than those about American Airlines Flight 77. Here are the facts as reported by the media and the official timeline of events regarding the last journey of United Airlines Flight 93.

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Take-off

United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey at 8:42 A.M. EST on September 11, 2001, after a 41 minute delay. At this time American Airlines Flight 11 had already been hijack confirmed and was within minutes of crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. No hijack alerts were issued, no FAA warnings sent, and at the time, the pilots of Flight 93 were unaware of the danger that was on board with them. However later on, the pilots of Flight 93 would receive a warning from the control tower cautioning them against suspicious persons and cockpit intrusion attempts.

Ahmad Alhaznawi, one of Flight 93's hijackers, was stopped at the airport checkpoints for a random search, but was let through.

Flight 93 was a Boeing 757-200 on a routine flight from Newark to San Fransisco. It had 38 passengers and a flight crew of 7.

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Takeover

According to NORAD, the FAA notified them at 9:16 that the flight had been hijacked. There is a lot of confusion and discrepancy over the exact time that Flight 93 was confirmed to be hijacked. NORAD claimed that this confusion was due to the FAA basing their time on cockpit recordings. Hijack confirmation for the air traffic controllers in Cleveland came at 9:27 A.M. At 9:30, the transponder was turned off, and the plane made an abrupt turn around over Cleveland, Ohio and began heading southeast, presumably towards Washington D.C.

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Passenger's phone calls

Flight 93 stood out from the other three ill-fated hijacked planes for the sheer number of phone calls made by the passengers and crew. While the other three flights only had one or two calls made from them, Flight 93 had over 30. Most of the calls were made by cellphones; however, one exception was Todd Beamer, a passenger who was connected to a Verizon controller via the airfones on the back of the airplane seats.

Tom Burnett, one of the passengers, phoned his wife stating that the hijackers had knifed someone and that one of them had a gun. This was the first mention of any firearms on the hijacked flights, and is the only mention of it. Jeremy Glick, another passenger, phoned his wife stating that the hijackers were "Iranian looking" and one had what appeared to be a bomb. Other passengers, such as Mark Bingham, who called his mother, also stated there was a bomb on board. The flight controllers in Cleveland also heard voices in the cockpit telling the passengers to remain calm and that they had a bomb on board. However, it is suspected that the bomb was fake and used as a psychological tool by the hijackers to mentally subdue the passengers.

Some of the passengers were told by their family members of the attacks on the World Trade Center, as it was now on every national news channel and people realized that both attacks were intentional. It was at this time the passengers began to suspect the bomb was fake, and that their plane was going to be used in a suicide mission.

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Plans to fight back

At about 9:45 both Tom Burnett and Todd Beamer were on the phone describing a plan to take back control of the airplane. Jeremy Glick was on the phone to his wife Liz telling her that the passengers, now herded to the back of the plane, were taking a vote on whether or not to storm the cockpit and retake control of the plane. Sandra Bernshaw, a flight attendant, describes on the phone to her husband a plan, and tells him that passengers are in the back filling pitchers with hot boiling water to be used against the hijackers.

Around this time, according to the cockpit voice recorder, the hijackers were concerned that the passengers might be up to something, and one recommended barring the cockpit door and using the fire axe to intimidate any passengers.

At about 9:54, Tom Burnett makes one final phone call to his wife. He tells her: “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it.”

According to cockpit voice recordings, it is at about 9:57 that the attempt to retake the plane begins. Noises are heard in the background, and the hijackers ask each other what is going on. It is believed the passengers were using a food cart to try and bust down the cockpit door and ram down the hijackers.

A couple passengers reported on their phones that they were rushing the cockpit. From the sounds heard in the background and the tones of the victims, it is assumed that they might have succeeded in breaking into the cockpit. At the end of the phone calls, some phones were left on, and sounds of screaming and metallic crashing, presumed to be sounds of the struggle and the food trays, were heard until the end of the flight.

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Drama in Pennsylvania sky and crash

At 10:01, a local pilot, Bill Wright, reports seeing Flight 93 rocking back and forth. Several witnesses on the ground all report seeing a large commercial jet rocking and flying very low. In some cases, it was reported to be so low that people panicked, fearing the flight might crash into their homes. Several ground witnesses report seeing a second plane, a small, strange looking unmarked white jet flying at treetop level. There are also reports of a military fighter jet and sonic booms heard in the area.

According to the official story, Flight 93 crashed into an abandoned field at 10:03 A.M. However, there seems to be discrepancies in the time stated by authorities. A seismic station in West Virginia recorded the impact at 10:06 A.M., and many witnesses on the ground stated they saw the plane flying erratically and making odd noises at 10:05 A.M.. A sonic boom was also picked up by seismic recorders. Cleveland Air Traffic Control stated that they had lost Flight 93 on their radar screens at 10:06 A.M.

Below is a link to the Official Transcript of the Flight 93 Cockpit Voice Recorder.

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Discrepancies and questions of official account

There is a lot of confusion surrounding Flight 93 that has been generated by confusing and conflicting reports by official agencies. Several pieces of evidence tend to contradict the official account of the plane simply crashing into the ground because of the struggle with the passengers, and a few other odd facts that are rather suspect.

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Official timeline fudged?

There seem to be a lot of contradictions between the official timeline and witness reports. In fact, all evidence points to Flight 93 crashing at 10:06, not 10:03 as stated by the authorities. Why was the timeline tampered with? Why were the last three minutes of Flight 93's ill-fated journey wiped from public record?

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Missing time on recorder

There appears to be 30 seconds of missing data from the flight recorder. What happened to it? Why was the flight recorder evidence from Flight 93 suppressed from the public domain, when what was happening was public knowledge via passenger phone calls?

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Was Flight 93 shot down by Air Force?

Initially, reports stated that Flight 93 had been shot down by the Air Force. Vice President Dick Cheney was one of the first to state this. However, he later retracted his statement. Still, there is ample evidence that Flight 93 was taken down by an air to air missile.

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Debris field

Though Flight 93 supposedly nosedived into an abandoned strip mine, pieces of the wreckage were scattered over about 10 miles. One of the engines was found about 5 miles from the crash site. It is unlikely that the wind blew a several ton turbine engine over fields and hills, unless it was a tornado, which there were none that day. The wind was a very mild breeze. Other pieces of debris were scattered over a wide area, such as papers, luggage, even body parts.

This sort of debris pattern is not consistent with a plane that simply crashed straight into the ground, but is suggestive of a plane that is falling apart and disintegrating in mid-air.

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911 phone call

A passenger who was in one of the airplane's bathrooms made a call to a 911 operator. This passenger is believed to have been Edward Felt. He stated that the plane had been hijacked. An explosion was heard, and then a strange sound, like wind being sucked out of the aircraft was heard. The FBI put a gag order on the 911 operator, forbidding them to talk to the press about the phone call. Initially, it was stated that Edward Felt described an explosion and saw smoke, but authorities later denied this.

Such a description as Edward Felt gave is consistent with an explosive projectile breaching the aircraft fuselage, such as anti-aircraft gunfire or a Sidewinder Missile.

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Reports of other aircraft in vicinity

There were several ground witnesses who reported both F-16s and a mysterious unmarked low flying white aircraft in the vicinity. Reports of F-16s in the area were denied by the officials. The low flying white plane was declared to be a private pilot who was helping to locate the flight wreckage. However, the plane was seen before Flight 93 crashed, and several of the witnesses who reported seeing F-16s in the air were military veterans who were certain of what they saw.

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See also

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External links

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Related discussion

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