Posted on 10/05/2001 7:04:17 AM PDT by truther
WASHINGTON -- Cockpit voice recordings from United Airlines Flight 93 indicate that the hijacked jet's passengers attacked their captors and fought their way into the cockpit before the jet went down, according to data obtained Wednesday.
The account is based on an ongoing analysis of the cockpit voice recorder. It illustrates the passengers' heroic efforts to fight off the four terrorists who had commandeered the jet Sept. 11 on an apparent suicide mission to Washington.
The digital recording, according to officials with knowledge of its contents, picks up sounds of people shouting and screaming in the cabin and cockpit shortly before the crash. A high level of background noise has made it difficult for investigators to interpret exactly what was being said or done.
Also unclear is who was at the controls of the jet -- the hijackers or the passengers -- when it slammed into a field in Pennsylvania, killing all 44 aboard. A preliminary review of the flight data recorder indicated the jet turned on its back and flew straight into the ground, sources said.
An FBI official testified Wednesday that the tape proved what many suspected.
"I can confirm that the passengers engaged in a fight for their lives with their four hijackers and most likely saved the lives of unknown individuals on the ground," J.T. Caruso, deputy assistant FBI director for counterterrorism, said in testimony before a House intelligence subcommittee.
Three other teams of hijackers led attacks that day on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Several passengers aboard Flight 93 learned of the other hijackings via cellphone calls and knew that they had ended in suicide crashes.
Authorities have asked outside experts to analyze the recorder a second time for further details. The use of filters and other computer analysis of cockpit voice recorders is common after an accident.
The recorder is a modern digital model and produced a high-quality record of the last 30 minutes of the flight.
Voice recorders store sounds from microphones that pilots wear on their headsets and from a microphone embedded in the cockpit wall. Normally, it is easy to determine who is speaking on a recording because the voice can be linked to a specific headset. But sounds on the Flight 93 recording came primarily from the cockpit wall microphone, making it more difficult to decipher.
Investigators also are examining a tape of short radio broadcasts from the jet, apparently at the time hijackers took control of the cockpit. Sources who have heard the tape say it recorded a violent struggle.
Flight 93 was headed from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was hijacked. Because the jet crashed more than 30 minutes after the hijacking, the recording did not capture the takeover of the cockpit.
I used to wonder why G. Gordon Liddy on his radio show would expound at length on how to kill by sticking A NUMBER TWO PENCIL IN THE NECK. Now I know why.
Cordially,
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
These heroes must be memorialized for the benefit of generations to come.
This is one of the saddest things I seen posted lately.
Gotta finish it.
WFTR
America's response has Already Started.
Bill
Our whole thinking has to change. There is only one path because we won't sit there like sheep to the slaughter! We all have to show courage and be ready to protect ourselves or save others like the brave people on Flight 93.
If we're going to die anyway we might as well as go on our terms. Not the hijacker's terms. We'll tear any hijackers apart limb by limb by bare hands if we have to but not another American is going to be used as part of a hostage bomb.
Also, we need to arm the pilots and any person that wishes to conceal carry and has a permit. We're going to have to wake up those poor misguided extreme Christians to the fact that Satan and the communists went not only into the environmental groups and the demonrat party but into the anti gun movement because they are needed to protect themselves and others. I don't know where they got the idea that Jesus was/is a wimp or that it was Christian or noble to passively let another take the life that G*d gave them as a precious gift. To sit and do nothing is the equivalent of suicide and suicide is a sin. We have to fight to save innocent lives that are gifts of G*d.
No one is ever going to be able to hijack or threaten another common carrier in the US. Even if they have a bomb, they'll be shot dead then we'll deal with the bomb though any bomb on an airliner is probably fake these days.
Air rage is dead. No one is going to act up if they think they'll end up with about 50 guns pointed at them.
We also have to report anything suspicious on the ground. AND yes! If needed we have to take matters into our own hands until the authorities get there. Lives might depend on it. This does not mean attacking/killing innocent American Arabs or American Muslims.
This is one of the saddest things I seen posted lately.
I grew up in the 70's -- what do you expect?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.