United Airlines Flight 93

United Airlines Flight 93 was one of four commercial airliners hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists as part of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which killed nearly three thousand people. Flight 93 was to travel a regular United Airlines route from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California. The last of the four planes to take off, Flight 93 was delayed because of air traffic congestion while the other three planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. After the terrorists took control of Flight 93, the passengers and crew used cell and seat phones to call loved ones and officials and learned the fate of the other three planes. A group of passengers and crew members on board Flight 93 attempted to overtake the hijackers and regain control of the plane to keep it from being crashed into another US landmark. While it is believed that the group did not succeed in breaking into the cockpit, their efforts ultimately resulted in the plane crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. All thirty-three passengers and seven crewmembers were killed, but no one on the ground was injured. The hijackers had likely intended to fly Flight 93 into the White House or the Capitol in Washington, DC.

Background

The deadliest terror attacks in the United States took place on the morning of September 11, 2001, when four commercial airliners were hijacked by nineteen members of al Qaeda, an Islamist extremist group that at the time was led by Osama bin Laden. Some of the terrorists had been in the United States for a year or longer before the attacks and taken flight lessons at American flight schools. Others arrived about a month before the attacks, planning to serve as “muscle” during the hijackings. Armed with knives and box cutters, the hijackers slipped easily through the security at the airports in Boston, Massachusetts, Newark, New Jersey, and Washington DC, from which the planes departed. The hijackers chose to take over early-morning transcontinental flights because these airliners would be filled with jet fuel and create enormous explosions upon impact.

At 8:45 a.m. American Airlines Flight 747 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City near the 80th floor of the 110-story tower, instantly killing hundreds and trapping many more on the upper floors. While the lower levels of the north tower were being evacuated, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower near the 60th floor, causing a massive explosion that covered the area below with burning debris.

At 9:45 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 flew over downtown Washington DC and into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters, creating an inferno that caused part of the building to collapse.

Unable to withstand the heat from the jet fuel, the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at about 10:00 a.m., creating an enormous cloud of dust and smoke. A half-hour later, the north tower also succumbed to the heat and collapsed.

Flight 93 Hijacked

United Airlines Flight 93 had been delayed for takeoff for about 45 minutes because of air traffic at the Newark International Airport. A routinely scheduled flight from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, the Boeing 757 was filled to less than half its capacity, with only thirty-three passengers and seven crew members on board. Four hijackers managed make it through security without the discovery of the knives and box cutters they had planned to use as weapons. They sat in first class, in close proximity to the cockpit.

Before the hijackers seized control of the plane, the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) began issuing warnings to planes in the sky about possible hijackings. Ed Ballinger, United Airlines flight dispatcher, began sending text cockpit warnings to all United Airlines flights. Flight 93 received a warning at 9:24 a.m. that an aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. At 9:26 a.m. Flight 93 Captain James Dahl confirmed that he had received the message. Two minutes later, First Officer Leroy Homer was heard shouting “Mayday!” over sounds of violence.

Forty-six minutes into the flight, the hijackers stormed the cockpit and took control of the plane. Dahl and Homer managed to take actions to try to thwart the hijackers’ efforts before being overpowered. They disengaged the autopilot, making it difficult to fly from one location to another, and switched the output of the cockpit microphones to reroute the hijackers’ messages to passengers to air traffic controllers. Hijacker Ziad Jarrah, who had trained as a pilot, took control of the plane, re-engaged the autopilot, and turned the aircraft around to fly back to the East Coast and south toward Washington, DC. Dahl was injured and left in the cockpit while Homer was knocked unconscious and dragged out. A flight attendant was being held captive in the cockpit. It is believed that one other hijacker was in the cockpit with Jarrah while the other two forced the crew and passengers to move to the back of the plane to keep them away from the cockpit.

Flight 93 was the only hijacked plane with four—and not five—hijackers on board. A suspicious immigration agent detained a man in Florida about a month before the attacks who is believed to be the fifth hijacker. He is now being held at the detention center at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Passengers Try to Regain Control

Soon after Flight 93 was hijacked, the passengers and crew huddled in the back of the plane and called loved ones and officials to tell them what had happened. They soon learned the fate of the other three planes and realized that Flight 93 was part of a larger terror plot and would be crashed into a target on the ground, killing more innocent civilians. One hijacker who was not in the cockpit claimed to have a bomb.

After a vote, the passengers and crew decided to launch a counterattack against the terrorists. According to the flight voice recorder, they put their plan into action around 10:00 a.m. with the effort being led by passenger Tom Burnett, a chief operating officer for a medical devices firm, who told his wife to call authorities and that a male passenger had been stabbed and then died. Burnett and two other large men planned to attack the hijacker who had claimed to have the bomb. Flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw told her husband over the phone that she was filling pitchers with boiling water for passengers to throw at the hijackers. She ended the call when everyone began running up to first class. The voice of Todd Beamer, one of the passengers, was overheard on an open line saying “let’s roll” to the other passengers. When the group charged the cockpit, Jarrah rolled the plane to the left and right to throw them off balance. When they continued to try to break down the door, he tipped the nose of the plane up and then down.

Realizing that only seconds remained before the passengers stormed into the cockpit and overpowered them, Jarrah rolled the plane onto its back, crashing it into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour and killing everyone on board.

Prior to the crash and after viewing radar of Flight 93 traveling at a fast speed toward Washington, DC, President Dick Cheney gave the order to fighter aircraft to shoot down the plane. It was the first time a government official ordered the destruction of a plane carrying civilians. However, the order came too late to intercept Flight 93.

Remembering Flight 93

Flight 93, which was carrying seven thousand gallons of fuel, created a massive explosion upon impact, scorching hundreds of acres and burning for hours. The plane was so fragmented that pieces of wreckage were scattered eight miles from the point of impact.

A temporary memorial was erected by visitors in the days after the impact. As people throughout the United States learned of the heroic actions of the passengers and crew, they began to raise funds to construct a permanent memorial.

In 2002, Congress established the Flight 93 National Memorial, an organization dedicated to developing plans for a permanent memorial honoring the passengers and crew. The first phase of the 2,220-acre memorial was completed for the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11.

As of late 2019, the memorial included a visitor center, walking paths, the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot tower with a wind chime for each individual who perished on the flight, forty Memorial Groves, a Memorial Plaza with a Wall of Names, where the name of each passenger on Flight 93 is recorded, and the crash site itself, which is known as “Sacred Ground.” To cultivate the land that was destroyed by the fire, those visiting the site are encouraged to plant a tree.

Bibliography

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