Local News

Voices of Flight 93 still echo

SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa. -- Turning off State Highway 30 near Shanksville, Pa., into the Flight 93 Memorial site does not prepare one for the solemnity of the place or the raw emotions that rise when walking through the visitor's center. Within that building, visitors can listen to recorded messages from passengers on the plane as they reached out to loved ones, knowing they likely would not survive what was happening aboard the flight. They can hear the expressions of love and the catching of one's breath as tears threaten to come. Because, at 9:28 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked.

National Park Service rangers tell the story of how 33 passengers and seven crew members were aboard the Boeing 757, along with four hijackers. The plane had departed Newark International Airport bound for San Francisco, carrying people who expected to spend the morning in the air and arrive on the West Coast that afternoon.

According to Ranger Adam Shaffer, who has worked at the Memorial site for nearly 20 years, many on the flight should not have been there. He shared the story of Alan Beaven of Oakland, Calif., who was heading home after a business trip he had not originally planned to make. Capt. Jason Dahl, the pilot of the plane, was a substitute placed on the flight after the original pilot was required to retire. Jeremy Glick, Shaffer said, had not wanted to go on the trip he ultimately took; instead, he had wanted to stay home with his wife and infant daughter. But work called and placed him on that plane.

The plane was the fourth one hijacked that morning. By the time it crashed into the field near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m., those aboard had learned what had happened in New York and at the Pentagon, Shaffer said as he shared the story with those gathered at the memorial site on Labor Day.

In the minutes after the hijacking, passengers and crew members began making telephone calls to family members, friends, authorities and United Airlines, Shaffer said. Those calls would ultimately provide investigators, and everyone else, with an extraordinary account of what was happening inside the aircraft.

According to Shaffer, 13 people aboard Flight 93 made 37 calls between the hijacking and the crash. Most were made using Airfones mounted on the backs of seats, while others were made from cellphones. Some calls reached loved ones; others went to friends, authorities or United Airlines, and several were captured on answering machines when no one was available to answer. The calls, several of which can be heard within the visitor's center, revealed the horror unfolding inside the airplane. They told of hijackers who had taken control of the cockpit and claimed to have a bomb and who definitely had knives. Passengers had been forced toward the back of the aircraft, and information conveyed during the calls indicated that at least one passenger and one flight attendant had been killed.

At 9:37 a.m., passenger Mark Bingham called his mother and told her the plane had been hijacked. Glick called his wife, Lyzbeth, and described the hijackers and what was happening aboard the aircraft. During their conversation, Glick told her that he and other men were considering rushing the hijackers and asked what she thought he should do.

As those aboard the plane became aware that the aircraft on which they found themselves was part of a massive terrorist attack, they understood that the men who had taken control of their plane were not simply trying to negotiate or divert the aircraft. They knew the plane itself was a weapon, and in their final minutes, they worked to thwart the planned attack by rushing the cockpit. Their actions ended with the plane crashing into a field in Somerset County, about 18 minutes from Washington, D.C., where the likely target was the U.S. Capitol.

"There has been speculation that the White House was a target," Shaffer said. "But it is likely that the Capitol was the intended target because all of the lawmakers had just returned that day."

Many come to that field in Somerset County, Pa., to pay their respects, to see the names upon a wall and to hear those eerie recordings of voices now gone these many years. They come to remember, and they come to honor those who gave their lives to save the lives of others.

As the 25th anniversary comes this week, there will be many more who come to share memories and to hear guest speakers, including the pilot who was originally scheduled to fly the plane and Glick's then-3-month-old daughter, who will arrive to place flowers at the wall bearing the name of the father she cannot remember. Other family members and dignitaries also will be on hand as the memories of that day come to the surface, taking them, and the country at large, back a quarter of a century to a time when, in the aftermath of unimaginable horror, all vowed to never forget.