Flight 93

After the takeover the passengers and crew made a series of calls from GTE airphones and cellular phones. From relatives and colleagues they learned that other planes had hit the World Trade Center. According to one call, they voted on whether to rush the hijackers. At 9:57 the assault began. [1]

The cockpit voice recorder captured the fight. The pilot, Ziad Jarrah, rolled the plane and pitched its nose up and down to throw the passengers off balance. At 10:01 he asked another hijacker, “Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?” and was told, “Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.” At 10:02:23 a hijacker said, “Pull it down! Pull it down!” The Commission concluded the hijackers must have judged the passengers were seconds from getting in. [1]

The likely target was the Capitol or the White House; the National Park Service notes that Jarrah had dialed in the navigation beacon at Reagan National Airport and the plane was 18 to 20 minutes from Washington. [2]

The plane hit soft ground, a reclaimed strip mine, upside down and nose first at 563 to 580 mph with about 5,500 gallons of fuel. First responders described a crater about 15 feet deep and 30 feet across. Most of the wreckage was in small pieces; the largest were parts of the two engines and a section of fuselage. Debris was recovered from the woods, a pond that was partly drained, nearby yards and fields, and a nearby residential lake. [1]

Skeptics say the small crater and scattered debris show the plane broke up in the air. The FBI’s account is that the plane buried itself and the lighter material was blown downwind. Investigators recovered both recorders, the hijackers’ passports, notes and a knife. [2][3]

The theory holds that the military shot the plane down and the revolt story covered it up. Its strongest support is that a shootdown order was given that morning, and that Bush and Cheney themselves at first thought it had been carried out: the notes of their 2004 Commission interview say “The Vice President thought we’d shot it down. It took a while to sort this out.” [2]

The timing rules it out. NEADS first heard about Flight 93 at 10:07, after it had crashed. The shootdown authority was not passed through NORAD until 10:31, and the fighters over Washington never had United 93 in their sights. [1] The flight data recorder shows the control inputs of a deliberate dive, ending at 10:03:11. [3]