Cockpit tape played at Moussaoui trial

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - In the final minutes of doomed United Air Lines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers try to shake off passengers trying to take control of the plane as it flies over Pennsylvania. Amid groans and sounds of a struggle, a voice says, “I am injured.” A hijacker asks, “Shall we finish it off?”

Moments later, the plane hurtles out of control to the ground, according to a cockpit voice recording played for a jury on Wednesday by federal prosecutors seeking the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui. The prosecutors figuratively placed the jury aboard the flight for its last heart-wrenching moments.

In the last five minutes of Flight 93, a passenger could be heard urging others to storm the cockpit and take on the hijackers because “if we don’t we die.”

It was the first time the 30-minute cockpit recording was played in public and the jury was transfixed by the words of both the hijackers who were believed to be aiming for the U.S. Capitol and the passengers who tried to stop them.

At one point, a voice is heard from the cockpit, possibly that of a flight crew member, saying, “Please don’t hurt me. Oh God!” A few seconds later, somebody says, three times, “I don’t want to die.”

The flight, one of four hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, crashed in a Pennsylvania field as passengers tried to retake it. The cockpit voice recording had not been played publicly before. It was played to culminate the prosecution’s case before the jury that will weigh whether to recommend the death sentence for Moussaoui, an admitted terrorist conspirator.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema decided the recording would only be played in court and not publicly released, though a transcript was made available.

Moussaoui showed little emotion in the courtroom, and sat back in his chair and stared at a screen where the transcript of the tape was shown.

Hijacker: ‘Bomb on board’
The recording began at 9:31 a.m. with the hijackers’ voice clearly stating “ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain ... we have a bomb on board, so sit.” For the next few minutes, passengers are repeatedly told, in English, “Don’t move,” “Shut up” “Sit,” and “down down down.”

The hijackers alternated between Arabic and English.

As the tape proceeded, it was clear that passengers were gaining the upper hand. During the flight some of the passengers learned via cell phone calls that three other planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Believing they were part of a fourth such plot, some of them stormed the cockpit to fight the hijackers.

A voice of a hijacker, presumably inside the cockpit, says, “They want to get in.” The voice continues, “Hold from within.” At 10 a.m., there is a voice that says, “I am injured.”

The recorded struggle began when the passengers apparently rolled food carts down the aisle to try to force open the door.

Attempt to get into cockpit
‘In Arabic someone says, “Is there something? A fight?” Another hijacker responds, “Yeah.”

“Roll it,” someone outside the cockpit yelled, apparently referring to the cart. “In the cockpit. If we don’t we die,” another voice said.

The pilot began rocking the plane from side to side and one of the hijackers yelled orders to cut off the oxygen. “Allah is the greatest” someone yelled right before the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

As the jury heard the recording, prosecutors played a video presentation that simultaneously showed the flight path, speed and heading in a mockup similar to a flight simulator.

At 10:02 a.m., a hijacker says, “Give it to me. Give it to me.” At 10:03 a.m. the plane dives amid crashing sounds and the tape stops.

The plane had been headed for the U.S. Capitol, according to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The Boeing 757 had taken off from Newark, N.J., bound for San Francisco with 33 passsengers, seven crew members and four hijackers aboard.

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