In 2001 on a warm summers day, rush hour was in swing at around 8am. Later that hour, the United States, and the world was changed forever. In these articles we investigate what happened in some of the 21st Centuries worst air disasters.
United 93
Image Source (Actual plane 3 days before)(N591UA)
Occurred: 11th September 2001, 10:03(EDT) Killed: 44 Aircraft: Boeing 757-222 Impact: Near Shanksville, PA, USA Airline: United Airlines Flight #: 93 Dep/Arr: Newark (NJ), USA/ San Francisco (CA), USA Cause: Hijacking / Loss of Control
7:03, the hijackers began boarding, all four of them, al-Ghamdi, al-Nami, Jarrah and al-Haznawi. Haznawi was the one
suspected and had his bags scanned in which none of the security personnel were concerned. The 4 boarded between the times of 7:39 - 7:48am on the Boeing 757, the 3 sat in first class seats.
The aircraft began taxi for takeoff in rush hour traffic at Newark, this delayed UA93 by 40 minutes, departing at 8:42am. The plane later reached its cruising altitude just after 9am at an altitude of 30,000ft. At 9:23am, UA93 was sent a message from the ground telling them that planes had crashed into the World Trade Centres (New York), numerous other messages were received, one was for the co-pilot (LeRoy Homer) whose wife questioned if he was alright. The Captain (Jason Dahl) replied asking to confirm the message about the World Trade Centre attack. At 9:27am, the pilots responded to a message from ATC, which was their last.
Less than a minute after ATC contact, the hijackers stormed the cockpit (most likely when the seatbelt signs turned off) at around 9:28am, the 4 killed a First Class passenger and both the pilots. As the hijackers attacked the pilots, one of the pilots yelled ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!' in which no reply was received. This occurred just after the plane descended 600ft in half a minute. The hijackers managed to gain control of the airplane, they told the passengers that they had a bomb on board, even though the bomb was fake. Jarrah (Piloting the 757) was heard last transmitting the message ‘Ah. Here's the captain. I would like to tell you all to remain seated. We have a bomb aboard, and we are going back to the airport, and we have our demands. So, please remain quiet'. Shortly before this occurred one of the flight attendants were heard screaming ‘I don't want to die...' showing they possibly were holding here hostage.
Calls began flooding in from distressed passengers giving vital information as well as saying their goodbyes. At 9:57am, the passengers of Flight 93 who were driven to the back of the 757 planned earlier an attack on the hijackers and wanted to gain control of the 757, on board was a pilot who may have been of assistance if they had of gained control. A minute after the attack the hijackers in the cockpit gained knowledge of a revolt by the passengers, Jarrah responded by rolling the massive jet left to right. At 10:00am, Jarrah stabilized the plane, and he asked ‘Shall we finish it off?', in response one of the hijackers said ‘No. Not yet, when they all come, we finish it off!'. Cries were heard by the passengers like ‘In the cockpit, if we don't we'll die!' and ‘Roll it!'. Jarrah questioned ‘Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?', in response one of them said ‘Put it in it, and pull it down!' following them shouting the takbir. The plane moments later rolled onto its back and plowed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, moments away from Washington D.C. The impact time was 10:03:11am, some say it was 10:06am, they thought 10:03 was the official time due to that was when the CVR stopped recording. The FAA was notified of UA93's crash at 10:13am, around 10 minutes after impact.
Image Source
The plane impacted leaving a crater about 10ft deep and 30-50ft wide. The plane supposedly impacted the earth at 563mph (906km/h). The debris was found mostly in the crater. 8 percent of human remains were found within a 70 acre radius; only a spinal cord was identifiable by the coroner. Most of the deaths certificates were listed as ‘Homicide' for cause of death. This is clearly a horrific day for the world.
The day the world changed. Four planes, over 3000 dead, 6000+ injured. We're going to investigate what happened on Flight 93.
