No greater love

New York City is under attack; lower Manhattan is near panic.

Flight 93 is cruising comfortably at 35,000 feet. Passengers are finishing breakfast, maybe be pulling down window shades against the glare of the morning sun.

Then, just before 9:30 a.m., four young Middle Eastern men leap from their seats in first class. They tie red bandanas around their foreheads. They all carry knives—one had been hidden in a cigarette lighter. One man claims to have a bomb strapped around his waist. Two or more rush the cockpit.

A hijacking has begun.

Within seconds, Cleveland air traffic controllers hear an American voice from inside the cockpit—likely that of Captain Jason Dahl or Co-pilot LeRoy Homer—and sounds of a struggle.  The plane suddenly plunges 700 feet.

Aviation consultant and pilot Greg Feith was an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board for 22 years.

Greg Feith, aviation consultant: Anybody coming into the cockpit from behind is basically in a control position, because they have freedom of movement that the flight crew doesn’t have.

Incredibly, amidst this chaos, first class passenger Tom Burnett finds a way to call his wife, Deena.

Deena Burnett: I asked him immediately if he was okay, and he said no. He said “I’m on the airplane, United Flight 93, and it’s been hijacked.” And he said, “Please call the authorities,” and he hung up.

Deena immediately calls 911.

The air traffic controllers in Cleveland don’t know what’s happening, but at 9:32 a.m., they hear a bizarre transmission from Flight 93. It’s a hijacker, apparently trying to address the passengers—but pressing the wrong button; he’s talking to the controllers instead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, here it's the captain. Please sit down. Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb aboard."

Cleveland repeatedly tries to raise the pilot, but the controllers get no reply, even as they see 93 beginning to climb.

The controllers know something is wrong.  They clear the airspace around the plane. Then they see Flight 93 make a hard left turn, veer sharply off course and turn toward Washington, D.C.

On board Flight 93, the hijackers herd most of the passengers to the back of the plane, where, strangely enough, the passengers and crew start to make phone calls—dozens. So many, in fact, some speculate, the hijackers may have encouraged it to ramp up the terror.

At 9:36 a.m., a flight attendant calls United’s maintenance facility in San Francisco to say the hijackers have killed a flight attendant.

Then at 9:37 a.m. just as American Flight 77 is crashing into the Pentagon, Jeremy Glick calls his wife, Lyz.

Lyz Glick: I asked him if the pilots had been in contact with them to tell them what was going on and he said that no contact had been made by the pilots, it seemed that the men had taken over the plane.

Jane Pauley:  So he was free to talk with you?  Or was he trying to speak to you surreptitiously?

Lyz Glick:  He was free to talk to me.  I was a little bit, I think, surprised by the aura of what was going on the plane.  I was surprised by how calm it seemed in the background...

Pauley:  You didn’t hear—

Lyz Glick:  I didn’t hear any screaming.  I didn’t hear any noises.  I didn’t hear any commotion.

But by now, passengers on the phone with friends and family are hearing about what’s happening on the ground, and the news is spreading across the cabin.  Tom Burnett makes a second call to his wife.

Deena Burnett: He asked me about the World Trade Center. He asked if it was a passenger airline, and I told him I didn’t know. And he said, ‘okay,’ and he hung up again, said that he had to go.

Two minutes later, at 9:39 a.m., Cleveland control picks up another transmission from a hijacker in the cockpit.

Hijacker: Hi, this is the captain. We’d like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb aboard, and we are going to turn back to the airport. And they have our demands so please remain quiet.

At 9:44 a.m. Todd Beamer picks up one of the onboard air phones and dials “0.” He’s connected with GTE supervisor Lisa Jefferson, who told Stone Phillips about the call.

Lisa Jefferson: I asked his name. He told me Todd Beamer. He’s from Cranbury, New Jersey. And at that point his voice went up a little bit because he said, ‘We’re going down. We’re going down. No, wait—we’re coming back up. We’re turning around; we’re going north. We’re going north. At this point, “I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know. I really don’t know. Oh, Jesus, please help us.”

Stone Phillips: Those were all his words?

Jefferson: Yes. Then he told me, he said "In case I don’t make it through this, would you please do me a favor and call my wife and my family and let them know how much I love them." So I told him I would.

Tom Burnett calls Deena a third time.

Deena Burnett: I said, “Tom, they just hit the Pentagon.’ He said, “Okay. Okay. I told him I had called the authorities. He said, ‘We can’t wait for the authorities. We have to do something.'

Imagine that. In less than 30 minutes more than three dozen individuals—complete strangers—have become “We.”

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