Posted on 07/23/2004 1:36:05 AM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON -Again and again, the heroic passengers and crew of United Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers, continuing their assault even when the plane was turned upside down.Panicked by the unexpected assault, it was the terrorists who gave up in the end.
Shouting "Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest," Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker at the controls, crashed the Boeing 757 into an empty field near Shanksville, Pa., rather than be overwhelmed by his determined captives.
These and other harrowing new details contained in the final report of the 9/11 commission revealed the terrible final moments on Flight 93 as well as on the three other airliners hijacked in the deadliest terror assault against the U.S.
On all the planes, hijackers brandished knives or box cutters, stormed the cockpits and stabbed passengers and crew members who were in their way or tried to intervene. In several cases they used Mace and claimed to have a bomb. Passengers were herded to the rear of the planes.
The airline pilots were all believed stabbed to death to allow the hijackers to take the controls.
On Flight 93, the passengers fought back.
Flight 93 took off from Newark at 8:42 a.m., bound for San Francisco with 37 passengers -including hijackers Jarrah, Ahmed Al Haznawi, Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami -and seven crew members aboard.
The hijackers attacked at 9:28 over eastern Ohio. The "black box" cockpit tape recorded sounds of a struggle and the captain or first officer shouting repeatedly, "Hey, get out of here!" The two pilots were killed, most likely stabbed to death.
At 9:32 the hijackers, wearing red bandanas, herded the passengers to the rear of the plane.
Ten of the passengers and at least two crew members calmly passed on an alert, making cell-phone calls to family, friends and authorities.
They learned that United Flight 175 and American Flight 11 had crashed into the World Trade Center. They did not know that American Flight 77 had hit the Pentagon, the report said.
Passengers on the other hijacked planes also had made cell calls. On Flight 175, passenger Peter Hanson called his father, Lee Hanson, two times.
"It's getting bad, Dad," he said in his second call. "I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it'll be very fast."
Aboard United 93, the passengers took a vote and decided to counterattack at 9:57. Todd Beamer, 32, an account executive in Princeton, N.J., turned to fellow passengers and said the now-famous words: "Are you guys ready? Let's roll!"
But the commission reports a passenger said, "Roll it," which could refer to smashing a food cart into the cockpit door.
As the passengers rushed the cockpit door, Jarrah violently rocked the plane left and right to knock them off balance. Hearing the sounds of fighting continue, Jarrah asked, "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?"
Another hijacker replied, "No, not yet. When they all come, we finish it off."
Jarrah then began pitching the nose of the plane up and down. An unidentified passenger shouted: "In the cockpit! If we don't, we die!"
Jarrah said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!" and asked his fellow hijacker, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?"
The other hijacker answered, "Yes, put it in, and pull it down."
Jarrah rolled the plane onto its back. But "the sounds of the passenger counterattack continued," the report says.
Shortly after 10:02, the plane smashed into the ground, killing all aboard.
The commission's report concludes that "Jarrah's objective was to crash his airliner into the symbols of the American Republic -the Capitol or the White House. He was defeated by the alerted, unarmed passengers of United 93."
Originally published on July 23, 2004
Not a surprise. The SOP of terrorists is when they're in trouble, blow everyone to pieces. They are homicide bombers, after all, and killing the people on UA 93 was just as good to them as if they had hit a Washington building because they slaughtered a few infidels, as they always wish in their terror attacks.
Note how Palestinian homicide bombers goal is to destroy as many infidels. Here, the Al Qaeda terrorists whacked a few infidels.
Even in such a serious situation the son was concerned with his Father's anxiety and tried to calm him. Man, what a body blow [for the Father] it must've been to have this conversation. At least he was able to speak to him one last time before he died...a hero.
I think it has been a couple of years since a report of passengers tackling someone who violated air flight rules (and refused to sit down).
As to the incidents you speak of, the most extreme of the recent ones I heard about (on Michael Savage's show) was a man who removed the mirror from the wall in the restroom and tried to burrow through into the cockpit.
"Spidey senses" are tingling and we should be prepared for a "Go!" attack BEFORE November (to strike up the same fears as the Spanish bombs on the trains in Madrid had on those elections).
If your prevent an attack on the United States and the culprit takes you to court, seek a jury trial. Who would convict?
Can you locate the transcript of what Barbara Olsen said to Ted in her phone call from the plane she was on? Thanks advance.
Yes. That was absolutely stupid. 1) The men on the plane DID fight back; 2) the copilot, a black man named LeRoy Homer, was one of those who did.
Michael Moore, as usual, displays a complete ignorance of any subject he is talking about.
Yes, you are right. NYC will go to Kerry. But let me tell you a dirty little secret: all my liberal friends are quietly, stealthily, driving (not flying) out of the city during the Republican Convention. They are SO SCARED.
OMG!
That figures.
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